Relationships, Friendships; Is There That Much of a Difference?

I take AP Psychology as an elective. It was today, after that class, that I got the idea for this post. I was walking with an aquaintence of mine, and she told me that she was thinking of dumping her boyfriend. When I asked why, she told me it was because she didn't want one. I told her I was tired of being single, and she asked a question, something along these lines:
"What's the difference between a boyfriend and a best friend?"
This got me to thinking: really, the only thing different is the physical contact. Or does it go deeper than that?
We all see the boyfriends and girlfriends sucking face in the hallway. Us single ones get a pang of jealousy, and the taken ones crave the company of their significant other. But does the difference between friendships and relationships go deeper than just that physical contact? Deeper than just the touch of lips, the exchanging of sweat between sheets drenched in passion? You want to cuddle with someone and watch movies all day; can't it just be with your best friend? Are those sexual feelings the only true difference?

Feelings in general make up the difference between friendships and relationships. You talk with your best friend, you talk with your partner. You hug your best friend, you hug your partner. But the feelings behind each type of relationship differ so greatly. You love your best friend, and you love your partner. But that love is so different in both relationships. It's really more than just the sexual feelings. These feelings - in both types of relationships - are so complex, but the feeling of loving someone as more than a friend is next to impossible to understand. It's like the most addictive drug. When you have experienced love for someone - in a more-than-friend way - you want it so badly. You never want that feeling to go away, and you want it to be requited. You just want to be with that person, in the most romantic way possible, ways that you can't be with your best friend. That is the difference, and that is what's worth fighting for.

~J*~

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