I don't want to be your friend anymore!

Good friends are hard to find. I'm very lucky to have some fantastic friends. Like everyone, I've also had some that I thought would be life-long  that have turned out to be pretty temporary.


In primary school, friendship was pretty simple. You made friends with the girl at the next desk or the one who liked to do the same things as you at recess or lunch time. In high school, everything about the human condition is magnified by youth, hormones and a confined environment. Friendships seemed to be almost seasonal and the source of friendship splits never failed to bemuse me. Now that I'm a recent settler in the real adult world, things seem different again. 


I think everyone has at least one friend that isn't entirely good for them. They might be the kind of person who leads you into a sort of trouble you wouldn't find on your own. Maybe they are the kind that seem to always direct the conversation toward themselves, to the point where you feel like you could be interchangeable for a brick wall. Then there is the person who is only your friend when they need something from you and are nowhere to be seen the rest of the time. 


I think just about every girl has a friend who uses every topic of conversation to put someone else down and it's often the person they're speaking to. Whether it be by only talking about things that they perceive themselves to be good at or a quality that makes them more attractive or superior others. These folk tend to speak by making statements that emphasise their exclusivity or comparative comments to highlight part of life where they come out on top. 


In primary school when I friendship is over, someone usually declares it, "I don't want to be your friend anymore!" In high school the cold stare, bitchy rumours or the sudden social awkwardness sent the message that a friendship was finished and no just cause needed to be established.


Now that I'm in the adult world, I'm unfamiliar with the protocol or with my friendship criterion. How many second chances do you give someone before you become a doormat? How many times do you have to sit through long "deep and meaningfuls" concerning someone else's life before it becomes reasonable to wish they'd ask you how you're going? How hurt or irrelevant do you have to feel to justify ending a friendship? Just how many strikes is out in the game of friends?