Because opposites attract the best BFFs

Gigglers, remember last December when we asked for your stories of best friendship for our Tale of Two Besties contest? Well, we’re super excited to announce the finalists and grand prize winner. We’ll be counting down our runner-up besties stories, and on February 18th will announce the winner—plus reveal the ‘A Tale of Two Besties‘ cover! Check out Cassie Borchers’ story below

We’ve been besties and opposites since the time we were all elbows and knees, without a care in the world. She likes tattoos, leather jackets, and the Black Keys. I like scrunchies and Mariah Carey. She’s the Lorde, I’m the Taylor.

It’s a phenomenon specific to BFFs when you can both be so different, yet somehow completely the same—totally clicking with your own clique of one, finding the perfect complement to your weirdness. We both spent part of middle school pretending to be the producers who discovered various country music stars. We once tried to get people to use a new currency with Elijah Wood printed on it, made by us. We skipped junior prom to dress up in my parents’ clothes from the 80s and film our interpretations of SNL sketches and Disney movies. We made an interpretive dance presentation for our high school book report on Into The Wild.

This stuff may sound weird (although we prefer “off the wall” or “outré”), but, you know what? We ended up having a pretty great time in high school. How rare.

I’m so thankful for our lifelong friendship; and even now, almost in our mid-20s, we’re still “outré” together. In the last few years, we’ve traveled and lived in foreign countries, gotten tattoos, and gone to a One Direction concert in side ponytails. We’ve staked out a Burberry fashion show in Hyde Park, eating subs. We’ve fallen down the stairs of the Eiffel Tower in front of large groups of French children. We’ve taken pictures hand in hand with a wax statue of Whoopi Goldberg in her Sister Act days. We’ve pretended to root for President Snow in a sold out showing of The Hunger Games. We’ve been beholden to the power of Beyoncé live.

We’ve even driven ET home, smiling the whole time.

Much has been made about large friend groups, but for every Heathers, I raise you an Abbi and Ilana, a Leslie and Ann, a Jess and Cece—and us, a Cassie and Ellie. Having a bestie is where it’s at, and best friendship means so much more than just owning the top spot in your friend-hierarchy.

A best friend earns their title because they bring out the best in you. I’m at my most creative and I feel my smartest, my happiest, my most generous, and my best when I’m with my bestie. I’m never happier than when I’m doing something weird (excuse me, I mean “far out”) with Ellie. My eye makeup is always a mess when we’re together, from laughing until I cry; but to be honest, I never feel more fabulous.

Today, we’re both slightly lost 20-somethings with a load of student debt and temp jobs, completely overwhelmed by life. To get through it, we go to IHOP, joke about the probability of the waiter poisoning our pancakes, and then go see Mockingjay Pt. 1 for the third time. Just like we would’ve done in middle school.

No matter where we are, what we’re doing, what we’re going through, I know I can count on Ellie, like Mark Ruffalo could count on Laura Linney (a You Can Count on Me reference, yes). I gave Ellie my only copy of Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, and in exchange, Ellie insists she likes my haircut every time I try bangs. And I know we’ll be best friends forever, like Goldie and Meryl in the latter half of Death Becomes Her (yes, another 90s movie reference; duh), and that’s a serious assertion right there. Would Ellie and I remain best friends for eternity, should we consume an immortality potion together? Yes. Yes, absolutely.

. . . Now that’s a statement.

Honestly, I’d trade an American Horror Story: Coven-sized clique for Ellie any day. I’d be lost without my bestie. And with that knowledge, I have to say the future looks bright. No matter what the unexpectedness of life throws at us—no matter where we end up, who we marry, what jobs we have, where we live, what haircuts we feel inclined to try—we know we have each other as constants. I’ll have my best friend to make life feel a little easier, to laugh with, and to dance to “You Don’t Own Me” with in a white linen suit (I couldn’t resist another reference). Life gets hard, but a bestie can help you through it. There’s just such a beautiful, selfless kind of love and support that comes with a BFF, and I couldn’t feel luckier to get to experience it.

This essay was written by Cassie Borchers.