Some people aren’t bad friends. They’re just great company and terrible backup.

People are not evenly good, and that is not always a betrayal. Someone can be genuinely funny, genuinely glad to see you, and still not be there on the day it goes wrong. It is information about what they are for rather than proof that they are fake. Most of the pain comes from expecting one kind of friend to do another kind of friend’s job.

Work out who you would actually call at midnight, and accept that the list is short. Keep the fun people as fun people without resentment. If the list is still empty, start by being that person for somebody else.