In the morning we are the best of friends. We meet up in the school library at 7:00 just to go over homework. We sit at adjacent computers and spontaneous laughter turns to silent fits of giggles as the librarians shoot stern looks. Perhaps it is the early morning headiness that makes us so giddy, but either way we enjoy ourselves while working jointly to conceal coffee thermoses. Maybe we’ll get homework done—but all that concerns us is the other person’s presence in the neighboring chair.


At lunch we sit at the same table, right next to each other. Our purses are piled together in the middle of the table, providing a sort of screen that gives a placebo sense of security. With those fabric bulwarks, we feel safe, and we begin to talk of deeper things. Gossip inevitable begins the conversation, but the caffeine has already circulated throughout our bodies, and we are left slightly more morose. Perhaps we won’t talk at all—and instead encouraging smiles are silent reminders to finish sandwiches or to avoid the bathrooms.


After school we are separated physically—but never emotionally. Emails are exchanged; little electronic packages that reveal deeper emotions underneath layers of cyberspace duct-tape. During school this duct-tape takes the guise of smiles directed towards teachers and classmates, but after school this mask falls off from pure exhaustion. Through these emails, topics like anorexia, bulimia, depression, suicide, and abuse are peeled off our skins slowly and sent into the depths of the Internet. Times New Roman is unforgiving to our secret emotions, but friends can sense the feeling underneath the stiff, black and white lettering.


Finally nighttime rolls around, and that is when the phone rings. Other calls have been previously ignored due to the homework build-up, but these are always answered. Tears are verbally present, and voices encumbered by pain become just an incomprehensible crackle flooding out of the speaker. Now we are more than best friends; we are each other’s support system. That night ends with promises of continued support and words of gratitude and friendship.


But tomorrow will begin the same way.