Seeing Chloe

I never thought I’d be the guy writing a story about his best friend. But here I am,

and it’s all about her. Her name is Chloe. We’ve been friends since the third

grade, when she punched a kid for stealing my lunch money. That’s how it started.

She was the fierce, funny girl with paint on her jeans, and I was the quiet kid who liked comic

books. We just… fit. For years, it was simple. We were teammates

in the chaos of high school. She’d help me talk to girls I liked, and I’d listen to

her dissect every text from guys she dated. We had our own language, built on inside

jokes and a shared hatred for cafeteria pizza. She was my person, and that was enough.