Heh... it's weird. He started talking to me again. At this point, though, it's... not quite the victory I thought it would be. I mean, he added me as a friend on one website and then we talked on there, so I added him on the other website. We stopped and talked for something like three minutes today. I know it'll take time. It's less painful than not knowing him, yet feeling this distant is just barely better.
But at this point it's easier to come to terms with the fact that we'll likely never be close again.
The convention I was at this weekend included little retiring addresses for the state officers who basically spent a year together right out of high school, and they're all basically exceptional people. The first retiring address was about lifetime friends versus "seasonal" friends. He said the goal is to have lifetime friends, but losing people, even those you're really close to, just happens. And to just not take the friends you have for granted, and try not to lose those you're close to.