Unforgotten Friendship and Lingering Regrets

In 2020, I became best friends with a girl I’d known from school for years.

We grew close during the pandemic, spending hours texting and calling, sharing music and

dreams. She was desperate to grow up—she talked constantly about college,

becoming a doctor, and starting her life, frustrated by how young she felt.

In early 2022, we had a petty argument and stopped talking. A few months later, just before senior

year, she drowned. I wasn’t invited to the funeral, and because our

friendship had mostly been online, almost no one knew how close we had been.

Her death was barely acknowledged by our school, and I was left alone with my grief and