A Fresh Start

This is the story of how I stopped being friends with a narcissist.

We became friends in 5th grade, and we were pretty close. As time went on, this boy became my best friend. He was Asian, Vietnamese to be specific. He was, and I hate to say this, a walking stereotype. Short, glasses, strict parents who own a nail salon, rich, straight A's, etc. I never really met his parents, since they were always working, but I did meet his grandpa, who, I may add, is the kindest human-being I have ever met. It was impossible to go over to my friends house without leaving with a bag of candy, whoever came to pick me up was immediately given a chair and a bottle of water, despite only staying long enough for me to get to the door, he even waited outside the school building every single time it rained, even if it was only a drizzle, with three umbrellas for the narcissist, our other friend, who was his cousin, and me. He showed signs of toxicity early in our relationship, up until 6th grade, he often hit me over the head with full water bottles, and he was always very possessive of me, especially when I got a male friend that he couldn't influence, and other stuff like that.

The only reason I stuck around was that he flipped between being nice and being a jerk, it was like a light switch. It went from 'I'm going to be a jerk to you because you tolerate it and I'm bored," to "Now you're mad so I'm going to poke you in the arm until you give in," right back to, "You've forgiven me, so back to being a jerk."

Freshman year of high school, however, this dynamic changed. He "got bored" with me, and was exclusively a jerk to me, provided he wasn't ignoring me. I tried to have a serious conversation with him, because I still cared about him at this point, and he laughed at me because my social anxiety clamped my throat shut. He told me he, "Wants new ideas for projects," and "Can't hear me talking to him."

At this point, I was done. I still have to see him at theatre to this day, and I still get bossed around by him, since he's the stage manager. But I don't have to deal with him most of the time, I'm exponentially happier, and have made way more friends. It may have been a challenging, and emotionally painful decision to make, but it was the correct one.