💬 Found an old chat with a friend I haven't spoken to in 6 years

I was clearing out my phone on Sunday and found a chat from 2018. It was with Adil, from college. We used to talk every day. 400 messages in 1 week, mostly about a trip we never took. Nothing important in it. He asked if I had change for the bus. I said, no, take mine. I read the whole thing standing in the kitchen with a half made tea going cold on the counter. There's a part where we plan a place to eat after exams. I picked the place. He said, fine, your treat. I said, only if you carry my bag. He said, deal. That was the last message of the day. I don't remember who stopped replying first. There was no fight. He changed his number maybe, I don't know. I got married in 2021 and he wasn't at the wedding. I didn't think to call him. I typed a message. Hey, found our old chat, hope you're good. Deleted it. Typed it again. Then I wrote another one that was longer and made it sound like I had been thinking of him. That felt fake, so I deleted that too. The phone was just sitting in my hand with an empty box. My brother walked in and asked what I was looking at. I said, nothing, old stuff. I put the phone down and finished my tea. It was cold, and I drank it anyway. I still haven't sent anything. It's been 4 days. I check his last seen every morning and it says long ago. Maybe I'll message him on his birthday. It's in March. I remembered that without looking it up. The chat is still open on my phone. I keep scrolling up to the bus change bit.

The bus change message got me. Those tiny nothing chats say more about a friendship than any long one. I lost touch with a college roommate the same way, no fight, just a new number. Did you ever search for Adil on social media? I found mine that way last year, typed a hello, and spent a whole evening waiting. The reply came the next morning.

Found a thread with an old school friend last year, mostly exam stress and who liked who at the time. I typed a message to send and deleted it twice before finally sending it anyway. She replied within an hour like no time had passed, and we still talk sometimes now. Worth pushing through the awkward first message, even if part of me expected her to just not reply at all.