As I walked into class I looked around at all the unfamiliar faces and took a seat next to the friendliest one. As the teacher was droning on, we got to talking, soon we were playing games at recess and even went over to each others houses. It was like we were long lost brothers. His name was Patrick, and we would soon become best friends.

On an early Saturday morning, I rode my bike down the winding street to Patrick’s house. He took his bike and we proceeded to make our way to the downtown, discussing all the possible activities for the day. After a quarter hour arguing we finally decided to take an adventure to Tony Steamer’s hot dog place, a 2 hour ride from where we were. We didn’t necessarily have permission to go that far, but all we were thinking about was how bored we were, and how badly we wanted those hot dogs, and so we carried on. Sure enough, as soon as we arrived at Tony’s Patrick’s parents called in a fury. I can still remember the exact words his dad was yelling through the phone he said “You’ve s*** in the nest now son.” I do not really know why he said it, but it certainly worked in scaring the s*** out of Patrick. Fortunately for us, Patrick managed to get us out of any trouble we might’ve been, so we managed to actually get those hotdogs we had been thinking about that whole day. We did try to come home in haste though, so as not to anger his parents further.

While on our way back, we tried to save time by crossing over Butterfield Road, a busy and dangerous street for young kids like us. We crossed in the middle of the road, where there was no cross-walk, and so a car nicked the back of Patricks tire, sending him careening onto the sidewalk. Seeing him fly scared me half to death, I thought that he had been hurt or worse. To my astonishment he got up without a scratch, and although he was shocked there was nothing else amiss. His bike was ruined, it looked it belonged in a scrapyard. After safely arriving back at his house, we decided never to mention what had happened to his parents, and to hide the bike. His parents mysteriously never asked me what happened to his bike.

That day changed our friendship forever, and even though I’ve moved away we still talk. It helped us bond in a way that we did not share with our other friends. The fact that an event that could’ve ripped our friendship apart, but instead made us closer is a miracle to me. We can joke about it now, but I still remember every detail and inch of that moment