On Saturday I talked to Bart for two hours while browsing Goodwill and Safeway with Ellen. Then he called me later that night and I sat in the staircase talking to him for another hour. Then he called me the next morning for a little while, just to check up. Just when I start thinking I give him too much credit, he does something like this.
My relationship with Bart is tricky. We met sophomore year during honors comp/lit. In an ordinary universe, we wouldn’t have become friends, or at least not as close as we were. He was the lazy skater and I was the goody-two-shoes with very specific goals.
But against all odds, we did become friends, and I think the cause of the depth was our junior year.
I don’t think I have to go into the details of my junior year of high school. You heard all about it during 365 Days of Bri (Bri 2.0). Sean, Dylan, panic attacks, the like. Bart was only my debate partner. The guy who I yelled at constantly for not doing any research. The guy who got annoyed when I used debate terms like “burden of proof” outside of rounds.
It’s not to say that we were constantly at each other’s throats, but we certainly weren’t always cordial. It was his being four hours late to a debate workday that led to my breakdown and eventual admission of Sean’s existence and the Dylan issue. But I’ve forgiven him thousands of times over for that, for all of it. Because at least he was consistent. And at least he wasn’t Kelli.
I really hope she and Mia don’t read this anymore. I don’t think they do. It wouldn’t make much sense, those friendships ended months ago. Anyways.
I think being Kelli’s debate partner was what really drove me to recognize what a great friend Bart was, and is, to me. Where Bart would venture off on his own to make friends with people no one even looked at twice, Kelli latched onto me and soon had her attention-seeking claws into the friends I’d managed to make, effectively severing their ties to me throughout the year. Where Bart stood his ground in rounds when things got tough, Kelli crumbled.
That’s the real issue, I think, that led to bigger things. The crumbling wasn’t just in rounds, it was in our entire friendship. When things got hard for her, like at the beginning of senior year, I was there for her with flowers and a shoulder to cry on. When things got hard for me, she laughed it away and pretended it wasn’t going on. And they wonder why I didn’t tell them about my parent’s divorce right away. I mean, I called Bart immediately.
When things got tough for me, Bart was there with a warm hug and comforting words. It didn’t matter what petty fight we were probably in, he was always there to get me back on my feet. Even with the stress of that year weighing both of us down, he always had enough strength to spare for me. On the surface people see him as selfish and even arrogant, but none of that is true.
Bart is one of the most genuine people I know, because he doesn’t BS you. He doesn’t sugar coat things, but at the end of a conversation with him, you feel better. You feel whole again.
Bart understands me better than I do sometimes, and I really don’t know what I would do without him. He is a piece of a puzzle that keeps me from breaking down again, just like Rachel and Craig are. His source of friendship is wildly different than theirs, but he’s no less important.
I’ve got to get ready for Spanish now. I’m not dressed or packed and I have to leave in fifteen minutes. Oops. I’ll see you tomorrow with what will hopefully be an epic video.
