I met her November 16, 2013. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We had just been told our volleyball teams, and she was on mine. She was a tall awkward but rather average girl. Nothing was really special about her other than her height. But, we were friends, no, best friends. We hung out all the time, had sleepovers, and had the best times of our lives.

That was until halfway through 7th grade when she found new, better friends than me. She stopped calling, stopped asking to hang out, and stopped caring about me. At first, it hurt. This had never happened to me, I didn't know how to react. We didn't speak for months. Then she texts me out of the blue, asking if I could hang out. I missed her, so I said yes. When she got to my house she says that Elizabeth is busy,  Maddie’s  out of town, and Mackenzie is with her parents. I was a little hurt but shook it off, determined to have a good time. Then Hannah texts her asking if she could hang out and all the sudden her mom said that she “needed to go home right then”. I didn't know she ditched me until I looked at her Snapchat story and saw her and Elizabeth eating ice cream together.

I think that was the moment that I realized she only needed me when everyone else was busy, only talked to me when no one else was there, only called when she needed me. I realized that day, that since November 16, 2013 she had been using me. We were not best friends. She was my best friend but I was not hers. I had some of the best times of my life, but she did not. I took this realization and stayed away from her.
This was working just fine until my sophomore year in high school, right after I had gotten my driver's license. All the sudden she started texting me, liking my pictures, and snap chatting me. Honestly, I was excited, all the old memories of our, no my good times flashed through my head. Then it happened. Every text I got from her was her asking for a ride.

My phone would ding. I looked down and see a text from her.
“Can I have a ride???”
I'm tired of this cycle so I ignore the text.
       

Five minutes later, my would phone ding again

“??” I would scroll up in our texts and see that the last four conversations we’ve had were her begging for a ride, to her it didn't matter if I needed to do something, or that she lived 15 minutes away and didn’t give me any gas money. No, the world was all about her.

Another ding would break me out of my angry trance
“Please”

Finally I snap. I type “No, no you cannot. Don't ask for a ride again unless you want to start giving me gas money.” My thumb would hover over the send button when a wave of guilt would come over me. I deleted that, typed “fine” and hit send.

She used me as a transportation system, not a person, and definitely not a friend. Once I realized that, I cut her off and ended our friendship for good.
          

I've learned that the people that are always there in my good fortunes, smiling the biggest, cheering the loudest, always glancing to see what I have, are fake friends. These “friends” are nowhere to be found when I go through a rough patch. The friends that are silently cheering me on, always there supporting, and never leave are real friends. Instead of leaving me while in a rough patch, they help me up, and dust me off. The sooner I can separate fake friends from real ones, the better off I will be.