Best Friends Forever?

Chapter 1: Follow Back

It was July 19, 2013.

I was playing around on Twitter, my favorite social site, hoping to have a conversation with one of my friends that night. I had made lots of friends there when I was 13, and now, a year later, I was losing some of them, due to an argument. I had just lost someone who had been my best friend a year ago. She had turned out to be a total b*tch, thinking she was always right. She had lost a lot of friends that week due to her behavior and the way she treated people.

It was now a few days after I had had my last argument with her, and I was talking to other friends and listening to this instrumental version of a song I really liked. Then I decided to get offline for a while, so I tweeted saying goodbye to my followers. A few minutes later, I received a tweet from a new follower, one who had followed me back. Her username was @Imagnary_friend. I had followed her after the fight with my best friend, because I had liked how her bio said, "Real Friends May Come & Go But An Imaginary Friend Is Forever". I was 14, yet I had lots of imaginary friends (and still do to this day). So I was happy that someone who seemed to be a fan of imaginary friends had started talking to me.

When I was off my computer and on my cell phone, I went on Twitter again and talked to the Imaginary Friend again. I decided to send her a Direct Message (DM) and tell her my biggest secret: that I had lots of imaginary friends. I told her that my mom thought I was too old for them (which I think is horse crap), and she said, "You are never too old for an Imaginary Friend !!" and that she would always be there for me. She said she was glad we were new friends, and I was, too. Finally, someone I could talk to about my imaginary friends without getting judged. I had asked her what her name was, and she replied that I could come up with any name I wanted to call her. "It's All Part Of Being An Imaginary Friend !!" she said, so I decided to call her Dana.

The next day, my imaginary siblings, some of my imaginary friends, and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They lived in one of those neighborhoods for senior citizens, and there was lots to do there, such as swimming. The pool was open that day, and there was a steel drummer who came every Saturday to play for the senior citizens and children.

My mom had to take us because my grandpa didn't like to swim and wasn't a fan of that music, and my grandma was very sick at the time with pancreatic cancer so she didn't come to the pool right away. We swam a long time, and I enjoyed spending time with my imaginary brothers and sisters, friends, and a crazy lady who seemed to think she was a vampire. I couldn't wait to tell my new Twitter friend all about it. I decided to believe she really was an imaginary friend, that maybe a "real" person had made a Twitter account for. (Now I've done that with my imaginary friends.)

I had made other new friends on Twitter, but one of my new best friends was leaving Twitter and I wouldn't have anyone to talk to. I was lucky that Dana became my friend who I talked to nearly every single day. She seemed really interested in my day and I was interested in hers. One day, she told me she was going to visit an Invisible Sibling and was not looking forward to it. I wondered if she had an annoying older sibling like my sister, Portia.

I was so happy to have a friend who I would be able to discuss my imaginary friends with, because she seemed to have them, too. I felt like I could talk to Dana about anything in the world. That was the start of a wonderful friendship.