A frenemy is defined as "someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is both mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust."
Personally I can't stand these types of "friends." With the personality that I have, I am quick to cut people off when I think they have wronged me. Fake friends (that's the only thing frenemies are in my mind) are the first to go. PERIOD. It's okay to deal with these kinds of people when you are in high school. That's where these people live….and should stay. I thought that I wouldn't have to deal with these people post undergrad. Boy was I mistaken. As I've gotten older, I have taken some serious inventories of my life. There are people that I still hold close to me that haven't deserved a place there in a long time. Now I know that friends have issues and fights all the time….then kiss and make up. But there are people that I have been looking at with the severe side eye trying to figure out why in the hell they still matter.
#1: The "always desperately needy, but constantly missing in action" friend
Me and Number One have been friends since my sophomore year at Ole Miss. We were fast friends and things were really cool between us. She experienced some really trying times during the height of our friendship. It was during these times that the friendship got more and more one sided. I wasn't upset about it. Losing your mother and grandmother in the span of one year is pretty tough. Then it became "can I borrow [insert cash amounts here]?" and "can you take me here though my boyfriend lives with me, has a car, and won't?" I felt like I was doing this (which I would have done regardless) but whenever I needed someone to lean on….I got the crickets and the voicemail. She had to transfer to a school closer to home my first year in law school. We lost touch for about 3 years. We reconnected and I was happy to try to rekindle that relationship. I thought that enough time had passed for it to be a little different. We live about 20 minutes away from each other right now. When I told her I was moving to her area, she was excited. I called as soon as I got settled in to go out to lunch. What I got was, "can I borrow $20 dollars for gas until next week?" NEXT!!! My friends know what my money situation is like. My REAL friends would have at least caught up first before they asked me for money. Some things never change.
#2: The "I need a gaggle of female groupies" friend
I am a pretty quiet and shy person…..when I first get to know you. I'm pretty reserved til I can feel you out. But once you get to know me, you understand that I am anything but. Yet friend Number Two thought I was some kind of quiet flunkie. She was happy hogging up all the spotlight and attention in law school…..until she realized that her little flunkie (me) was the more likeable person. Then she did everything to try to make sure people hated me. Huh? NEXT! She still pretends to be my friend now, but I guess it's kind of tough to keep up a façade when Facebook wall posts go ignored.
#3: The "ultra-competitive" friend
This friend really wants to be you. They are actually okay to be around until there is a situation where you outshine them, have more knowledge than them on a subject, or are generally being something that they want to be. Most times you don't really notice it. I have had situations that no matter what the topic of conversation is they want to negate everything you're saying. Even when that stuff is wrong as two left shoes. I'm talking about how great Charming Charlie's is but she wants to make sure that nobody goes there because Icing and Claire's are still hot. I don't get it. NEXT!!
I'm 28 years old. The time for these people have come and gone in my life. I have culled my friend's list so that it looks more like Waiting to Exhale than Basketball Wives. I deserve to have people who care about me the way I care about them. That list went down to 4 last week. I like it.
