Sahiti Ramadugu
Yes, a boy and a girl can be in a platonic relationship.
When I first met my best friend Arjun, he was wearing this blue linen shirt and was sitting in a corner, coyly. I texted him as soon as I went home, cause I understood he was placid. Turned out we had similar taste in everything, be it books, or movies, it was so much so, that we even had the same passwords!
He studies in Mumbai and I stay here in Hyderabad, and every time he went away, we used to count the days left for him to come back. And then there are these thoughts of staying in the same apartment. We’d go café-hopping, to cinemas, and hang out with our mutual friends. It’s like we spent most of our time together whenever he was in town.
When I was assaulted, he stayed up day and night just to talk me out of self-harm. He dragged me out of the bed to join an NGO.
I tell him it’s not girly to put on a face mask, the fact that he should wear pink more often, cause it suits him or to apply a conditioner.
He'd buy all the books I liked but couldn’t afford. He's my machine for shooing away anxiety.
Here we are, having late-night deep conversations about stuff I could not discuss with anyone else. He's Harry to my Hermione, Sheldon to penny and joey to my phoebe. He's the guy my parents trust, so they don't mind us hanging out and my boyfriend has no resent cause he understands the role played by Arjun in my life. Part of friendship is there being an emotional attachment to the other person, romance or even casual flirting was never on the table.
Gender and sexes don’t come in the way of friendship, it’s the connection and bonding that matters. I wonder why the word soulmates is used only for couples. I think my best friend is my soulmate, who got his heart in the right place.
P.S- Arjun, thanks for re-reading after I edited it the hundredth time.