Let’s be friends Friends like the we text every day Friends like those that finish each other’s— --sentences… That lean into one another’s space the same way Flowers grow at the base of trees Roots intertwining Mingling Growing from the same environment Like when you met me. Twelve years old New and alone A friend of a friend God, I thought you were so cool, So nerdy and confused. And we circled and circled Being the friends of friends Not interacting but knowing of each other’s existence This persistence That we were supposed to be in the other’s life Maybe that’s why I got that Instagram message that night. One that started as we stared at our respective ceilings Thinking life was over Just because we could not picture the Next. Next meant change, Meant moving to new places, new roommates, or being strangled into staying in a state you despised Rooming with the discomfort of wanting to move on but not being able to. I started Hot Girl Walking before Hot Girl Walking was Hot Girl Walking Making my loops around the block Like the anxiety bicycling around my head Peddling as fast as my legs could walk (I don’t bike. It’s not that I can’t; it’s that I don’t). Maybe my anxiety was trying to run away as my feet carried me When walks turned into long drives Where this spiraling anger bubbled up Scrambling my head like the metaphors in this poem And then we met. We became friends over tacos and conversation. We became friends as we never stopped talking Checking in Laughing And we kept going. Let’s be friends The kind of friends that get mistaken for dating The you’re my everything type of friend Where when I see you I can’t help but be smiling Let’s be friends Even when we move apart. Two states, new jobs, These are bricks to build bridges or walls, and we’ve built an engineering masterpiece. With arches and support beams Holding us above the water we used to gaze about into. Let’s be friends When we go from friends who see each other to friends that text From friends who text to the happy birthday, merry Christmas friends To the friends we see in Instagram posts and smile Wish them well Call them friends when you don’t really know them. Let’s be…friends.