Though I have now broken off contact with this friend (He eventually became a massive jerk that I didn’t want to spend time with any more), I’m still proud of this piece. It gave me the courage to act on my situation, which at the time was a big deal to me. I’m still nowhere near as confident as where I want to be, but standing up to this “friend” helped to show me how strong my real friends and I could be without him.
If I had any advice to give someone in my situation, I would say that you shouldn’t be afraid to act. You are the only one with the power to change your situation. Whether that’s making plans to meet with a friend you haven’t seen for a while or just having a conversation over the phone. But you should also realise that people change, sometimes for better or for worse. If you don’t like something that a friend has done, or the person that they have become, you have every right to challenge them on this. Friendships come and go, but the ones that truly matter are the friends who really care about you, through thick and thin.