"Comforting Friends" Narrative #4

She gets like this sometimes. Just starts crying and doesn’t know why. She doesn’t want to but she can’t stop. It makes me sad to see a friend be in so much pain. I think about back when we were younger, we felt so free, so alive. Everything seemed so new to us; we had the time of our lives growing up together. But those days are gone and here is where we are now.
Maybe it’s because of her dad having cancer. Maybe she doesn’t want to think about life without him. Maybe she doesn’t want to think about her mother without him. Maybe she’s not ready for him to leave yet. Maybe she’s just scared.
I rub her back as she sits and cries. She won’t say why she is this sad. She won’t say anything. I’m left to guess what horrible thoughts are running through her head that make my best friend feel this way. I feel useless. I don't want to say so I just sit quietly like I have a million times before.
I think of the summers that we stayed up late and stayed together all day. We were inseparable. We found enjoyment in everything we did, we always had so much fun, and we never had to worry about a thing. I wonder if it’s these days that she’s missing. She crying because everything is so screwed up right now. Her childhood is slipping away and everything that came with it. Her innocent, her sense of wonder, her seemingly never ending bubbly attitude. She’s felt too much and been through too hard of times to go back to all of that now.
It might be that she feels lonely. But she has me. And she has a boyfriend. Even though they have been dating for quite a while now, he isn’t there for her as much as she would like him to be. Or as much as I would like him to be. He doesn’t understand even half as much about her as I do. He doesn’t know what she’s been through, or who she really is. He’s not the one she calls in the middle of the night when she can’t sleep, but only cry. He could care less about her problems; he has his own, and he can’t be bothered with her’s. Maybe she feels that she’s been forgotten by him. Maybe she just doesn’t even care about that.
Her whole body trembles as she takes a deep breath. I’m here for here and she knows it. She turns to me with eyes full of tears, I stare helplessly back at her. I open my arms for her and she leans in for a hug just like she has a million times before.
Sometimes comfort is just knowing that someone is there for you.