I was unknowingly best friends with my bully for years (covert narc)

For years, I thought I had this really close friend, someone I considered like a brother. Turns out, I was actually friends with my bully the whole time.

Over time I started noticing little things that didn’t add up. Stuff I’d tell him in confidence somehow got around to other people. Then mutual friends started hinting that he’d been talking trash about me behind my back, saying I was jealous of him, that I was weird, or whatever else he could come up with to make people distance themselves from me. And it worked. People that I was cool with would suddenly unfriend me for no reason.

Meanwhile, he tried to infiltrate my other friend circles. He would befriend and tag people in his posts that he didn't even know to try and insert himself into all areas of my life.

The weirdest part? The dude literally copied me. My interests, my hobbies, even the bands or games I liked, suddenly he liked them too. At first I thought it was just shared taste, but later it felt like he was mirroring me to keep me close, to get under my skin, or maybe to compete in some subtle way. It’s like he built his identity around trying to one-up me while pretending to be my best friend.

Looking back now, it was totally sick. It's like he was competing with me to be a better version of me. Makes me shudder.

When everything finally clicked and I saw behind his mask, I couldn’t unsee it. Once you realize someone’s been manipulating you for years, it’s like a fog lifts. I went completely no-contact. Deleted and cut off everyone connected to him. It’s been freeing, but also surreal to look back and realize how long I let someone like that stay in my life.

I just wanted to share, because realizing your "best friend" was actually your bully in disguise is one of the weirdest and most painful kinds of betrayal I've ever been through.