The Girl On The Bus

I sat on the bus next to the boy that I remember looking like the kid from "Problem Child" on our way to another day in the second grade. I'm unclear on what happened, pretty sure it was just that this kid was annoying and hadn't learned the concept of personal space, but somehow I ended up on the floor of the bus with him on top of me. He wasn't hitting me or anything, so I can only assume it was some sexual gesture, but either way I was not pleased. I couldn't fight him off of me and so yelled out for help when suddenly The Girl On The Bus appeared. She pulled the boy off of me, and then pulled me over to her seat and into her life.

In a small town it wasn't hard for us to know each other and about each other without ever really being friends that spent a lot of time together. It wasn't until high school that The Girl On The Bus and I truly reunited and became best friends, and then there was no stopping us.

Throughout the school year we hung out every day, and during the summer we went to a summer program where we lived on a college campus and took classes. Pretty much The Girl On The Bus and I spent almost an entire three years with each other with no more than a week being apart.

Some people assumed we were a couple, or at least in love and afraid to admit it to each other. They couldn't understand how a boy and girl could be so close with nothing romantic going on.

Before I came out, The Girl On The Bus would defend me to no end when people would be mean, calling me gay and making fun of me. She never once doubted anything I told her and to this day has never repeated a single thing I confided in her.

The Girl On The Bus ended up being my travel buddy, I've still not been on vacations with anyone more than her. What better person to be with than one of your best friends when skiing (or in our case, walking) down the side of a snowy mountain in Colorado for the first time? Or how about walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. Or maybe standing in freezing weather at three in the morning to make an appearance on the "Today Show."

We were camp counselors together. We returned to that summer college program as RAs together. She held my hand as I got my first tattoo, and then I held hers as she got a matching one.

My family loves her and constantly asks about her, and she'd even go visit them when I wasn't even there. The Girl On The Bus was the first person I called as soon as I heard The Woman Who Shaped Me  had died, and she cried over the phone with me. She met me the day of the funeral and walked me inside, supporting me more than she even knew.

There are very few people in my life I would be 100% confident in saying they'd do absolutely anything I asked of them, and The Girl On The Bus is definitely one of them.

In a previous post I said how the Boy With My Blood is a friend that would always be there loving me unconditionally. The same can be said for The Girl On The Bus, and it's that assurance of never having to go through anything alone that makes this sometimes rough life so bearable.