What happens to best friends in a love triangle? Can a female friendship be secured from the threat of competition?

When I was at school I had a best girl-friend Helen. She joined our class at 9th grade. She came from abroad, and at first nobody accepted her in our pre-established community. She wanted to show she was smarter, acted inappropriately, and just did not fit in. However, as time passed, and we got to know each other better, we became best friends. We shared everything - we studied together, sang, played volleyball, went to the parties. She turned out to be funny, intelligent and very talented. She was the one who encouraged me to participate in singing competitions and infected me with an interest in sports. It seemed that my popularity rose sharply due to our friendship. However, there appeared two extreme camps at school: those who liked her a lot, and those who hated her. She was smart and well-mannered, but she knew how to influence a person psychologically, without even realizing it.

Everything was quite smooth in our friendship for a year or so. I had a boyfriend at that time. Helen was very helpful in giving me advice, she was a true friend. We hung out together three of us, and I was always confident in the fact that nothing could be between Helen and my boyfriend. She even seemed to like his best friend, as far as I knew. Although we were best friends and we spent around 15 hours a day together, I was deeply mistaken in her devotion to me. When I found out about her kissing my boyfriend behind my back I was shocked. They were even going out secretly when we broke up later on. It was probably the first time I was faced with a deceit of the best friend. The most incredible fact is that I did not want to recover my relationship with my ex-boyfriend (whom I knew longer than her) as much as I wanted to stay friends with Helen. We talked a few times but she was not even sorry. I always thought that friendship meant more to life than part-time romance. I was naive to claim that competition between girls does not exist when it comes to real friends. But it turned out I was wrong. At least in this case.

When we graduated from school we started talking again, but this was not the same friendship anymore, if it was at all rated as friendship. She told me on the graduation day that she was deeply in love with my ex-boyfriend but she was afraid to tell me. We shared a few tears that day and remembered the bright moments of our friendship. She wanted me back as a friend, but it never happened because I could not forgive her. Now that we did not speak for a long-long time I miss the fun that we had and if it was not for a guy, we could have been still best friends by now. Female competition - this was a reason why our coalition broke. I still think that pure female friendship does not last for long unless it excludes male population entourage. But we all know that this is impossible.

Learn more about this author, Ekaterina Paramonova.
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