Bittersweet Memories

Friends! Contrary to what people believe, they are the things that really show who, or what, you will be when you are older. More than society. More than parents. More than family. (At least for me.)

Friends shape us like the strokes of which an artist uses to create his masterpiece. Or like the dainty flick of a conductor's hands as he brings the music to life. O' the tales that could be told. Tales of love, hatred, fun and laughter. Stories of five, young friends in a small room that had the capability to lighten spirits and make sweet, sweet music. As a group, they were nearly inseparable. If you were to see one of them, it was almost certain that you would see the other four trailing behind. It was a well-known fact that, at lunches, the five would slip away and huddle in the room that everyone had dreamed to be in - the band room!

It was a second home to the group. If they had the opportunity to, they would pack up their bags and move in the same day. If the walls in that room could talk ... There were countless times that at least one of them had clambered up on top of a stray table and performed the most legendary of air guitar solos (namely Melisa and Bohemian Rhapsody). It was a surprise that not one teacher had walked by and interrupted them as they flaunted around the room with ties clipped to hair and the arms of glasses being worn as a substitute for a moustache. However, this is not to say that the group were completely irresponsible when they were in the room. It was these momentary lapses of irresponsibility that really consolidated the friendship between these guys.

The relationship was almost familial, and it could be easily identified through the slightest of actions. The expected laugh as they caught each other's eye on the same lyric every single time they performed. The swift turn of heads as they confirmed that they were both thinking of the same joke, even from a distance. Even the team effort to karaoke 'I Want It That Way' by The Backstreet Boys. The love for each other outweighed all of the negative things that happened in the world around them. As long as they were together, in the safety of the band room, they were as happy as Barry (but that's a story for another time).

It was only as his son repeated his original question that Kian snapped out of his daydream.
"So Dad ... who are they in that photo?"
"Friends." he wiped the solitary tear from his eye and chuckled, "And boy, do I have some stories to tell you!"