We all know that one extremely nice person who would do anything for anyone at any time. That person who is your number one . . . and everyone else’s number one, too. Maybe you are that person. Regardless, the Nice Friend always seems to get the short end of the stick. The Nice Friend always seems to give too much back and always seems to do too much for everyone and not enough for themselves. And it’s either everyone notices and doesn’t care, or everyone just doesn’t think twice about it.

But when you don’t care about the Nice Friend or subconsciously take advantage of them or blatantly disrespect them, they slowly start to mirror your attitude. They start to not care, too. The Nice Friend will learn how to be cold, how to be unsympathetic.

First, they will still do favors for you. They still allow you to push them around and use them without a second thought. And they’ll go through this with a bright smile plastered on the outside. But on the inside, there’s a war that’s waging. There are those tired and irritating feelings that stir inside the center of their chest, but they won’t act on them. They refuse to release these feelings, because they’re the Nice Friend.

Next, they will try to avoid you at all costs. They will only interact with you if you initiate it first. Their contact with you will be very minimal—because they want it to be that way. They don’t want to deal with your nonsense anymore. But when they come face to face with you, they will still be very kind to you, and that kindness will still be genuine. If you ask for another favor yet again, the Nice Friend won’t fail to do it for you.

But then, there will come the stage where the Nice Friend is not nice anymore. They don’t want to be nice anymore—they were made to be not nice anymore. They will vent about you to their confidants, they will be aggravated and annoyed just by the sound of your name. They will lash out and they will eventually explode. When they look at themselves in the mirror, they won’t recognize the person who they’ve become—the person you made them turn into. They will wonder when the transition happened, the change from the Nice Friend to the Spiteful Friend.

And you’ll wonder why they’re ignoring you, why they will no longer take your baggage. You’ll be looking for the ghost of the Nice Friend, and you’ll be annoyed that they’re not the same Nice Friend and that you don’t have a slave to push and shove around anymore.

This is why we shouldn’t exploit our Nice Friends. Instead, we should recognize and appreciate the kindness that radiates from them, because kindness isn’t limitless. Kindness can be stretched thin. So for all the Nice Friends out there, sorry and thank you.