We all have our childhood best friends. Laughs and giggles on the trampoline. Walks around the neighborhood and occasional ding-dong-ditching. I miss the innocence of my childhood friendships. We were so pure, the darkness hadn't quite touched our white little hearts yet. Or maybe it did, and we just hadn't quite felt the weight of the pain yet.

Madison was my first childhood best friend. We met the first day of my eighth grade year. She lived on the street behind me. I had a reputation of being very good at making friends so talking to her wasn't a problem for me. I don't quite remember what I said but I'm sure I talked her ear off. I probably complemented her hair or just how beautiful she was. I loved giving complements to people. Especially Madison. She was so beautiful, and she still is. She has long blonde hair, beautiful hazel brown eyes, and the most contagious smile. I wanted so bad to be her friend. So I did. I sat by her on the bus. We'd use the long morning rides to talk about our lives, we'd talk about our father. We could relate a lot on that topic. I never met my dad, and her dad left. I think that's what made us so close. We'd talk about her mom and her brother. On the way home, we'd talk about school. We'd talk about her boyfriends, and I'd just listen. I wasn't allowed to date as a kid. Then on the weekends she'd come over to my house and we'd watch movies, play in the backyard on my trampoline, and take pictures with her Polaroid camera.

I was a year older than Madison so eventually I went to high school and we started to fall apart. Even though she lived on the street behind me it felt like she was in a whole different state. She got new friends and didn't have time for me anymore. I kept inviting her to church or to spend the night but dance, her dad re-entering her life, and her having to babysit her baby brother took up all the time she used to have for me. So we fell apart.

I miss her a lot. I message her every now and again, and she says she misses me too but I can't help but think she's just being nice. I hope one day she'll remember what she meant to me and hopefully I meant the same to her. No matter how old we both get, or how far on the map we get from each other, I will always remember her as Madison. My Childhood Best Friend.