I got in touch with an old friend a couple of years back, we had been mates at school but fell out over a load of old rubbish ('she said / he said' crap).
Since getting back in touch we were initially pretty close and got on really well. Over the last year or so, we have both found ourselves at a similar stage in life getting married, trying for kids and all that jazz. BUT unlike all of my other friendships there is this weird competitive tension building between us: I read all sorts into the things she says to me, and I think likewise.... I feel like I have to make her feel better all the time, placate her, apologise, adjust, make her feel at ease, while I get nothing back, but what I perceive to be digs. I end up comparing clothes, figures, hair, weddings, hen-dos and all sorts of stupid crap with her, in my own mind making a sort of 'top trumps' inventory of our lives - WTF? None of this stuff matters to me in my rational mind, and I certainly don't bow and crape to my other friends nor build these ridiculous comparative inventories.
I have always been happy since leaving school that I have had non-bitchy friendships where I have felt comfortable and open; is it just inherently that we are old friends that means things will always be competitive, or is it that we are at a stage in life where the old teenage rivalry has kicked in, or do I need to taper off this friendship if it makes me feel irrational, bitchy and attacked?
In short: are bitchy friendships to some extent, normal? Or is this a poisoned dynamic?