Local Friendship Ecosystem Endangered by Overfishing for Compliments
Tensions between best friends Lacey Clegg and Katrina Hernandez reached a boiling point this Sunday after Clegg failed to respond to Hernandez’s comment about how annoying she was being.
Clegg went on to explain how their friendship waned: “It wasn’t too bad at first. Just a couple of extra minutes focusing on her problems that ate into my designated complaining. Then, it was the constant interruptions that somehow turned the conversation topic back to her. Sometimes she would give me a compliment, just so I’d give her one back. But recently it’s gotten a lot worse. After almost every sentence, Katrina manages to fit in a self-deprecating little aside that I feel compelled to refute.”
When asked if she was going to terminate the friendship, Clegg gave an emphatic refusal. “I don’t know how to make friends anymore, now that there’s no driving force behind my daily interactions. It’s honestly too much effort to try to find new people to bond with, and I’d rather face constant annoyance and a fractured friendship than be alone. Besides, I don’t exactly have a good personality, so my options are limited.” Clegg paused, looking expectant.
Former Editor-in-Chief. Like an ouroboros, her jokes consume themselves until no one knows whether they were ever funny. But they are.