Jay

I remember three years ago, in the summer, when I wondered if we were "breaking up." You were cancelling plans with me and you weren't returning calls. I wondered if the problem was me or you. I wondered if you even wanted to be my friend. The great distance I felt between us suggested to me that I wasn't important to you. I echoed Beaches and cried: "What am I going to do without a best friend?" Three years ago...

We have been out of each other's lives for so long. You were busy. You weren't well. You stopped writing. I didn't know what was going on in your life. That made it hard for me to continue to consider you a necessary part of mine.

Granted, it was long-distance. But it was easy enough for you to come to where I had lived with your other friends... for you to come home to see your family all the time...

You didn't even tell me your new phone number. You never answered or returned the calls I made to your cell phone. There were times when I really needed you, but I couldn't get in touch so I hid the tears as I left a message that you wouldn't respond to. Then our other friend would tell me about how she talked to you - how she had your phone number, how you'd return her calls. Why not mine?

I came to your recital, and was glad to do so to support you. But as I saw a glimpse of your life there, I didn't see any touches of myself. There was not one picture of me in your room. None of your friends had any idea who I was (although they were fully familiar with our other friend). These things told me that I'm not a part of your life there, that I'm not important to you.

We've changed so much (at least I have...) and we're very much out of each other's lives now. Do we have any common ground anymore? Is there anything left?