Over Valentine’s weekend I read a book, the entire thing, cover to cover, in 3 days. It was an impulse buy at Target and lured me in with it’s name and cover.

What hopeless romantic could resist a book with the adage “Something Borrowed” and an engagement ring on the cover? Not I. The reviews were great and the  synopsis on the back sounded interesting. But the line that sunk the deal was this:

“Something Borrowed … will have you laughing, crying, and calling your best friend.”

My best friend. My best friend and I stopped being “best friends” a long time ago, so reading that line hurt a bit, knowing that even if the book moved me that much, I wouldn’t — couldn’t — call my best friend. We are still friends but in a very different sort of way than the inseparable, connected-at-the-hip pair we were from fifth grade through high school. She is my “best friend from high school” and that will never change, but today neither of us pretend that we are each others best friend. We each have other people in our lives that fill those roles now. On one hand, it’s kinda sad. Like Rachel and Darcy in Something Borrowed, as fifth-graders we envisioned our lives as adults and we pictured each other there, still as close as we were as kids. In reality, that bond slowly broke up as we chose different directions in college, disappointed each other in our decisions, and just started growing apart. At the time I thought, this was inevitable, that you don’t stay the same person as you were in high school so it makes sense that you grow apart. And maybe I still believe that. In the book, Rachel and Darcy essentially do the same thing — choose different directions, disappoint each other, and grow apart — they just did it later in life than I did.

The book did make me want to call my best friend, to talk about what went wrong, to find out if what I think I did that changed things between us is the same thing she thinks I did? Does she even care that we’re not close like we used to be? Does she think about the way we could be and feel sad, like I do? Or has she moved on and is not looking back. Those questions would drag up hurtful episodes in our life and just cause us to rehash a past that we can’t change.

So I won’t call her, at least not about that. But I’ll remember for the rest of my life the way we were and I am happy that we had each other for as long as we did.

And the book, by the way, was enjoyable. My official review:

While the main story line revolved around couples, the real story is about the maturing relationship between childhood best friends. I could identify well with the struggles Rachel felt about her BFF Darcy and her desire, now, as a grown woman to break free and be her own person. Adult themes and language but a thought-provoking look inside a childhood best-friendship and how it can play out as both parties mature to adults.

Oh. And there’s a sequel I’ll be reading next, Something Blue, which is parts of the same story told from Darcy’s point of view. (Something Borrowed is told from Rachel’s point of view). So this probably won’t be the last you’ll hear from me  about Something Borrowed, Something Blue.