In reply to tlm:
My first best friend was Andy in early primary school. We drifted apart after a couple of years as he became a bad boy bully type, it was a shame but it kept me out of some harms way later on.
After Andy it became Steven for the middle part of primary school, my first memory of him is seeing him with his mum skipping to play school. I can still see his big grin and blonde hair waving about. We drifted apart a bit as I started to really click with Ben in year 5, he joined the school in year 4 as his family moved back to the UK from Brunei. Ben has remained in that position ever since, only to be supplemented by Robert for a time.
Ben and I went to different secondary schools and I was best friends with Robert early on in that school and had a lot of fun. We were essentially Beavis and Butt-Head, not quite as stupid but just as immature, we got into a fair amount of trouble. Ben and Robert didn't really hit it off and Robert started to get a bit annoying so I hung around with him less and less and he faded into the background.
I became really good friends with Martin around year 9. His group of friends had become a bit dickish towards him for silly teenage reasons (which has since all been resolved) and he drifted away from them. I introduced Martin to Ben outside of school and they hit it off, these two are my best friends today, equally, and we have all been each others best men at our weddings. For a good while Peter made it a four way through the later years of school and 6th form, but during uni drifted away and moved up northwards for a different scene.
It's hard to imagine that me, Ben and Martin would ever not be close. Martin and myself live in the same town and see each other regularly, but Ben is much further away and sometimes we don't communicate for several months. That changes nothing as our friendship is always just as strong when we meet up. Ben introduced me to climbing (he did it at work) and then got Martin in. We walk together a lot and learned winter skills in Scotland together, the bond is strong.
Post edited at 11:05