Unfiltered Story #361126

I had the same best friend all through middle school and high school – but towards the end of our senior year, I was starting to have misgivings about our friendship. As we got older, my friend had gotten extremely possessive and controlling – she made sure that she was always the one planning any parties or events for our group of friends (which was easy, as she was the one one of us who had a pool and rec room at home), and would get incredibly upset if she found out one of us was friendly with someone she didn’t like.
By the end of high school, it had gotten to the point where if you pissed her off, you were basically ejected from that circle of friends because she wouldn’t invite you anywhere anymore, and no one wanted to be seen with you for fear of suffering the same ostracism.
In hindsight, it’s pretty obvious how awful this relationship had become, but at the time I was too timid and felt too much pressure from her to do anything about it. Until she broke up with her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend was another of my very closest friends, and of course she expected me to shun him right along with her. But the thing was, I’d actually heard his side of the story (which involved breaking up with her for many, many good reasons, up to and including physical abuse), and finally put my foot down – if she didn’t want him around her anymore then fine, but I wasn’t going to stop talking to one of my closest friends because a stupid high school relationship didn’t work out.
It became a huge blowup. She screamed at me in the middle of class and then had a crying fit to gain sympathy. I was immediately persona-non-grata among my friends, none of whom would even utter a word of support for me or her ex.
At the end of the school year, my social circle was reduced down to about 3 people – including the ex-boyfriend, and the girl he was now dating (another close friend).
At the time I was extremely upset about it all, but now I realize it was probably the best thing for me. I’d been under her thumb for years – to the point that I’d almost forgotten how to have my own opinions and tastes. If the whole fiasco hadn’t happened, I might never have gotten my own personality back.

And who wants friends who ditch you for a pool anyway?