My close family friend passed when I was 14, her coat string got caught on a handrail on the school bus and the bus driver closed the door and didn’t even look to see if she got off completely. She was pulled under the bus’s tires.
There was also this kid in my high school (one year older) who who was murdered by some other kid so that 2nd kid could get into a gang. A friend, yes, but nothing terribly close.
Our friend Dom, here.
And Faultline. Not really friends, but we knew him from the UBRF.
I’ve also lost a couple friends at once - they died via IED over in Afganistan.
It happens… it sucks, there’s nothing more painful really, but it does happen, and you have to think that way in order to get over it quickly.