The song "Pair of Three" is dedicated to my two childhood friends,
whose names I omit for their privacy. The personality of Stick
is very loosely influenced by one of them, and the personality of Gibbo
somewhat less loosely by the other. (Lorna's personality is, of course,
influenced by mother, and Blujai's by myself.)

I was a really weird kid. I was self-deprecating, yet, paradoxically,
every bit as much so an obnoxious self-absorbed know-it-all.
Worse still, I ran around flailing my arms and shouting complete nonsense.
No one liked me, and everyone bullied me. Except, that was, for two other kids.

"Gibbo" was a sweetheart. He really cared a lot about me and my wellbeing,
as I imagine he did all his friends. He was silly, talkative, hyperactive,
and always wanted to share and overshare about things he was interested in.
I was a bit the same way, but he was moreso by far. I mean nothing bad by it.
Frankly, it was much more endearing when he did it. He was so warm.
Always excited to see you, always giving big hugs. He would tease,
make fun, play pranks, and roughhouse, but he meant no harm by it,
and on the rare occasions he would ever take it too far,
you could see how much it would hurt him to know that.
He was a lot like a golden retriever. He had one, in fact,
and the resemblance was uncanny.

"Stick" was very nice as well, not so sugary-sweet, but a very good listener.
He was also quite talented and creative. As good a friend as he was,
there's no doubt his mind was a dark place. His main interest consisted
in excessively bloody and gory computer games and web animations.
He was quite the comedian. We shared a lot of goofiness and silliness,
though I could not share in his fixation on high-octane violence
when he would dip into it. Though our conversations would take dark turns,
I cherished them all the same. He liked to do dangerous things
and get into trouble, and I served in part to temper these tendencies.
Also, I had a crush on him. I very much doubt he reciprocated.
I imagine when our conversations turned to romance (or what passed for it
at that age), he thought we were just platonically sharing a mutual interest
in girls, and never even suspected what he was really doing to me.

In a sense, while "Gibbo" and I spent our days reveling in the early childhood
we were slowly leaving behind, "Stick" and I spent our days
exploring the late adolescence which all too quickly approached.

We have all long since gone our separate ways.
The song's lyrics are written from the perspective of my past self.