Friends Indeed

"Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don't say." ~Anon

Today is Best Friends Day. At least it is for me and my two wonderful friends.

We were at Apple’s (not her real name) house today, with a surprise visit from Ice-Cream (not her real name too!). These two aren’t just deserts. They’re my childhood friends for nineteen and twenty-one years (Common sense will tell you it’s “respectively”. Whoever adds the two up deserve a punch and a kick. Am I that old?!).

Apple is a gone-case sweetie. She can melt you by simply saying “hi” to you. I’ve known her when I was in Secondary One. She was seated behind me. We just clicked and hanged out with each other since. I wonder if she was so attracted to my back view, ever since Secondary One, she was impelled to be seated behind me for a full three years! In Secondary Four, however, she decided she wanted a glimpse of my side view instead. I guess she had realized by then that she had wasted three years not seeing the best part of me! This sweet little thing really fascinates me with her knowledge. What you think she knows, she doesn’t know. (Apple, remember your hair? Ok. I won’t elaborate since it is your birthday.) What you think she doesn’t know, she knows! (Ahem!)

Ice-cream is cool. Call her sweet and I’ll be garroted in no time. Not by her, but on my own accord. She’s actually a good friend of my good friend in Primary Five. But it so happened that I soon drifted apart with my good friend and bonded amazingly well with her good friend that she ended up my best friend! Call it fate. We went to the same secondary school (without prior planning), studied in the same classes for all the four years and clicked with the same apple. Most of the craziest things I have done in this lifetime are the result of hanging out with her. Looking absolutely normal and practical in her appearance, she harbours the craziest and most dangerous intentions in heart. Whatever dangers I encountered in my early life, she’s responsible.

Apple is the all-rounded brainiest girl amongst the three of us. Be it language or arts or science or mathematics, nothing is too difficult for her. She’s the crème de la crème. She only stumbles when it comes to Chinese. Whenever she’s required to read a Chinese passage aloud in front of the whole class, the session would be turned into a music lesson. Never have Mandarin sounded so musical to me in my whole life!

Ice-Cream is the impossible one. Impossibly unbelievable. She’s not the brightest of us all but her memory skill is superb! She couldn’t understand why I kept failing my Biology, just as I couldn’t understand why she kept failing her mathematics. But with sheer determination and her unbelievable memory power, she MEMORISED the ten-year series for the “O” Levels examination and managed to pass with flying colours! This impossible girl is also capable of quoting lines WORD BY WORD after reading a book or watching a film! Say anything to her and she’ll remember it for a lifetime, if she deems it worthy.

All three of us chat about almost anything, stops at nothing and yet have different preferences in almost everything. We are attracted to different types of men, love different types of clothing, enjoy doing different things…

There are things we share the same liking too. Pepper crabs top the list. The rest I’ll need time to conjure them up.

I count myself extremely blessed to have not one but two true friends. They never fail to laugh with me when I am happy, share my pain when I am down, heal me when I am hurt, support me when I fell. They never judge me for what I am or short-change me for what I am not. They just continue to shower upon me their unselfish kindness and generous care and concern without expecting anything in return.

Apple and Ice-Cream, the sweetest and coolest nicks they have earned. Guess what nick they have given me in return? Nothing as sweet as Strawberry, as cool as Watermelon or as exotic as Durian (no thanks, I’m not HORNY).

They called me Fungi aka Fungus aka Mushroom.

Simply because I was a good student and was always sitting so still in class with my head focused in front without moving an inch! (Who cares if my eyes were actually boring through the blackboard.)

HMPH!