The three high school students on the bus reminded me of the title of the Italian movie "We All Loved Each Other So Much." So much affection, and they were too old to punch each other on the upper arm or fall together in a heap like puppies, so there was much teasing.

They communicating by three modes that I was capable of noticing. The three of them talked and laughed. They sent each other instant messages on their cell phones and read them. The two women did non-verbal shrugs and smiles and occasional key words to each other that the man didn't get. It seemed like it didn't bother him because he knew that if it was about him, it was positive.

In the movie "We All Loved Each Other So Much," the characters had met as young idealists working for a better world and friending and coupling and having joy. Time passed, and some of them did things that others of them saw as selling out.

They didn't all love each other anymore, but some did.

High school friendships don't always last. Three is an unstable number when there is inner and out pressure for going off in twos. These three were beautifully connected in the moment.

Once a friend of mine talked about walking through the empty streets of a suburb in the evening, and seeing every living room window lit by the blue light of television, "and that was the community."

That was there. That was then.

The blue-grey screens of their cell phones helped these people be a community, but the screens didn't run them. They didn't have to wait for commercials to do their relationships.

Whatever happens to them next, it will be theirs, not "as seen on TV."