How should I move forward with my [22F] best friend [22F] of 8 years?
This is one of the few times I’ve posted on here but I’m just looking for advice on how to move forward with my \[22F\] best friend \[22F\] of 8 years. She doesn’t use reddit but to protect everyone’s identity I’m going to refer to her as Sarah. To begin, she was one of the very first friends I made when I moved into the area for my first year of high school (yes I know we’re still young). We’ve always been close and have had sleepovers gone to each other’s family parties and events etc. When we both turned 21 we started going out but we would our main focuses would be to dance, drink, and listen to music together which would always be a blast. However, I felt a bit of shift when she became closer with a girl named Jordan \[21F\]. After starting to go out with them both, their focuses started to shift towards finding men to dance with or pay for their drinks. Which I am not judging at all but with being in a relationship with my bf \[22M\] I do my best to not entertain people despite some small talk but I never dance with other guys. However, now when we go out I don’t want to bring along my bf because it’s a “girls” night but when we get to the functions they’re go to saying is “where’s fine shit”. It was even harder to deal with when we did a girls trip to a city and they both brought boys back to the BNB we were staying at which I felt out of place with. Then shortly after Sarah, my bf, and I flew and went to a music festival together and she was still making the same comments and running off causing us to loose track of her a few times. At this point I felt like there needed to be some distance so I can see if she would make plans with just us eating or going shopping together but only plans she would try to make is to go out. I somewhat believe though this was due to my house being the get ready place since her mom is really strict and Jordan lives further away. But I could just be reading too much into it. Despite me being the one to distance myself I do miss her and she messaged me saying she missed me and I tried making plans with her but she never responded back to me. This past weekend she sent me a long message talking about the distance I’ve created and I responded back to her kind of explaining everything I’ve mentioned above. After I sent the message she left me on read and still hasn’t responded but I’m going to post the conversation and I just want advice for if I was too harsh and what I should do moving forward. She hasn’t unfollowed me on social or anything but I can’t help but take the silence after my message as a sign that she doesn’t want to continue the friendship. I’m going to include the messages copy and pasted as well and I’m willing to provide any more context.
Sarah: sorry i never responded to this honestly ive just been thinking about everything ive been feeling like things between us have been really different since Chicago and i feel like ive been the one reaching out for the past 4 months so when you made plans to hang out instead of feeling excited about it part of me honestly felt like you were just doing it because you felt obligated since I kept messaging you or because you realized ive been trying so hard to see you and i dont want our friendship to feel forced i miss how close we used to be and i think thats why this has been bothering me so much i just wanted things to feel genuine again and not like im constantly having to reach out or ask to see you it’s just been months and usually by this time you woulda gotten your nails done or asked to go eat or smth yk ive always made time for you so its been weird feeling like you dont really want to anymore
Me: honestly i’m really sorry for how distant ive been and how ive handled this whole situation. if im being honest part of the reason ive been distant lately is because sometimes ive been feeling you’re not the same person or haven’t really been acting the same, i miss going out with you and just being able to dance and listen to music and drink and not worry about men at all but recently i feel like everytime ive been going out with you it’s always been “where’s fine shit” etc which is fine but with me being in a relationship i don’t really like putting myself in those situations. i feel bad bringing santi with me to those girl hangouts because i do like it when it’s just us but then those hangouts kinda turn into me third wheeling or dancing by myself cuz you guys will find someone to dance with. and i want to say that im not judging you at all for what you do or how you do it because it is your life and you are single but being around that isn’t honestly a good time for me. but i’m honestly really sorry for how i’ve made you feel because it wasn’t my intention i just didn’t know how to bring it up to you without hurting your feelings and i didn’t wanna ask about nails or hair or anything because i didn’t want you to feel like i was taking advantage of you either. but i really do miss you sarah and i have a lot of love for you
TLDR: My friend and I have been distant with each other but after explaining each of our sides she went ghost and a week later I still haven’t heard from her.
Posted Sep 25, 2026, 7:40 PM UTC