How did you end up in that crowd?

This is probably one of my favorite lines from any song I've ever heard. It's also one of my favorite songs. Yellowcard really was aiming their sights at situations like mine when they wrote "Five Becomes Four", which is basically a song about someone talking about a friend/loved one who went down a completely different path than the narrator, and now the narrator is pleading to his long lost friend for answers as to what happened between them.

The chorus reads: Did you run away? Did you fall apart? Did you see yourself for what you are? Will you be looking for it anymore when five becomes four? When you're all alone with the melody do you close your eyes and think of me? Will you still hear my singing anymore when five becomes four?

I can really relate to this song, as I had a best friend whom I've lost to the "wrong crowd". His name was Jeremy, and we were seriously the best of friends from 6th grade through Freshman year in high school. We would hang out all the time, we loved the same music, the same food, the same television shows, the same girls, the same style. We had an idea for a band we wanted to start, "Sunday, Only". We even talked about how we would make sure we went to college in the same area and where we would live so we could still keep in touch. We were basically the same person. For a while anyway. But for the time being, we had plans for the future, and we intended to see them out to the end.

Once Freshman year rolled around, we still hung out a lot, but he started to get other friends too. I had a hunch that these people were bad news, but what could I say to the guy? "You're heading down the wrong path and if you continue to, I'm going to have to stop hanging out with you"? Was that what I was supposed to say? Well now that I'm older, I realize that I should have said exactly that, but I was scared to lose my best friend, so I didn't.

Sophomore year came and he was just in too deep, so to speak. He had too many friends, too many connections, to drugs and other unhealthy things. We started having arguments about everything and then we just stopped talking. I hated it. I still hate it, and I think about it a lot. Where is he now? I'm not entirely sure. Was kicked out of Tracy high, out of West High, out of Stein. I heard he was graduating from Delta Charter or something this year, and good for him. Maybe he's going somewhere.

But seriously though, I was supposed to be his best friend and after we stopped talking, I just stopped caring. Why did I stop caring? I don't know. Ok, I didn't stop caring, but I couldn't take the constant worry. What I do know is, "Five Becomes Four" tells my story. And as sad as I am about what happened between Jeremy and I, I can say without the shadow of a doubt that I do not, and never will, regret my decision to cut my friendship with him. Because in the end, I'd rather not have gone down with him. It sounds heartless, but it's far from it, because I still pray for him and wish we had both handled things a bit differently. Curious how plans change, right? Not funny how they change, not sad how they change, just curious.

"When you were down, I was around. Why would you try and hurt me now?"