My Two Best Friends and I Promised to Reunite on Christmas After 30 Years – Instead of One of the Guys, a Woman Our Age Showed Up and Left Us Speechless

“He wrote this for you,” she said quietly. “He asked me not to read it aloud.

He said it was yours.”

I hesitated before picking it up. My fingers felt clumsy as I unfolded the page.

Ted leaned in slightly, his eyes scanning the shape of Rick’s handwriting like it was a language he used to speak.

“Ray and Ted,

If you’re reading this, then I didn’t make it to our pact. But I still showed up, I guess.

I carried you with me everywhere I went, even when I didn’t know where I fit.

You were the best part of my youth, even when I felt like a footnote in it.

I remembered the lake, the music, the jokes, and the way it felt to belong to something once.

I just didn’t know if I belonged to it still. Thank you for loving me in the ways you knew how.

You were the brothers I always wanted.

I loved you both. I always did.

— Rick.”

Continue reading…