21.   And how important our friendship is.

22.   And, blessedly, this is also the time when friendships are primary, the most basic of relationships.

23.   And they know their friendships will be there, continuing to blossom and make life pretty darn beautiful.

24.   And they will know, Stacey says, how important this friendship was to their arrival.

25.   And to the precocious teen-ager, a knowledge of Jullian was a foolproof barometer of whether or not a potential friendship was worth pursuing.

26.   As if friendship were some minor league entity in the great game of human relationships.

27.   As important as friendship was to all the women interviewed, it was obvious there were different phases.

28.   Both bristle at the suggestion their friendship is lost irrevocably.

29.   Both Bauer- Slate and Neuhaus loved to bake, and a friendship was born over European breads and pastries.

30.   Both Hanssen and the woman, Priscilla Sue Galey, have said their friendship was nonsexual.