Ending a friendship is a lot like ending a relationship: it makes you overthink, it makes you hurt and sometimes you feel pretty empty. A best friend is someone you confide in, someone who keeps all your secrets and knows you like the back of their hand. Sometimes people just drift, and that’s okay too. The people who are meant to be in your life forever are going to stay forever. It’s crazy that someone you spent so much time with, put so much effort into and trusted so dearly can just leave without saying anything. One day you just wake up and they are no longer your friend on Facebook, without giving an explanation why.

I sit back and wonder if I really miss you, sometimes. And sometimes I really do. But then when I sit here and think about what you put me through in our friendship, I know that we’re better off not sharing our lives anymore. We had great memories and I cherished our friendship for a while. You were my wing woman and I was yours. We were inseparable, to the point where people were jealous of our friendship. We shared endless sleepovers, constant laughs and of course the pep talks when we were at the lowest points of our lives. After everything we had, what caused everything to change? People have relationships, not replacements. You decided your relationship was more important than our friendship. Not once did I ever let a guy get in between our friendship, because I cherished you more than him. I tried not to be hurt by it, and I tried to shrug it off and still be there. But I came to realize, it isn’t wrong to admit when you’re hurt.

Friends are supposed to be there for you when no one else is, and with you that stopped being the case. The times when you would sit here and complain about all of your friends, how you were “over them,” made me think “what are you saying about me to them.” You sat here and judged my relationship, saying things like “he’s too possessive and too controlling,” but then you let your boyfriend choose who you can be friends with, who you can hang out with and what you can and can’t do with your friends. You stopped hanging out with me because he didn’t “trust” you. Your boyfriend ruined our friendship, and you didn’t stop him. While our friendship struggled, you let yourself move further away, and soon you didn’t even have time for coffee and a chat. That’s when I knew you weren’t my forever friend.

But, I’m doing better. And I hope you are, too. You taught me a lot in the years that I knew you; you taught me what not to do and how not to treat someone. You didn’t make me cruel or cold, you made me notice who makes me feel loved. That’s the most important thing; you taught me to hold the ones that cherish me closer because those are my best friends.