The summer after my senior year of high school was the first time in a long time that I felt I belonged to a sisterhood.
Before then, I thought girls were catty, gossiped, fought and judged. They were just mean. I've always thought guys were easier to get along with.
My new posse and I savored that summer, effortlessly meeting for coffee, eating at our favorite yogurt shop, sleeping over at each others' houses, crashing parties, playing basketball and slurping snow cones at the park.
Before then, I'd been close to each of these girls, but it wasn't until this summer that they all got to know each other, and we grew into a tight clique of girlfriends. I only wish it lasted this way.
Together, we dreamed of what lay ahead. Julia was headed to study business in San Antonio. Marcie was headed there too, only to a prestigious private college in town. Rocio was staying home and starting college in El Paso. Liz and I were off to Nebraska.
We were all going in separate directions, and even though we never promised to, we all knew we would stay in touch.
For the first few years, it was easy. There were so many new experiences happening for each of us, and we were so eager to share them.
Because my boyfriend and dad live in San Antonio, I got to visit Marcie and Julia at least once a semester. I remember the first time we got together. I flew in for fall break. A few days after I arrived, they met me at a bus station downtown, and we squealed when we saw each other.
We wandered through crowds along the Riverwalk, lit by the ornamental lights of restaurants and souvenir shops, and music came from different directions. We ended up at a TexMex restaurant. The waiter was sweet with us, and he'd sneak us extra sides and dessert; we felt special. We laughed and chattered until the place was closing. We'd made it, we all agreed. We were grown-up, free from the grasp of our parents, old enough to get around in a new town on our own and mature enough to take care of ourselves.
All six of us reunited for Thanksgiving. I woke up one day, and by some miracle it was snowing in El Paso. The roads were crazy because El Pasoans don't know how to drive in the snow, and despite a few swerving turns, we made it to IHOP for breakfast that day. The short visit turned out to be almost a daylong event. We ordered hot chocolate at the diner, gossiping through every sip, and then headed to a park for pictures and a snowball fight. I have a picture of us all sticking our tongues out to taste the snow.
Our gatherings went on like this during holidays and one summer break. Each of us continued to grow; every day getting busier and busier with everyday life: school, new friends, romance, religious self-discovery.
Some of us heard from one another less often. Eventually, the cattiness that every female carries started to come out. Gossip and resentment loomed.
The first sign of a glitch in our friendships was when nobody seemed to be hearing much from Marcie. Liz would call her; Marcie would say she'd call her back and never did. Julia would make plans with Marcie to get together, and Marcie would cancel at the last minute. Occasionally, I would get a text from Marcie saying, "Good morning, love! Have a great day!" I couldn't help but cringe when I saw this impersonal message; I knew it was a mass text.
Eventually, we all started to talk about her and her excuses. She would say that she had a lot of homework, that she was busy from dawn until dusk. But we were all busy, we said, and we still made time to keep in touch. There was a bit of resentment, too, toward her rich, new private-school girlfriends.
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