However, I fractured away from this group during the last couple of years of high school. I had joined a new group: pregnant teenagers. I isolated myself and started a family.
My old friends took a mostly traditional path. They went to college, started careers, got married and had children.
There was one friend who would just not leave me alone. Every once in awhile she would call to catch up. Sometimes I would answer, sometimes I wouldn't. Sometimes we would get together, sometimes we wouldn't. And once in awhile, she suggested the WORST IDEA EVER.
She would want me to go out to dinner with the rest of our old friends.
Seriously? Dinner? With THEM?
I didn't want anything to do with THEM.
I wanted to avoid that situation because my old friends were strangers. I didn't know their lives, their husbands or their children. Their kids were very young, and mine were in middle and high school. I had been through a miserable divorce. My kids didn't live with me. Whatever job I had at the time was crappy. It was uncomfortable. It was embarrassing.
But that one friend never stopped trying.
Eventually, I went to dinner.
It wasn't the WORST THING EVER.
Then a year or so later, my dad died.
Many of these friends came to the funeral.
Even though I had avoided them for years, I was happy to see them. They were there in my grief. They listened to me deliver his eulogy. They offered a hug. They knew me a little better.
We talked about getting together "real soon."
And we actually did.
Several times during the past two years, six of us have found breaks in our schedules to meet for dinner and drinks, and sometimes, even more drinks.
We met again on Saturday at 5:00 p.m., and I believe I got home after 1:00 a.m. We do manage to have a pretty good time.
The next date is already on the calendar, and I am already looking forward to it.
Today, I feel fortunate to call them my friends.
(Me and that persistent friend on Saturday night)
(Me and the rest of the girls - minus one who had to leave early)
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