"Who run the world? Girls"

I have known my best friend a very long time. We've been best mates for over a decade and I couldn't imagine life without her. We've been through everything together, from death and break-ups to overseas holidays and drunken birthday parties to falling out with dozens of our other friends. The Best Friend knows basically everything about me and vice versa because we have been there through every hilarious or dramatic moment in each others lives and we can have entire conversations with just looks.

In year seven she made me walk up this huge hill every day after school so we could stalk the guy she liked. In year eight we sent each other emails every single day when I lived in the United States and she was home in Australia. In year nine I tried to convince her not to ask this guy out because he was a douche but she did anyway and he rejected her horrible and I baked her terrible cupcakes and we watched stupid movies and I never once said 'I told you so'. In year ten she lied to our English teacher for me constantly because I was always skipping class and once threw another friend's pencil case out the window. In year 11 we both took year 12 psychology and competed to get the top mark. In year 12 she told me a guy friend of mine was in love with me but I didn't believe her and attempted to turn him into my study buddy but we never actually got any study done.

I think it's really important to have people in your life that you've known a long time and who just get to and you don't have to explain everything to you because they know what has happened in your life. It takes a long time for someone to become an 'old' friend so you really have to work on it. I don't have many other friends from high school. I had a really close knit group but we all fell out a few years ago. A couple of girls got their first boyfriends and just completely disappeared (I hate it when girls do that more than anything). One of those girls is still with her boyfriend. Another broke up, but I couldn't bring myself to truly forgive her. I still see her sometimes but we aren't very close. Another girl turned out to be a bit pf a psycho who made bizarre threats and lied about things to turn people against each other and I eventually became sick of her childish behaviour.

Anyway, I think we and my best friend have the perfect friendship because we trust and love each other unconditionally and also because we are the perfect mixture of similarities and differences. We both like a drink, listen to the same music, wear a lot of black, are cynical and jaded about certain things, dislike self-involved couples and have the same sense of humour. On the other hand I read a lot and follow sport, she spend most of her time discovering new bands and getting tattoos. She is more judgmental than I am and I am more outgoing than she is. Overall we are a good match. We got lucky in finding each other. A best friend is like a leather jacket: it always fits perfectly, goes with everything and gets better with age.