My Best Friend, My Other Half- By Bella Verdesco

     We all have that one person in our life who's always been by our side and will be there for us when we walk down the isle on our wedding day. For me, that's my best friend Paige Felter.

     Paige and I met when I was six and she was five at our local beach (Midway) in Seaside Park. We were introduced by my neighbor, Gloria, and we immediately hit it off. Everyday we would go to the beach together and make sandcastles, go boogie-boarding, pretend we were mermaids on the shore, go tan in the hot sun, and swim till we were out of breath. Once our beach day was over, almost every night we would go to each others houses to do some arts and crafts and play football with her older brothers. The thing was, once summer was over we didn't see each other the rest of the year.

     You see, Paige lives in Westfield while I live in Sparta. We're almost an hour away from each other, and with our very opposite schedules we could never hang out during the school year. The only time we would really see each other was when her older brother, Bryan, had his football games in Sparta against Pope John; otherwise we had to wait till summer to see each other. I would like to note, that we both did not have phones until we were twelve so it made it hard for us to communicate to each other.

     As we grew older, our bond became stronger. When I was thirteen and she was twelve, this is when our friendship started to become rock solid. We both had phones now, so we talked and face timed everyday and told each other everything that was happening.

     As the years went on, we started to get more space from our parents and were able to go out; just the two of us. Our routine is I would have work in the morning, teaching kids to surf. So, she would come up to my work almost every morning and bring me my favorite coffee, then once I got off of work, she would meet me at Surf Taco for lunch. We would then go to Midway Beach to go tanning and swim until four pm. Then, we would go home and get ready to go out at night to go on our nightly bike ride and would sometimes go get ice cream, go shopping in Lavallette, go to the boardwalk, or go to a party near by.

     This summer was the best summer we had together, by far. Paige and I spent everyday together and made so many fun memories. Every Thursday in Seaside, there is a farmers market where you can get some delicious food. Here, we would go to our mozzarella guy and pick up a half of a pound of freshly made, warm mozzarella. We would also go to Surf Taco all the time (I would get the taco salad and she would get the maverick burrito)  and then stop by next door to get some freshly made cold brew coffee. We would go biking every night and would go to kite night or the music festivals they had at the park in town. We would also go to 7/11 to get Takis and be crying our eyes out since they were so spicy.

      As you can tell by this very long blog, that I miss my best friend so much. We tell each other all of our secrets and never fail to make each other happy when we're sad. I can't wait to spend another amazing summer with her and make more fun and chaotic memories. So Paige if you're reading this, I just wanted to say I love and miss you and that you've been the closest thing I've had to a little sister.