I had to let go of an important friend today.
It's still sinking in. It's a pretty substantial loss.
A few people told me a while ago that he treats me badly, giving me low priority in scheduling and just generally putting me off, keeping me at a distance from him. But others have disagreed, which is part of why I've stuck with him all this time.
The last straw was today. He told me the weekend before this past one that this weeke would be good to meet for dinner and catch up. He then put me off repeatedly when I asked for a specific day, lying to me multiple times about when he'd get back to me with a specific day (always "two days from now") and flat out ignoring my reminders.
He's said he considers me a good friend, and has been a really good friend at times in a number of ways, among the first friends I made after losing most of my vision over two years ago. But he's been a really bad friend at times, too -- unreliable, secretive, dishonest.
And he's notoriously flaky; it's not just me. He's actually been worse to a friend he's closer to than me. They went with some other friends on a group vacation (to which I was not invited, although that's another story) and he forgot to leave the keys to the AirBnB they'd rented. When his friend reminded him to send them back, he put him off for days. I'm still not sure if he's mailed the keys back and it's been a week. Needless to say, his friend is not happy, given what this'll do to his AirBnB renter rating.
We have a number of mutual friends, mostly people he's introduced me to (like I said, good friend at times), and it'll be impossible to avoid him. I'll probably run into him at least once a month no matter what I do. I'll have to figure out how to deal with that.
Mind you, there won't be a big "It's over!" or anything, just stopping all atempts to get in touch with him or hang out with him.
So yeah.
EDIT: He's not really malicious, just flaky and inconsiderate. It's more a matter of negligence. But still.
EDIT 2: Minor corrections.
