WaleWoestar

For almost two months, I was convinced my friend group had a separate group chat without me. Plans would get mentioned casually, “oh yeah, like we said earlier”, and I’d just stand there like 🙂 earlier where? If I walked into the room and they stopped laughing, my brain immediately titled it: Season 2: The Quiet Exile. I started analyzing delivery times, inside jokes, who viewed my stories but didn’t reply. Every late response felt intentional. Every “we forgot to tell you” felt strategic. One night I finally joked, “So what’s the name of the secret group chat?” They all looked confused. Turns out there was another group chat, but it was for planning a surprise birthday thing for me. The reason they’d go quiet? They were terrible at lying. The “earlier” conversations? About work, not me. The late replies? Two of them had just started new jobs and one was going through a breakup. Meanwhile, I had already mentally written a betrayal arc, drafted my villain origin speech, and emotionally distanced myself for protection. The stupidest part? Nobody was excluding me. I was just overprotecting myself from a threat that didn’t exist. That’s when I realized, sometimes the only person putting me on the outside… is me.

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