[OT] Opposite sex best friends

[Firebolt]

No: HPFGUIDX 3509

> But here's a *real-life* question. How many people here had an
> opposite sex best friend when they were Harry's age (12-14 years)
> that
> was comparable to the Hermione-Harry-Ron friendship? I can speak only
> from my experience, but I don't recall very many boy-girl best
> friends
> when I was in my early teens. Those friendships were common when I
> was
> about 5 or 6 (my best friend at that age was a boy named Mark), but
> they fizzled when the boy and girl began to bond with same sex
> friends.

Yes! I did and I do! From when I was 7 to when I was 12, 3 of my 4 best
friends were guys, and two of them were schoolmates with whom I made an
absolutely unseperable trio. And now that I look back on it, I believe I was
the good-grades-getter of the group - although we were a lot more
competitive than Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Then, I moved out of the States,
and spend two years friendless, apart from a fair-weather friend who
probably only befriended me because I was the smart girl with good grades
who sat next to her and might help out in class. Then another year at a new
school, changing classes in the middle of the year just when I was beginning
to make friends. Just this school year, I met a bunch of new kids/kids from
other classes and actually have close friends for the first time in several
years outside of summer camp. One of them is a guy, and I actually think I
get along with him the best.

So although I have fewer guy friends now, I don't quite agree that intersex,
platonic friendships kind of fade away in adolescence. I do agree that
they're a lot likelier to be misinterpreted, though. As in conversations
like 'Hey, are you and Patrick a couple?' 'No!' 'I don't believe you...'
'nnngh...'.

Apologies for the rambling,
Firebolt