‘That looks terrible on you’

Where would we be in the world without our best friends? I think it’s human nature to find comfort in knowing that your best friends have your back; there’s nothing you can’t tell them and they’re always there in your hour of need.

My best friend (Bestie) was certainly there for me when I needed her most last week in the midst of Facebook messenger group drama, but that’s another whinge for another column.

From picking you up when you’re down to entertaining the most mundane of conversations with you, having a BFF is a fundamental part of the human experience. For example, they’re great at alerting you to potential hazards.

Bestie rang me on a Saturday morning a couple of weekends ago to let me know there’d been a shooting close to where I live and a crazy person was still on the loose so I should lock the doors.

My immediate reaction of ‘‘why are you calling me before 10am on the weekend’’ quickly melted away to an appreciative ‘‘thanks for letting me know because Mother and Father Dearest have left every single door in the house unlocked and the garage door is wide open’’. Besties are also scarily in sync with each other, and not just with their periods (it’s true).

If you’re a bit of an antisocial saddo like me, then you’ve probably had a laugh at that picture that floats around on social media of a party banner that reads, ‘‘please leave by 9’’.

I can’t be the only one who looks at that picture and thinks ‘‘haha me’’.

But it also warms the cockles of your heart when you tag your bestie in that picture and they reply ‘‘haha same’’. Kindred spirits if ever there were.

If the conversations feel completely natural between you two, but you’d be mortified if you ever had that conversation with anyone else, then you’ve found yourself a good BFF, and hopefully one that keeps your embarrassing secrets.

But that in itself is important; knowing you can confide in someone and they won’t tell a soul can really lift a weight off someone’s shoulders who may really need to talk about something.

Best friends, even the stubborn ones (me) are important.

They tell you when you’re out of line, they’ll let you know when you’re being a bit precious and, hopefully, they’ll tell you when you’ve got spinach stuck between your teeth.

As you may be able to tell, these are all things Bestie has said to me over the years. And I to her, probably.

If you don’t have a best friend, then you’re probably on your way to becoming either a recluse or a bit of a psychopath because you’ve got no-one to check yourself before you wreck yourself.

It’s like that time I was going to buy a hideously expensive top, which was also just hideous, until Bestie said ‘‘that looks weird and terrible on you’’.

It’s in best friends that we find the most true and comfortable versions of ourselves. It’s good to know Bestie is comfortable with me; I went over to her house the other week (lol, let’s face it, I’m there every other day) and she told me to have a look in the spare room at some cute clothing she’d been gifted.

We talked about who it was from, what she thought of those clothes and how much wear she expected to get out of them – all the really boring, nonsensical stuff that we usually talk about.

However, you know you’re talking to your best friend when this entire conversation is taking place while they’re in the bathroom, shouting to you through the toilet door. That’s some real friendship right there.