Salt, Tequila, Lime..

We huddled around a tiny table in our favourite bar. All eight of us, best friends.

Our lives had been parallel for over four years, and now, we couldn’t have been more different. We couldn’t have been further apart.

I couldn’t help but smile at the seven boys across from me. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with every single one of them – but in reality, I would spend it with only one. Friends drift apart, and as close as we were – it would happen to us too eventually.I placed a tray of tequila shots on the table, greeted with a cheer and a demand to call a toast.

Raising the tiny shot glass, I smiled;

“To us.. To friends, to today, and to tequila!”

Six shot glasses were raised to meet mine, and we winced as the tequila burned our mouths.

Salt. Tequila. Lime.

It was as inevitable as the fading of a friendship.. One by one we had moved out of our city – our urban playground. And now, the last one of us was planning to pack his bags and make that final leap.

The other-half squeezed my hand, and I mouthed,

“To the rest of our lives..”

I knew that one of them, my best friend, would still be there when we had all moved on.. When the lime had shriveled and the tequila had run dry.
It felt like the end of an era. The love of our lives, our beautiful city – we had given it all our love. Fast-love, casual love, non-committal love that simply couldn’t stand the test of time. We had outgrown the high pace of city life. And in time, we would outgrow each other, just as we had outgrown friends before.

But in that moment, it didn’t matter that we might not be together for ever.

In a bar as familiar as home – eight friends smiled at each other as they sucked lime from their fingertips..

They didn’t drink to forever, to everlasting friendships or to the future..
They drank to the past, and to embracing every moment as it happened.