When your friend levels up first, the move is congratulations, not comparison. Your turn isn’t cancelled.

Someone else’s good news arriving before yours can feel like a scoreboard, though there is no clock you are both running against. Comparison turns their win into your loss, which is a trick of timing rather than a fact. The friendship is also being watched in that moment, and people can tell a real congratulations from a polite one. Nothing about their timing changes yours.

Say it out loud and then ask how they did it. Part of the answer will be useful to you. If envy still sits there afterward, let it point at what you want and start on your own version.