I just killed my best friend. Worst enemy. Same difference.

So I have been tossing around this phrase in my head for the last few days, trying to come up with something worth writing.

Fierce friendships.

You know the kind -- the friendships you had in middle and high school. The kind that had you hating your best friend (the quote that is my title is from "Heathers," by the way). The kind that drove you to feeling like doing great bodily harm to anyone who would dare even give your friends an askew look. The kind that could both comfort you and deeply wound you. The friends who you would see and talk to all day at school, and then spend the entire evening on the phone with, talking about everything and nothing. The kind who you could laugh with until you physically hurt at comments and jokes then that still make you laugh out loud today. And you know damn well you couldn't even begin to explain it to someone else, because they'd never get it.

I miss that. I mean, I still have friends I laugh with, and that I care a lot about, but back then my friendships were more important to me than anything else. To have a group of people who not only understand you, but accept you as you are, is such an amazing gift. But age shifts our priorities to work and family. I'm very grateful for the family of friends I have now, but I do mourn those fierce friendships from my youth.