green & shimmering

I've been trying to distance myself from this person (I'll call them M) more & more every year (we were inseparable as kids & still close in our early teens but from our mid-teens onward we've grown apart & still hung out whenever we could but not for fun, more like an obligation & a "remember the good old days" type thing which I was acutely aware of how depressing that was even then. also M was still friends with my brother bc they live in the same town) & now I finally have a very valid reason & i hate to say it because people were hurt (physically & mentally) by M & their associates but it honestly feels like a weight off my shoulders to not have to deal with them anymore like everyone still thinks of them as my best friend (which is sad LMAO bc even before this ive only talked to M like twice a year since 2019 & I didn't hate them for that initially, I just figured we grew apart after I moved & we had nothing in common but now it's like ohhh you've actually become a bad person & I didn't even notice bc I barely know you anymore but everyone still thinks we're the inseparable best friends we used to be so that's awkward)

anyway I feel like it's kind of cathartic to be able to finally just drop them & stop trying to drag out what we used to have like yaaaay I'm not the bitch if I stop interacting with you but also they've been trying to contact me & my sister & my mom bc they're butthurt my brother isn't friends with them anymore & now their only friends are people they do drugs with (they also did drugs with my brother but they had been childhood friends too so it was deeper than that) & one of our other childhood friends (I'll call him F, havent seen him for years but he was always really sweet but naive) bc M, F, & my brother all live in a little hick town & it sounds like F doesn't have any other queer friends & has a homophobic christian family & is very sheltered so apparently F doesn't do any substances but M makes him drive them to buy beer & asks F for money & shit like that (also M has never worked & basically just leeches off of others which is what started to fracture their friendship with my brother but the main person theyve been leeching off of is most likely going to jail so idk maybe that's why they're contacting me & my family now? bc they think we have money?)