If you only ever text back and never text first, the friendship is running on someone else’s effort.

Replying is not the same as reaching. A friendship where one person always starts looks fine from your side, because every conversation did happen and you were in all of them, while from theirs it is a long run of small risks nobody ever took back. People eventually stop offering, and it rarely feels like a decision when they do.

Text first this week, with nothing in particular to say. A photo, a question, something you remembered. Starting is the whole move, and doing it twice a month changes who the friendship depends on.