fourteen.

it started with a gchat convo...
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me: do you not have plans for valentines?
friend: no, i don't. do you?
me: no. but that's to be expected. i thought you'd be busy though.
friend: nah...i can't remember the last time i have done something on vday....
me: well i'm free. we can hang out on saturday and be each other's valentine.

friend: that sounds like a good idea.
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and so it began.

being single, i didn't expect to have a wonderful valentines day. i wouldn't have expected a great valentines day if i was still in a relationship actually. well, that's only half true. it probably would have been an amazing day, not because it was valentines, but because that's just how it used to go.

anyway, when i suggested going on a friend-date with him i couldn't have foreseen just how much it would end up affecting me as a person, and our friendship. we've known each other for years, but we agreed that there's always been an invisible wall between us. i've always had a soft spot for him, one of those soft spots that you can't explain. one of those 'i adore him, but i can't tell you exactly why' type deals. of course, me being me, i'd always thought that the wall was built by him. but that's the thing with walls: no matter what shape or height they are, they always have two sides.

so in the spirit of eros i endeavoured to use my date in the traditional way; to get to know him better, to get closer. as we sat eating cake and three flavours of ice cream between us it became apparent that, even with this wall, we're closer than we thought. that we know each other really well. maybe not in the 'what's your favourite colour?' sense; but in the 'what are your fears?' sense. wow. and the biggest surprise was that we're very alike. that the things we see so clearly in each other are things that we don't always see in ourselves. we took turns being each other's eyes that night, being honest and kind with each other. we smiled a lot, laughed a lot, and spoke to each other through knowing looks a lot. it felt...good.

on saturday night, that wall we built together began to come down. it's a little warmer between us now, and this will only improve.

so valentines day is for lovers, all kinds of lovers. that old cupid strikes again.