What are friends? Friends are people you think are your friends, but they're really your enemies, with secret identities and disguises, to hide they true colors. So just when you think you close enough to be brothers they wanna come back and cut your throat when you ain't lookin.

I don't believe in it in the conventional sense, for instance a 16 year old girl says she's in love because some bloke she met plays in a band and has one of those 'fringey' hair cuts then it's a load of rubbish ...

I think you can clarify that you love a person when you're living with them and have no problem letting them take a **** in the toilet whilst you're in the bath. Evidently I measure love by what it lets you overlook which is a terrible thing. My ex dragged me through the mud for years, cheated on me repeatedly. I found out the week before he was born that my son might not be mine (he is), lost friends. lived in fear under a blanket of paranoia whilst remaining completely loyal, working, cleaning, looking after Josh and living with a manic, bi-polar depressive drug addict with the mind of a teenager, the attitude of a toddler and the mind-set of Hannibal lecter. But I stayed with her for four years and forgave her over and over and overlooked everything and argued for her and defended her continuously, spent all my money on her, went with nothing and am only now starting to have finally cut the ties with her completely (Tenancy on house is ending this month). The point here is....I did all this because I loved her,there's no doubt about it. You love someone you don't ****ing facebook everyone about it, you don't tell them over and over to be reassuring you bloody show them. You tolerate, you forgive and you work for it no matter what the effects on you are. It's just a shame she didn't see that.
Fact of the matter is after all of it I don't think I'll be ready to face a relationship like that again for a long long time where as I know she, a girl whose perception of love was based on her word and no substance is probably out shagging some 50 year old married iggy pop look alike with a poetically alternative outlook on life who still dresses like he's 20 with the condoms she bought out of my sons benefits and telling facebook she hopes he's the one or some bollocks.

That's the difference, right there. The difference between love and time-wasted wankery.

I've lusted, but never loved. Girls always would use that word "love" without really giving any thought when using it.

i believe in love...i have loved. i've also lusted. there is a huge difference, though it is hard to tell while you are going through lust considering the feeling is so intense. i think you know you love someone when you are faced with the possibility of losing them and it tears you up, as well as being willing to sacrifice a lot of things personally for that person. i think heartbreak is an important thing for everyone to experience...it is very enlightening as hard as it is. you learn a lot about yourself and what you want out of future relationships.

welcome to dr. phil banter, just leave your testosterone at the door and jump right in.

i like how most people have been posting things in this thread generally sticking to their respective cliches.

lovelost, stricken my trust, yo.

how do you mean?

It's obvious you've had a heart to heart with everyone on here so that you can in fact pin point what each of our said "cliched" post would entail though right? Cheers man.

i meant more in a gender kind of way.