Best friends for life is a big promise
that we had no business making
when we were too young
to know anything about life.

You were there after the bad things happened.
Like a beacon of friendship that took me away from my brain;
Until the next bad thing happened on uncomfortable sheets on the third Sunday of October.
Then the bad things after that,
which made me unhinge my scalp and pull out my memories in an assembly line of the bad things.
And the tears that ran down my cheeks,
turned to blood running down my wrists,
and you let me cry.
Best friends for life.

I hopped in my car, starting my journey towards my new life,
over a thousand miles away,
to silence the screams of my old life;
But I never expected the silence after the voicemail beep of another unanswered phone call.

You said that you would always have my back,
but how can you see mine when you turned yours?
You have a new best friend now.
You paint your face to match hers,
and wait for her to make up your mind.
Someone walks toward me to hug me,
Oh! Best friend, I didn't recognize you.
You say that you're happy.
I don't point out how different everything is, and I probably wouldn't even if I could squeeze a word into our conversations.

I've silenced my index finger and you show me how yours works just fine,
As you point out how much I've changed,
How rude I am for adding to a joke that new best friend made about you,
But new best friend is never wrong,
No, Brooklyn, you're wrong.
Then you decide that we should stay apart for a while.

Three weeks later, you show up for twenty minutes to catch up;
but catching up to you means catching me up on your life.
Laying out more problems that an algebra class;
and I remember when we finished each other's sentences.
On cue, I start a sentence and you finish it with, "I think I'm going to go, I'm tired. We should do this again."
You were out the door before I could say goodbye.

I don't want to say goodbye,
I want to shake you until your new face falls off.
I want my best friend back.
I don't want to add her to my assembly line of bad things.