: What are ways to make the protagonist's relationships with other people seem realistic? For example, I am writing about my protagonist and her long time best friend. How could I convey closeness

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When you've known someone for a long time, what happens?

You anticipate their needs and you know what their preferences are. You know what colors they don't like, that they use gloss instead of lipstick always, that they would never wear shoes with laces if they had a choice...sometimes silly things.

To convey that is harder without seeming trite. In older movies, a character knowing what another character drinks or takes in their coffee and tea was shorthand for this kind of thing. It was often trotted out as a way to show characters who haven't seen each other in a while having a previous connection. (And sometimes a way to show that they have changed in the interim "Still a bourbon rocks?" "No ma'm. These days it's a coke. No ice.")

What they might know about each other will depend on your world, how people interact, how old they are, and how long they've been friends. Knowing someone's favorite ice cream, while it could be a detail picked up in adulthood, is something that is more likely learned in childhood, and could be used to establish how long they have been friends, especially if it's an ice cream treat that is now hard to find.

This question is very very broad. You say "protagonist and her longtime best friend." The best friend could be a dude. Your protagonist could be 16 or 60, in any kind of culture.

So take what I have written and use the lens of whatever specificity you have for the situation--knowing how a character reacts after a break up, that they check their travel itinerary constantly before a trip, even though they've memorized everything anyway, that they don't like thick socks because they bunch up, which totally wouldn't happen if they didn't always get sneakers one size too big....what they can know will depend on the specifics of the characters and the world/culture in the story.

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