My Best Friend Made Me Dress In Plain Clothes For The Ball Selection

A few mutual friends said we were both being dramatic over a guy and needed to grow up. One girl I barely knew wrote a long comment about how this whole situation was toxic and we both needed therapy.

I said I felt sick reading through everything because no matter what I said, some people were going to think I was the villain. My phone rang around 2:00 that afternoon, and Colin’s name appeared on the screen.

I almost didn’t answer because I was embarrassed about the whole mess being so public. He asked if I was okay, and his voice sounded angry, but not at me.

He said he’d seen everything on social media and couldn’t believe Alexis had sabotaged me like that. He asked why I hadn’t told him about all the other stuff she’d said over the years about me being the supportive friend type.

I explained that I’d gotten so used to her comments that I didn’t even recognize them as put-downs anymore. Colin got quiet for a moment and then told me about his former best friend from high school who constantly competed with him over everything.

Grades, sports, girls, even stupid stuff like who could do more push-ups. He said it took him two years after graduating to realize that real friends don’t make you feel like you’re always losing some invisible competition.

We talked for over an hour about toxic friendships and why people stay in them. He said something that stuck with me: that sometimes we accept treatment from friends that we’d never accept from a stranger because we confuse history with loyalty.

I felt less alone after that call because someone finally understood why this whole situation was so complicated. That evening, someone knocked on my bedroom door.

I opened it expecting Alexis but found Liliana Gonzalez standing there instead. She lived in the room next to mine, and we’d always been friendly but never really close.

She asked if she could come in, and I moved aside to let her. She sat on my desk chair and said she was glad I finally stood up to Alexis.

I must have looked surprised because she laughed and said she’d been watching the dynamic between us for three years. She told me Alexis treated me badly and she’d wanted to say something before but didn’t want to cause drama.

She said she’d seen how Alexis always positioned herself as the pretty one and made subtle comments that kept my confidence low. She offered to be a witness if I needed to talk to housing about the hostile living situation.

I thanked her and felt grateful because I usually kept to myself and didn’t realize anyone had noticed what was happening. She hugged me before leaving and said, “Real friends build you up instead of tearing you down.”

The next week was exhausting. Our mutual friend group basically split into factions.

Some people sided completely with Alexis and stopped talking to me in the dining hall. Others thought her text message sabotage was worse than my deception and made a point to sit with me instead of her.

Most people just seemed tired of the whole situation and avoided both of us. I lost a few friends I’d had since freshman year who believed Alexis’s version that I’d been plotting against her from the beginning.

But I also got closer to people like Liliana and Dominic, who told me they’d always thought something was off about how Alexis treated me. Dominic pulled me aside one day and said he’d watched Alexis manipulate situations for years and was relieved I finally saw through it.

The social fallout felt like middle school drama, but it was real and it hurt losing people I’d considered friends. Living in the same apartment with Alexis became unbearable.

We barely spoke except when absolutely necessary. She’d make pointed comments about fake friends whenever I walked through the living room.

She’d turn up the TV volume when I was trying to study. She’d leave her dishes in the sink for days, knowing it bothered me.

I started spending most of my time at the library or at Colin’s place just to avoid being home. I went to the housing coordinator’s office and explained the situation.

The coordinator was sympathetic and said I could request a room change for spring semester, but nothing was available until then. She told me I was stuck in this hostile environment for another six weeks.

I counted down the days on my calendar and tried to stay out of the apartment as much as possible. Colin invited me to a Marine Academy event three weeks after everything blew up.

I was nervous about meeting more of his friends because I worried they’d heard about the drama. But when we arrived, everyone was welcoming and treated me like I belonged there.

Colin introduced me to Declan Knight, one of his closest friends from the academy. Declan’s date was friendly and mentioned that Colin had talked about me for weeks before the ball selection.

She said he’d been planning how to ask me and was worried I might say no. I looked at Colin and he smiled and squeezed my hand.

Being around people who didn’t know about the Alexis situation and just saw me as Colin’s girlfriend felt incredibly refreshing. No one was judging me or taking sides; they just accepted me as part of the group.

Declan’s date also said Colin had told everyone I volunteered at the veteran center and that’s what first caught his attention. Hearing that made Alexis’s claims that he felt sorry for me seem even more ridiculous.

I was making coffee in the apartment kitchen one morning when Alexis walked in. We’d been avoiding each other for three weeks, and the sudden proximity made me tense.

She stood there for a moment and then said we needed to talk like adults. I cautiously agreed and turned to face her.

She said she’d been thinking about everything and she was sorry for texting Colin from my phone. My hope lifted for a second until she immediately added that I still shouldn’t have lied about going to the ball.

She said we both made mistakes, but mine was worse because I deliberately deceived her. I realized this was as close to an apology as she was capable of giving—one that still made everything partially my fault.

She couldn’t just apologize without adding conditions or spreading the blame around. I took a deep breath and told her I appreciated the partial apology.

But I couldn’t go back to a friendship where she needed me to be less confident so she could feel better about herself. I said her years of subtle insults about me being the supportive friend type had really damaged me, even if she didn’t mean them that way.

She looked genuinely surprised, like she had no idea what I was talking about. She said she was just being honest about our different social roles and that some people are naturally more outgoing and attractive while others are better in supporting roles.

She said I was being oversensitive and reading too much into normal friend observations. That confirmed everything I needed to know.

She fundamentally didn’t understand how her words had affected me and probably never would. We reached an agreement to be civil roommates for the remaining weeks of the semester.