I don’t know when friendships started feeling fragile.
When they stopped feeling like something you could rely on and started feeling like something you had to manage carefully.
It feels like it only takes one wrong text. One joke that doesn’t land. One rumor you didn’t even start. One change in schedule, in interests, in who you sit with at lunch. Suddenly the energy shifts, and no one explains why.
People drift without saying goodbye. Someone you talk to every day becomes someone you just nod at in the hallway. The conversations shrink. The replies come slower. The inside jokes disappear, replaced by awkward silence and “we should hang out sometime” that never actually happens.
Social media makes it worse. You see people you used to be close with posting photos together, looking happy without you. You wonder what you missed. What you did wrong. Or if you were ever as important to them as they were to you.
I try not to get too attached anymore. I tell myself it’s safer that way. I keep parts of myself back, just in case. But even when I do that, it still hurts when people leave quietly, like it didn’t mean much.
I miss when friendships felt solid. When you didn’t have to constantly protect them or yourself. When being close didn’t feel temporary, and trust didn’t feel like a risk.
Now it feels like everyone is moving, changing, becoming someone else. And I’m stuck trying to figure out how to care without bracing for the moment it all falls apart.
