From the beginning, I've never liked liars.
I have always believed in being honest, and it partly goes toward the fact that I can't lie. I've never seen the point in lying. All it does is cause bigger problems for the liar to the point where he or she can end up hurting others, especially close friends. When someone lies to me, it tells me he or she doesn't trust me and is not brave enough to face the truth and the consequences, like the reactions of friends in response to their actions.
If you can't tell me the truth, then what is the point of us even being friends?
It was in elementary school, in fifth grade when I met *Anna. I felt a bit iffy about becoming friends with her, mostly because I was a huge introvert. It took a while, but we started to get to know each other and become more comfortable with each other. As time went on, she began to join me and another friend during recess. All three of us became really close and stayed that way until the ninth grade.
The first year of high school was when the friendship started to go downhill. We both joined the same club, and it was exciting to have a close friend that I'd known for three years be in it with me. It wasn't hard to fit in when we had each other, but when Anna made more friends, I started noticing changes in her personality and how she acted toward others. There were problems before, but now, they were too much.
She was constantly talking about them and bringing them up. She was also smart, and she knew it. She was constantly showing off, talking about her grades, how she planned on taking classes in college, how she would take lots of AP classes and how she was a part of many extracurricular activities. But what made me most upset was that most of what she said were lies or white lies. Nonetheless, I remained friends with her in hopes that she would change.
But boy, was I wrong.
Come 10th grade, it was so bad that I was considering breaking off our friendship. Anna would lie about anything to make herself look good, and though I believed her some of the time, there was this one instance when she lied about an activity that she stopped doing. She said she quit a few months beforehand to make more time for school and friends, but a couple of weeks later, I was told by a close friend of mine that Anna couldn't hang out because she had a class for the activity she quit a few months ago.
I knew from then on that this friendship was not going to last long. Anna's lies were telling me that she didn't trust me and her friends, and sometimes, the lies would contradict each other. I didn't see the point of being friends with her if I knew she was going to lie about everything. If she didn't trust me, then I didn't see the point in trusting her.
I knew I had to do something, so over time, I started distancing myself from her and avoiding her. When she noticed it, she asked if she did something wrong. I looked at her for a few seconds before I responded. There were so many things I wanted to say that were running through my mind. I finally told her what I'd wanted to blurt out for so long. I finally told her that she was a liar.
It occurred to me later on how little I'd thought of myself when I was her friend. I lost so much confidence in myself that I doubted everything I did. I had to rebuild myself and not let her lies affect me. They had such a negative impact me, and I realized it was a toxic friendship. I realized that liars would be a part of my life. I learned that I control how I deal with those liars.
And now, things are a little different. But there's one thing that will never change: I don't like liars. I never did like them, because there's no point in lying if the truth is going to come out.
Disclaimer: Names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.