The value of a friendship isn't always based on how long the friendship is. You could be friends with someone for ten years and only talk once a month or be friends with someone for six months and talk everyday. I am seventeen years old right now, and a junior in high school. Five years is a long time for anything in general. You can really get to know a person in five years. I have been friends with Mallory for five years already, about to be six. I know her very well and use to consider her more than a friend, but a sister. We were so close and did everything together and never went an hour without talking. We have gone through a lot of things and challenges that would test our friendship but we almost managed to get through it. However, recently we lost interest in the same things we both use to like, stopped talking as much and barely know what each of us like anymore. Things just aren't the same as they were.

I first met Mallory in the seventh grade, I was new at a school she spent her whole childhood at and she was excited someone new arrived. It was hard making friends at first but she made it easier. Growing up with her by my side, getting to know her year after year was amazing it was like having a sister I never had. We always hung out almost everyday of every weekend and on the weekdays, the minute we got home we would text each other until we were done with chores and homework and would talk on the phone until the minute we fell asleep. We would even fall asleep on the phone sometimes. Waking up to a continuous nine hour call became routine for us. On the weekends I would go to her house or she would come to mine and we would have the best time just laughing. It was great having her only live a few blocks away from me. We would walk home from school everyday talking about how we hate school and junior high, how we just wanted to graduate already and go to highschool. As we both yearned for new groups of friends and new teachers we promised to stay best friends forever not realizing how hard it was gonna be to keep that promise. Going into highschool really changed us though. We stopped having our calls, we both became busier, gained new friends, plans, and interests. There were no more sleepovers every weekend like before. Freshmen and sophomore year only held a once a month sleepover for us. I had no idea high school was gonna hit out friendship like this. There are a lot of fake people in high school that will be your friend one day and hate you the next, want to be your partner in class, but talks about you behind your back. She changed and I didn't like the person she was becoming. She would hang out with the people we use to hate and it was depressing having to see your bestfriend change like that but I just kept quiet. We stopped doing everything together, she became too busy for me. I always hated drama but when we got to high school all she wanted to do was start drama or get in other people's drama and gossip. I, on the other hand, hate gossiping and drama in general, I would rather be okay with everyone.  We never really fought or got any huge arguments, they were more little arguments an old married couple would have. Such as arguing over the amount of butter to put in the popcorn when we go to the movies, or getting mad at eachother for opening a snapchat and not replying back within two minutes. It was good that we were so close we only fought over the little things since we were oblivious to the drama around us. It use to be nice knowing that I could tell her anything and she wouldn't tell anyone and putting all my trust i had in her by telling her everything I was going through.

This year, junior year, I realized you can't do that, you can't put all your trust into someone because people change. Mallory tried to ruin a relationship I was having because she was jealous and wanted the relationship. She tried to convince me that it wasn't right, and why I should end it. I was confused because I was finally happy and I didn't want it to end. What she was saying wasn't adding up, her excuse of the fact that the guy I was talking to was a bad influence wasn't good enough. I, myself, know what's right from wrong. If I don't want to do something I won't do it. She used the same excuse on him, “you're gonna change her”, “you're gonna make her bad”. The sad part is, he actually started believing in her and backed out of my life, wanting to be friends for awhile. Once we were friends she told me she had feelings for him and she thinks that's the reason she wanted to convince me why he was so bad. Me and him are still friends and i'm now okay with that, but what she did wasn't right. She ruined something that was actually good for me and could have became something really serious. A real friend wouldn't lie and wouldn't intentionally hurt them to get their way and what they want. She hurt me to get her way and that wasn't right and I was done with the friendship and wanted to end it. I told her what she did wasn't right and that it's not right to treat someone like that because if she was really my friend she wouldn't have done anything to hurt me. It was hard even thinking about ending the friendship I had with her because we were friends for so long, but I couldn't continue to keep someone toxic and negative in my life. It was hard because when I told her I didn't want to be friends anymore she thought I didn't care about her at all. I didn't know what I wanted from her for awhile. People would ask why I was still her friend and at one point I stopped having an answer to that question.  She was saying that I was the one who hurt her feelings because I kept ignoring her when she would try to talk to me, but I told her I needed a break and she didn't want that. I wanted her to realize what she did was wrong and why we can never go back to the way we were after that. Once you break trust with someone a “sorry” doesn't help anything.

We talked on and off defending our own sides, going back and forth, over and over again for two, almost three months. I grew tired of it though. I wanted it to stop, all the bickering and dirty looks while passing each other in the hallway. I knew we wouldn't get back to the way we were, ever, but I wanted to atleast be friends with her again. I wanted to be able to say hi to her in the halls again. I wanted to have a friend instead of an enemy.
We currently are friends again and talk here and there. I'm glad we were able to work it out and I was able to keep her in my life rather than cutting her from it. It's always better to go through life making as many friends as possible instead of making enemies.