MANIPULATIVE FRIENDS UNMASKED

First, they break your boundaries and get up close and personal. 

Then they leverage on the closeness with attempts to erode your standards, your scruples.

And as you remain unwavering in your bias, your depth visibly exposing their shallowness,

They turn on you, make you seem as though you're the one with the problem. 

You're "too" uptight.

You're "too" strict.

You need to loosen up a bit. 

By this, they mean, "don't get mad at my lewd jokes on you"

"Don't be so petty." That is, "suck it up when I behave selfishly. Be the bigger person."

They're quick with the words of advice. Friends who don't consider your opinions worth a penny. 

You'll realize one day that you need to distance yourself from these people. 

But the seeds they have stealthily but diligently sown will manifest now. 

Your own mind will echo their words

"You're just stiff-necked and proud and petty and uptight and averse to the "truth""

So you'll be only a click away from blocking the contact, from deleting the number, from walking away to sanity.

But you'll find yourself going back to them. 

Stockholm syndrome. 

Back and forth you'll go on this,

Until the day your mind catches up with the reality of who they are. 

Friends, maybe. But manipulative friends, definitely. 

And since you can't beat them, you'll have to leave them. 

Joining them spells fatality for your individuality.

26.03.19