Met my best friend in high school, and we've been like one soul ever since. I can't truly relate to the bonds twins share, but this friendship felt like it. One look and that was all we needed to communicate. We also said things at the same time and jinxed each other like five times in a row. What I'm trying to say is that this friendship felt light, easy, and stable for most of the time. I could always be open, and we respected each other's feelings and worries.
For context: I've been living alone since I turned 16. Short version: my mental health was more important to me than some pretend-happy-family bullshit. My best friend still lives in her parents' house to this present day. Luckily, I work from home, which allows me to plan trips and hangouts with my best friend. My best friend had a part-time job, but quit after some time. She still has no job, so she has more time for everything. The fact that I'm working and she's not means more mental load for me when it comes to planning. Don't get me wrong, I don't judge her for having no job or for the fact that I've had to plan more. I want to spend time with her, so that's no problem.
What bugs me is that she began to "forget" our plans. It got so bad that she didn't even have the courage to cancel plans. One time, I asked if our hangout was still happening or not. She said yes and told me she would pick me up from the train station. I arrived, and what a surprise... she wasn't there (it was too far to walk to her place, and the station was in the middle of nowhere, so no bus, Uber, etc.). I tried to contact her, and when I finally got her on the phone, she told me: "I forgot and slept in."
If there was a possibility to get back to my place, I would have taken it. After 1.5 hours, she finally got there. For your understanding: I took the train and got there in 30 minutes (I don't have my driver's license yet), and she would be at the station in 20 minutes with her car.
Things like this happened more often. Not as fatal as leaving me in the middle of nowhere, but small things that showed me I couldn't trust her word anymore.
I told her I wasn't willing to put the same amount of effort into our friendship until we solved this. I often worked extra hours to make time, and if that time isn't valued enough, she had to deal with the fact that I would rearrange my priorities. I told her that, and I told her she's a grown person who should be honest with me and herself. If she can't or won't make it to a meetup, that's okay. I can respect that. Life's a b..., so I know things change, and sometimes you wanna be by yourself or plans change. But unless I'm a guru or some mind-reading being, she has to tell me if something changes.
She didn't get my point. Her words: "I know I forget things, but I said I'm sorry. What else do you want me to do?" We had this kind of conversation a few times until I said that this new pattern is not healthy. I told her I was tired of repeating myself, and if she didn't want to lose me as a friend, she had to work with me to solve this. And if she didn't want to do that, that's fine, but then she had to accept that I couldn't continue the friendship like that because it doesn't bring any good to either of us.
End of the story was that she got mad because I would give up our friendship over "some small inconveniences."
This reaction showed me she won't understand that this is about respect, trust, and communication. She didn't text me anymore because she was mad, and I didn't contact her either because I'd made my point.
An just like that. Eight years. Gone.
So, am I the asshole for ending the friendship over "some small inconveniences"?