Page 151 of Without a Clue

“And I’m going to need you to push me off.”

Nash saunters slowly up to me. Reaches behind my sticky, braided ponytail and lifts my chin gently. His kiss is long and deep and the kind of kiss that makes the world swirl for just a little bit. “I love you too, Pip,” he says. “More than anything else in all the world.”

And then he pushes me off the ledge.

That’s the thing about friends.

They may pull a little Willy Wonka on you, challenge you, and for a moment you may really think they are going to murder you.

But if they really love you, like the friends I have do, they’re friends in good times and bad.

In moments of triumph and in moments of tragedy.

Friends, when done right, can be closer than family, can be the first people you think of to call in those big moments, and little. They love you despite your faults and flaws. They see you, all the little bits of you that you try to keep tucked so secretly in the corner, and they stay.

They always keep the light on for you.

They always answer the call.

Friends can even, if you are very, very lucky, fake a death.

All for you.