365 # 10: Amy W.

In my third year of college, just a week or two after I broke up with my girlfriend, she called to say that she thought she was probably pregnant. In a panic, I called you because you were exactly the kind of friend that one needed to talk to in such situations. You pulled together the facts of the matter and concluded that I had absolutely nothing to worry about because she was lying, and you were ready to take her head off for it. I never determined whether she really was lying, but you were correct that I had nothing to worry about. Months later, you were still mad at her for fucking with your friend's head.

We met in tenth grade in Miss Luke's geometry class, but I don't think we actually became friends until we started doing tech theater in Miss Morris's class. I have a lot of very good, very random memories of you from those days. Like how you always seemed to get a kick out of the fact that my nose was extra squishy. Or riding around in your car listening to Danzig and making fun of his intensity. Or how you and Tasha liked to pretend you were gangster rappers, but instead of grabbing your crotches, you grabbed your boobs. And of course, the rowdy bus rides to Thespian Convention every year. Among many many others.

It seemed very strange when you started dating that sociopath guy. I don't know for a fact that he was actually a sociopath, but he did have that whole "killing people is cool" vibe about him, which seemed an odd match with your natural born caretaker persona. After you two broke up, I remember you got hilariously drunk and told me how it had come out that he was a closet cross-dresser. "Melissa, Travis! He called himself Melissa!"

And let us not forget that time I needed that intervention. Yep, you were there for that one as well. In fact, I think you bummed me my first cigarette and took a walk with me after the whole shitty ordeal was over. But that was you: always there for your friends when they needed help. Not like some kind of martyr or a saint. Just a genuinely good human being that cared deeply for the people around you. It made absolutely perfect sense that you went on to become a nurse.