Thicker Than Water - More Potent Than Blood

This article is inspired by Heather Hubler's Friends Among Us Challenge!

Friendship is selfless.

That one time I was homeless because of a flood, and for months my friends let me live with them while my home was being worked on.

One friend lifted me physically and kept me too busy to be sad that my brother and sister weren't around, and I missed my mom who was working to save everyone's home since she was the manager of a trailer park, home to many disabled elderly people. She was determined that her more poorer more sick tenants get to go home where they were safe and comfortable.

One friend I found cutting her legs and arms in the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" I gasped and said, rushing in and closing the bathroom door behind me. She's on the floor, blood seeping from a long cut in her right thigh.

"You weren't supposed to come in!"

"I really have to pee and you were taking forever." While I say this, I am on the toilet peeing, and I reach down and I take the razor from her hands carefully (yes, at the same time, because we were close like that okay? We didn't care we all had to change together for PE anyway.) I finish my business, wash my hands, put the razor in the trash, and sit down next to her, leaning against the tub.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask.

"I just hate myself and that's the only thing that makes it feel better."

"Why do you hate yourself? You're the most amazing person I know!"

"I just...I don't.... I...." Tears. Helpless, gut-wrenching sobbing. I pull her into my arms and hold her as she cries. It takes a long time before she sniffles and says. "Please don't tell anyone."

The next day I went straight to the student counselor during my first break at school. I knew her parents wouldn't be the support she needed. They just weren't capable of that with their own raising. I betrayed her by telling them everything and begging them to tell me what to do to help her.

I did lose her trust. It took a few years but our friendship dissolved. And she and I still don't talk to this day. She resents me and still sees what I did as a betrayal.

But she's alive, today. And if losing her trust and friendship meant she was alive and happier... even at 14 that was enough for me. I knew it would happen. But I loved her enough to do it anyway.

Friendship is family - blood or not.

My grandfather had just died. I had moved back to America after leaving my first husband. He made me cry every day, had destroyed my confidence and self-esteem and I knew it was over. A year of being home, my grandfather told me he was sick. Cancer. I moved in to take care of him. And my roots sunk in here as he left me a house to start my life once he was over. A blessing I will forever be grateful for.

I called my friends, knowing I couldn't be alone. A best friend of over a decade came a few weeks later and spent my birthday with me- making sure my birthday wasn't covered in the shadows of the recent loss I went through. He lives close by now- and he is my soul brother.

Another of over a decade came a few weeks later. She was there for me for my first holiday alone in the world. She comforted me as I cried and confessed my pain to her in my living room. I made some more bad life choices after that, letting my trauma guide my path. We're more distant today because of it, but she is ALWAYS there for me. I know that if I ever called her in the middle of the night, she would be there for me. As I would be there for her. We will forever be soul sisters.

I met both of these amazing people online in my teen years on internet games. Another best friend I met online came a few years later, right when I needed her. She and her husband moved in. It's been 4 years since they became my immediate family, and we have held each other up through many life storms - including her conquering uterine cancer - and losing a vital piece of herself. Now her husband, my brother from another, fighting stomach cancer. They tended to me after I was drugged and violently raped, and helped me shield my innocent daughters from the reality of what happened to me.

Friendship leads to love.

My fiance, a man I have known for about...2 decades now is living with me. Best of all, he was friends with Mike and Jess too. His joining our little ragtag pack of renegades against the world only made sense. Best friends for almost 2 decades, we had everything we needed.

We already had communication, trust, and friendship, and honesty between us. The only thing that was missing was the sex. That came only after our shy blushing confessions of decade-long crushes on both ends.

I've never been so happy, secure, and well-taken care of in my life.

Friendship is choosing who your extended family is. The making of your clan and tribe, and placing your trust and heart in their hands, while guarding their own.

A friendship, a true friendship has no limits in what you are willing to do for them. A friendship that leads to kinship is a familial bond. You can't imagine, no matter how long it may be before you talk to them again. Much like a lover's relationship it requires trust, honesty, and communication.

They protect you, you protect them. You raise each other up, and enjoy copious amounts of each other's company.

True Friendship... Is Family.

Time is precious, thank you so much for taking some to read my article. I hope you enjoyed it and it proved useful in some way!

Find my fictional fantasy book "Memoirs of the In-Between" on Amazon in paperback, eBook, and hardback.

You can also find it in the Apple Store or on the Campfire Reading app.