"As Needed" Friends

One thing i have a big problem with are people who have "as needed" friends. I would assume everyone has been an as needed friend. Or maybe i have just been very unlucky, or perhaps there is something about me...
Either way, being an as needed friend sucks. if you do not know what that is, I'll explain it to you.

Someone is your very best friend, sometimes. it seems that when there is noone else around, or your friend is bored, you two are very good friends. You tell each other everything and its a big party. But when someone or something cooler or more interesting is around, it is as if you never existed.

I am venting a bit now, because someone who used to be one of my best friends has changed my into an as needed friend (yeah, I came up with that term. Stupid, I know). well I guess I always was one, just now that it is summer this fact is much more noticable.

My friend was new to my school last year, and I became her best friend at the school. We hung out a lot at school. When she was depressed for one reason or another, I'd get her out of her lunch period so she didn't have to see people in her lunch. Sometimes, though, she would desert me for a boyfriend, or some other friend even though she claimed I was better. On weekends she almost always claimed to have plans, though, with friends from other schools. We'd talk on the phone lots and help each other with problems yet outside of school only her other friends were cool enough.
Now, over the summer, this girl who I had labeled as my best friend is not returning calls or emails and if I finally get in touch with her for two seconds, she says she has spent her summer hanging out with her other friends.
Turns out I'm not alone. I've talked to some of her other closest friends and actually, I have talked to her more than anyone else that goes to my school.
This hurts me quite a bit. I don't want to start a fight over it, I ahve enough enemies as is. But I can promise one thing, if I'm going to be an as needed friend, she will too. Next year I won't be going out of my way to help her skip class or help with her petty problems. Unless, of course, there is noone cooler around

So, while thinking about this lost friend (if she ever really was a friend) I got to thinking about some of my other friends. A year or two ago, some stuff happened and I lost most of my friends just before summer. Since then some of those friends, the ones who were real friends in the first place, have returned and I'm actually closer to them than before. But if I think back to that summer, i can only think of one friend that called me without me calling first. One friend who was always my friend. And when I started thinking about that, I felt pretty crappy for refering to the girl i was always an as needed friend to, as my best friend.

S this is gonna sound really retarded, but true:
Take a look at your friendships. Some of the friends who might seem to be in the background are the real friends, while sometimes the people who yell "I'm your best friend!" are really just kind of fake.

Adios,
STS