Manipulative fake friend has put me in a trap, and i don’t know how to escape

[craggy hare]

TW: brief mention of $h

So basically 2 years ago i met a “friend” who i’ll call T. at first everything was pretty normal and we were getting along well but then she asked me who my crush was. 12 year old me thought she just wanted to make friendly conversation, so i told her what boy in my class i liked. right after that, everything changed. she was suddenly all over him when she had no interest whatsoever in him before, flirting with him, texting and rubbing it in my face. things only got worse from there, she began copying stuff i was doing in class. in art, i was drawing something from reference (whole class was using the same one, but i have a unique style of drawing by using shapes) and she seemed to be copying every shape i made in the exact same order. to make sure i wasn’t paranoid, i drew some shapes that didnt exist on the reference, and without hesitation she copied them. (part 2 will be below)

after this i called out all the behaviour and how she was treating me, from the boy to the copying, and she immediately retaliated saying i was “controlling her friendships” and saying my way of drawing is the same as hers, even though i proved it by pointing out how she copied the non existent shapes. instead she just yelled over me. so we stopped being friends, and in class she would make my life hellish, by attempting to trip me up, not letting me access art supplies, leaving me out of tasks and trying to turn people against me, etc. it was awful, i even ended up harming myself for the first time because of her.

flash forward to now, she began talking to me again and since i believe in second chances and i wanted to be a good person, i decided to talk back. she told me about how she was going through a lot atm, such as her mum having cancer, dad shouting at her, etc. so i felt really bad and accepted her as my friend again. until somewhere in june, we were talking as normal, and she asked me once again who my crush was. at first i was hesitant, having flashbacks to what happened before, but i assumed this was just because of her mum having cancer and other stuff in her life, so i thought she had changed. and i told her. that was a mistake.

in july, nearing the end of summer right before school starts, she randomly stopped texting me in the way she would before. it went from “HIIII HOW ARE YOU 💖” to just “Emily”. i was anxious when i got this text, but i responded normally. then she sends a snap and “Open it.” nothing more. i was feeling like something was off, and i was right. i opened it, and sure as heck she’s hanging out with my crush. i teared up in confusion realising that she hadn’t changed and she was about to treat me just the same way she had before. but expect this time, i decided to not call it out; pretend it didnt happen. we went back to school, and every opportunity she gets, she comes up to me to rub it in my face about how they talked.

today she came up to me and said she was going to ask him out on friday. i gritted my teeth, bit my tongue and said something like “oh great!!” while trying not to absolutely lose my shit because honestly i was just feeling awful. i feel like she is targetting me because i have autism and suffer with mental health e.g anxiety so she thinks it makes me an easy target. i dont get what kick she gets out of doing this to me, but she plays with my emotions like puppets on a string.

but here’s where the trap part comes in; last time when i called her out, her response was to call me manipulative - that i was controlling her friendships and not allowing her to have friends. i want out this toxic fake “friendship” SO badly and i dont know how to get out because i know that will be her response. not to mention she goes about telling people her business, so equally she could turn around and say i didnt tell anyone else. and furthermore my pastrol care teacher favourites her, so if i go to her for help i’ll likely get turned away and have the situation ignored altogether.

im just feeling so trapped and scared, and i don’t understand why she enjoys making me feel like this. i am so confused on how to call this out since last time i did, she made my life awful and severely damaged my mental health. if you read this, tysm, and please leave any tips as i am at a loss of what to do.