how do we define friends?

I remember feeling kind of odd, when I see my friends on the street and we give your other a cursory smile and wave, and continue on our way. Then after a while, a text will appear on my handphone, asking me about stuff which really doesn't matter.

Which makes me think, who are the people who we would call friends? How do we define them, and what do you think friends should be like? Sometimes I feel that the simplest form of definition would be a pure form of sincerity. I was told that even between friends, there is never such a thing as non-rivalry (aka comparison), but the line that divides friends from "friends", will be that between real friends, comparison is done in good taste. True friends will be envious of another, whereas friends whom you thought are friends but who turn out otherwise, are often jealous (note that envy and jealousy are 2 similar but vastly different things), and you often suspect if they might pepper their jealousy with malicious remarks when they make a mention of you to their friends.

It made me wonder, who my true friends are, and although I had trouble with it, I think I could feel comfortable enough to count a few off my fingers. At least that comforted me a little. Although I still think friends are a transient concept, at least for this certain window of my life, I will have these few ones to walk through this short passage with me. There are a lot of people I have encountered over the course of my 20-odd years of life and whom I can readily open up to them, tell them my life story, my happiness and my sorrows. I used to think I make myself become like a open book, and then start to ponder if it actually renders me vulnerable. But then, those are pages of my history which I will really like to put behind me, and somehow maybe talking about them helps me accelerate the process of turning the book. It doesn't matter that after a while, these people will walk out of my life, the perpetual waiting room that I have envisioned it to be. What matters is that, during this time when I have known them and told them my story and shared theirs, I could term them my friends. Maybe it is with this thought that I can offer my sincerest form of friendship to them, and not have to hide my truest form, and pretend to be someone else.