thinking about friendships (a belated reply)

So, a while back I read my friend Ava's post (thinking about friendships)[https://blog.avas.space/friendships/]. Told her I wanted to write a reply post, but then life kinda got in the way and I wanted to write other stuff. Well now here I am finally getting around to it. I relate a lot to Ava's anecdote. I too grew up mostly solitary and am an only child. My parents weren't neglectful in the slightest, but I grew up around adults more than I did kids. I found myself in this weird in-between where I didn't quite relate to adults, but I didn't fully relate to kids my own age. I had friends, but those friends had closer friends that they'd rather spend time with, so for most of my younger years I just kinda played by myself or migrated to different groups not really belonging anywhere. That started to change when I went to middle school. I had my first real friend, we'll call her Chloe. Pretty much every recess we'd spend together just walking around the field and talking. Then one day…