The Boy With My Blood

My five year old self sat in the waiting room with my family wondering why everyone seemed so anxious. The doctor came out and didn't say anything to any of us, but handed me the most disgusting piece of candy I've ever tasted.

Eventually the doors burst open again and I saw the Boy With My Blood for the first time, but he had all these tubes and stuff sticking out of him. Everyone got even more nervous as the doctor and nurses rushed past us and took him to another room where they eventually got everything under control and he was okay. We both had rough entrances to the world.

After a short stay in the hospital, the Boy With My Blood and I started our lives together. He had the biggest cheeks I'd ever seen, so big he would have a hard time turning his head from side to side. I'd sit for hours and talk to him, fascinated by how small he was. Thinking back now it amazes me how much he responded to me after only being in the world a few days. There is a video where someone just mentions me and he starts smiling and trying to talk.

As he got a little older he got a little more rotten, and it was apparent that the Boy With My Blood and I were going to be quite different. I never got punished in my life, he got multiple spankings a day. I was embarrassed to take my shirt off, we had a hard time keeping any clothes on him at all. I never had more than a scraped knee, he had three broken arms, a blood disease, tubes in his ears, and his tonsils and adenoids removed.

I wasn't as nice as I am now, so the Boy With My Blood sometimes had to deal with my anger outbursts, like when I couldn't get past a specific level on a video game. I had it in my head that everyone else in the room was at fault and so he wouldn't be allowed to speak or make a sound until I'd passed the level.

As time went on it was the Boy With My Blood that became fascinated with me. He'd watch everything I did, learn from me, wanted to be just like me.

We didn't live in the same house together full time until I was in high school because he lived with the Woman Who Hurt Me up until then. In any way that she affected and hurt me, it was ten times worse for him. I always wanted to try and teach him not to expect anything from her, to protect him, but he had a different experience with her than I did and so always hoped he would get the woman back that he used to know.

Thankfully we both had the Woman Who Shaped Me. She always taught us that we should be there for each other because as time went on and friends became strangers, we'd still have each other.

When he found out I was gay he was hurt that I hadn't told him before then. When I found out he was gay I didn't know why he had been scared to tell me. #gayboyproblems

Once he was in high school and our interests started to be more closely related, our age gap didn't seem to be too much of an issue and I realized I'd had my lifelong best friend there beside me for years and never realized it.

Unlike other brothers (I'm assuming) we bonded over "The Simple Life," "Mean Girls," and making sure we weren't talking to the same guys on Grindr. He became my living diary, I divulge every detail of my life to him and he keeps all my secrets. We have millions of inside jokes or family quotes we recite, and we can turn each others' day around with a single text.

We recently had to say goodbye to the Woman Who Shaped Me, and it's been with each others' love and support that we've been able to get through it all.

Having a friend you have no doubt loves you unconditionally, would never judge you, and will never leave you (and vice versa) is the most amazing feeling, and I'm so thankful that the Boy With My Blood is the person God stuck me with.