I could no longer keep up the charade of friendship when the people in the group possessed empathy only for themselves and others like themselves. I could no longer extend empathy to people who did not extend any empathy to me, whether it was through lack of awareness or whatever other reasons they had. Initially, I did not want to shatter the camaraderie that we supposedly had. If I did, it would feel like I broke something special.
It was getting too burdensome to pretend everything was okay for the sake of protecting the group but I was forgetting one crucial fact: it was never real. In a true friendship, people understood each other and supported each other through the good and bad times. Once you got to know each other better, you would not pull back after discovering the issues the other person had. You would try to help that person and not be afraid of difficult conversations. You would help your friend in need, especially if that friend had helped you countless of times before.
To sum it up, I could not break something that wasn't real and therefore, should not feel bad about "breaking" it.
Whatever "it" was, I should have no qualms about leaving it behind and just move on.
