Friendship - The hardest thing in the world to explain

It wasn't a text as I expected, it was a video. I thought it would be something funny or unbelievable, so I proceeded to play it. When the network connection was good enough, I saw my face staring back at me; sometimes smiling and at other times, giving a cute expression. He had made a collection of my pictures into a video with Bruno Mars’s ‘Count on Me’.

I was still enjoying the warm feeling of gratitude in my chest when my niece trotted over to see what I had my gaze fixed on so intently.

“It's Aunty Treasure!”

My lips automatically lifted upwards as she stretched her arms out to be carried and mine shot out in response. I placed her just in front of me, stretched my hand out until the phone was well away from her eyes, and then replayed the video. She picked some of the wordings within minutes.

“Count on me…1,2,3, ... I'll be there….”

I had never heard such powerful lyrics for friendship before, I knew Bruno Mars sang amazing love songs plus he had a captivating voice, but such a song for a friend?

My best friend, Treasure, came to mind immediately. Treasure and I had been friends since we stepped foot in the university. It wasn't enough that she was bearing the same first name as I was, she had to come from my mother's hometown and be born in the exact year and month I was born as well. Our connection was unbelievable.

I thought about doing a video just as my younger brother had done, to collect all the pictures I had of us into a fine video, using Bruno Mars's 'Count on Me' for the background music but I didn't know how so I went into the kitchen.

“Mr. Man” it was how I referred to him. He turned away from the dishes, one side of his lips curling into his usual cute smile. “Thank you for the video.”

He waved his hand to show it didn't mean as much, turning back to the dishes he seemed bent on finishing before paying attention to me. I wasn't even ready to let him go yet.

“Can you show me how to make a video like the one you sent me? With that same song?”

When he turned his eyes to me, I blinked severally with my lips pouted and my palms clasped together in the praying mantis form. Twenty minutes later, we sat to pick out the best pictures of Treasure and I, collecting them into a video with Bruno Mars's 'Count on me' in the background.

I had just sent the video to Treasure and was about to crawl into bed for a quick nap before my niece or nephew came calling for me when my phone began ringing. It was Treasure, and she was crying.

“Hey sugar, what's wrong?”

She was only able to collect herself enough to say “Thank you for the video”.

A smile touched my lips. When I knew she would be okay, I went to sleep. I thought she would have forgotten about the video when I returned to school but that was one of the first things she mentioned, thanking me again and asking for the song title so she could download it as well.

I saved her the stress by sharing it with her through the Xender app, she requested that we sit together to learn the lyrics. She even had a book and pen to write it out.

“You can count on me, like 1,2,3, I'll be there.
And when I need you, I know I can count on you like 4,3,2, you'll be there.
Cos that's what friends are supposed to be oh yeah…”
Bruno Mars Lyrics

There was nothing more satisfying than seeing how much she loved me and decided the perfect way to express it was through ‘Count on Me' by Bruno Mars.