Sometimes, no matter how far you’ve come in distance or time, you find some things don’t change, no matter how much you thought they had. No matter how much you thought YOU had changed.

Strange how someone can know you for decades, and not get it, as much as someone who only knew you a few years. Maybe it depends on where you were in your life when you met each one. Maybe it depends more on the effort they make to know the real you versus who they think you are. Maybe, sometimes, they just see deeper into your soul than you ever intended.

I had a friend like that once. It seemed he could see into me—into my heart—even seeing the things I didn’t want him to; things I would never have shared. One of the things he saw was how I react when I’m upset. Recently, I saw that pattern re-emerge, more than a decade later. I am emotionally under the bed again, heart shut tight.

It seems I’m still Andy’s Kitten, even after all these years.