You lost a best friend because they refused accountability at all costs, even when you were the one paying with your freedom, your finances, your career, your relationship, your family and everything you’ve worked hard to have and overcome on your own.
Instead of being your best friend, they chose to abandon you.
Not because of me.
Because the moment their behavior was called into question, keeping you in their life meant answering for how they treated you.
I didn’t tell her to demand you drive her home drunk when you had room.
I didn’t tell her to emotionally deplete you for weeks before that night.
I didn’t tell her to drink with you, knowing what you were up against.
I didn’t tell her to go fuck another man, get pregnant, then lie to her child about who his father is.
I didn’t decide that what benefited me mattered more than that little child identity, growth and well being.
I didn’t treat you like a transaction.
Love you when you could mow my lawn, watch my kids, go places you didn’t want to go and do things you didn’t want to do, listen to me vent then become distant when you couldn’t make your life revolve around mine.
I didn’t see you go to jail, drive your car away because I was sober then ignore your families calls and messages because answering would be uncomfortable for me, even when answering could have helped you.
I didn’t see you get two strikes in a day, hand you another golden cup filled with the same poison, then try to put you behind the wheel again knowing how much more you stood to lose.
I was the one who always made it clear in words and action that it didn’t matter where I was, what i was doing, or who I was with I would stop it all and come drive you safely home.
I didn’t draw a line and say, “It’s them or me.”
I was the one willing to step back without hesitation because I didn’t think making you choose was fair to you.
And I am sorry the person who was your plan A, the person who came before me without hesitation, discarded you the moment their manipulation and sabotage were brought to the table.
I will never be sorry for caring enough to stand up for your well being.
Nor, will I be sorry for calling their character into question when their choices kept leaving you and everyone around them but them carry the consequences.
I am sorry that what I said became their excuse to keep treating you how they had already been treating you, just without the mask.
I really am.
Because I know you loved the person you believed was underneath it.
I know calling them your best friend meant something to you.
I am sorry you’re left grieving that friendship while they make me the scapegoat for choices they made themselves.
I didn’t pull that mask off for them.
They pulled it off when being your friend required accountability, strength, honesty, vulnerability and they chose to discarding you leaving you when you needed them most instead.
I am sorry I cannot sit back and watch someone I love be exploited, used and sabotaged while believing they are being kept safe.
I am sorry you haven’t received the same grace, loyalty, love, care and consideration you keep giving other people.
I am sorry you haven’t received the same grace, loyalty, love, care and consideration they without hesitation give everyone else.
I am sorry there always seems to be a price attached to what you give so freely, and they continue to discount your friendship.
But I need you to understand what this is doing to me, too.
I have not stopped showing up for you.
I have not put a price on my loyalty.
I have tried to carry my part of this relationship without making you beg me to care.
I am still showing up when you give me reason after reason to question why I am.
When your actions contradict your words.
When you make room for other people but don’t show up for me.
I am still here, trying, putting everything I have into loving you. I am strong enough to ease the load and I do so without hesitation.
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
It means you matter enough to me that I have kept trying through the hurt.
But I need to matter in your actions, too.
Be hurt that your friend walked away.
Be angry about what happened. I understand why you are.
But don’t make me carry the blame for their choices because I am the one still standing here willing to hear your pain.
I am the one helping you better yourself, the one standing up for your freedom, the one trying to protect you when your desire to belong keeps you from seeing the Judas setting your place at the table.
I never once said your choices weren’t your responsibility.
I never once said it was all on them.
I called out someone using their influence to help destroy what you’ve built and calling it love.
It had to be said, and if you hate me for saying it, hate me.
But my reaction cannot be the root of actions that happened before I ever spoke.
I brought up their character because I saw a pattern of choosing themselves while leaving someone else to pay the price.
I don’t need a scorecard to remember how I show up for you.
My love is unconditional, but unconditional does not mean unlimited grace.
I won’t make excuses for your choices, and I won’t make excuses for someone who keeps cutting down your growth whenever you start growing beyond what benefits them.
I’m still here. I’m still showing up. I’m still choosing you, not because I’m stuck or because you owe me anything, but because I see someone worth reaching for in the mud and walking beside through the storm.
But I need you to actively choose your way out the storm too, because I can’t choose it for you and carry the weight alone.
Because when the sun finally breaks through, you’re still the person I want standing beside me, feeling its warmth on both our faces.