When I was a teenager I found common ground with, surprise surprise, another teenage girl. We had good times together whilst we were at school, and out of school, and I treasure the memories of these times now I am 30.
Her name was Kay. She was my best friend for my last few years at school, and every night I would wait for her at the Lower School so we could walk to the Youth Club together, or the Spar shop to top up with cigarettes, chewing gum and fizzy pop. Sometimes we would have a walkman with us, and share the headphones, strolling in time to Boyz II Men and singing along at the top of our voices. Sometimes we would have a bottle of cider with us, hidden in the inside of our jackets, and generally slightly warm, but welcome after such a hard week at school. Sometimes we would just shout and laugh and sing loudly, making nuisances of ourselves to others, but not giving a stuff about it. Always we would talk about boys, admire boys, and flirt with boys and that was such fun at that age.
As we reached our final year of GSCE’s we discovered older boys, and the art of matching clothes. Each night we would discuss what we were going to wear when we met up the following evening. This generally consisted of a pair of jeans, boots with a wooden chunk in the heel, a belly top (exposing the midriff! Yes really! I know, even I can’t believe I did this!), and a jumper tied around the waist. We had trips to Brandy Wharf with these older boys, when one of them conveniently broke down in his car whilst alone with me in the car, driving me home, supposedly. We hung out at Mark’s, who had the coolest and most gorgeous mates who let us drink our cider round there. We went to the fairground and hung around the Waltzers. We went to the Radio One Roadshow in Cleethorpes where we were convinced we could see PJ and Duncan everywhere we went. So yes, we had good times me and Kay, but unfortunately, like with most friendships, we went our seperate ways once school ended. I got a boyfriend, Kay went to college, whereas I stayed at the school and so on and so on, until we rarely saw each other, and when we did, we didn’t really have a lot to say.
I went to University, and after a couple of years away, we kind of found each other again and got back in touch. I saw Kay more regularly when I came home, and when I temporarily moved home before meeting Alex, we saw each other a lot more, and it was just like old times, without all the cider however.
Kay came to my 30th birthday celebrations in Hull, and I relished the small slots of time we had together to reminisce and talk about our teenage years. It was brilliant, and I hadn’t laughed so much since we were back there in that time and space.
Today is her 30th birthday. A milestone really. We have reached an age where we can’t really get away with discussing what we will wear tomorrow, and even if we did, no-one would notice as she lives around 100 miles away from me now. But we are no longer teenagers. We can no longer share our walkmen (or is it walkmans?) and we can no longer just hang out at Mark’s house and scream about PJ and Duncan. However, she is still the same Kay despite the years that are catching up with us both, and I still love her dearly. She’ll always be one of my best friends, despite the distance and the fact that we rarely see each other now.
So, one last time, I guess all I can do is sing Boyz II Men in tribute to my 30 year old best mate from days gone by.
”Although we’ve come, the the end of the road
Still I can’t let go, it’s unnatural
You belong to me, I belong to youuuuuu”.
Happy birthday Kay!
