Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 11:53:41 -0400
From: berthusa@netscape.net
Subject: Rediscovering Friendship Prolog (MM)

This story will probably be pretty slow to develop. It's a mixture of
reality and what was fantasy on my part. It'll eventually include sex
between consenting adult males. If that's offensive, or if it is not legal
for you to read it, please don't.

Rediscovering Friendship

The first time I met Kris was in kindergarten. My twin brother and I
attended the neighborhood school a couple of blocks away. For some reason,
the school didn't want me and my brother in the same classroom, and since
the school offered two classes in each grade, we didn't see each other
except at lunch.

For those of you who aren't twins, it's a relationship that's kind of hard
to explain. It's like I had an automatic best friend from before birth. I
knew what he was thinking at any given moment, and I'm pretty sure he
could, too. There were even times when we'd finish each others' sentences.
So when school started and we were separated, there was a big "gap" for me.

That might be the reason I wanted so much to be close to someone. Kris was
in my class, and we sat next to each other. It's easy for kids to make
friends, and it was really easy for me to get close to Kris.

About midway through the second grade, the school district announced that
they were closing our neighborhood school, and as part of an ongoing effort
to comply with Supreme Court decisions, we would be bussed a few miles
away. Being young and somewhat sheltered in a rather large metropolitan
area, I found it quite scary to think about. I'd miss my friends, and have
to go to school in a part of town I'd never been to. After talking with my
parents, they agreed to send us to a Catholic school, even though there
were two of us, and they weren't particularly wealthy. Kris couldn't go to
the Catholic school. At the end of second grade, I said goodbye to my best
friend. I thought it would be the last time we'd see each other.

After plodding along through the Catholic school through the end of 8th
grade, my parents told us they couldn't afford to send us to either of the
two Catholic high schools in our area. I felt it was less scary to be going
back to public schools after so long. The downside was I'd probably see a
lot less of the friends I'd made over the last six years. The upside was
when I walked into homeroom. We had assigned seats, and right next to me
was Kris.

Getting into the swing of public school again took a little time. Instead
of taking time out to start each day with a prayer, it was pretty clear
that there was no room for religion in the public school. I felt like an
outsider in other ways, too. Most of the kids in high school had been
together for a while. Everything was new to me.

I started to talk to Kris again. At first, I wasn't even sure if he'd
remember who I was. He did.

In high school, Kris could be described as a James Dean clone. A bit of a
rebel, always wore Levi's and a dark tee shirt, and usually had a perpetual
sneer on his face. Something was happening to me; I started to spend long
moments just looking at my childhood friend who'd now grown up rather
nicely. Kris stood about 5 feet 8 inches tall and was lean and, to other
people, seemingly mean. He had sandy blond/brown hair which he kept rather
short, bucking the current trend of long hair. He was kind of isolated from
other people, and after I'd gotten to know him again, I couldn't figure out
why. He was a great guy to be around. While some kids would seek out
younger or "weaker" people to prey upon, Kris treated everyone with
respect, even while seeming somewhat aloof. I admired him. He was one of
the cool people, but he wouldn't lord it over anyone.

We shared the same homeroom from the eighth grade up to our senior year.
We'd rekindled our friendship and were pretty close friends again when
everything shattered. The winter of our senior year, Kris had a heart
attack.

More to come.