Me (27, nb) and my 'best friend' (27) have known each other since we were in sixth grade. I've been with them through all the shit. Through me going to college on the other side of the world. Through messy relationships (including dating each other) and family drama.

I don't know when the rose colored glasses started slipping. But last month it came to a head.

I was in New York and they came out to visit- and we went clubbing. But apparently the sight of me getting drunk and dancing freaked them out and 'they didn't recognize me'.

It broke me.

Because I've told them about my college partying. The crazy stories. This wasn't even a blip on my radar. A night out with friends and dancing at most- and somehow it was completely incorrect to their image of me. Like they'd somehow made up a version of me that existed in their brain and stuck to it like glue- despite the fact that I haven't been so naive and green since I left for college.

It Hurts so much. That the person I know- that I thought knew me could see me and not recognize me. That I planned on spending my life with them and they didn't know me at all.

The reality that they didn't care about me and more about their fictionalized version of me- that they 'forgot' everything I told them for 7 seven years-

No one knows everything about another person. But we know the broad strokes. I know about their college struggles. The roommate issues. The question of continuing to find a job in their industry or not-

But they don't know anything. Crumbs. 2 or 3 things about my college issues.

They haven't been my best friend for years. And the realization has me on my ass.

I don't know what to do from here. What I want to do. I just know I can't live as a shadow of myself to make them feel better about it. I can't keep bending over backwards to accommodate them, coddle them. They want no responsibility in the relationship and I'm already breaking under the pressure.

I've just- finally stopped caring.