I'll go Sicilian on you.

I had an interesting conversation with my mother today. I posed a situation to her of someone agreeing to attend a function with you, then nearly at the last minute, backing out of the function for a seemingly legit reason. Yet, you find out later that this person not only went out on the same day they were to attend your function, they were near by. Her response was, 'Maybe they like to avoid confrontation.' I literally pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it like it was crazy. There's avoiding confrontation and then there are bold face lies. I don't like liars.

I mentioned before that it takes me a very long time to warm up to people and for you to even reach the point where I include you in my close circle of friends is a great feat. But being in that circle to me is like being in the mob; once you're in, you're in and if you ever do anything to cause yourself to fall out of that circle, you're dead to me. Dead. Yes, I go Sicilian on your ass. I expect honesty from my friends. I may not like it, I may be upset and hurt by it but at least it's the truth. You always will get that from me. If anyone ever questions where they stand with me or what I think of them, all you need to do is ask. I will tell you. I won't half ass or pussyfoot around what I think, I'll let you know straight up. Why? Because in the world, especially the DC metro area, we live in too many people are concerned with peoples 'feelings' and worry about what others think of them.

I'm not concerned about your feelings, let's get that straight right there.  That's for you and your shrink to worry about. I am not here to make you feel better about yourself.  My concern is that you know that I'm a person of integrity, and will always stand by my word. If I make a mistake, I will own up to it and do my damndest to correct it. Period.

Is it wrong to expect your friends to that in your friends as well? I don't think so. Friendships are relationships as well. The good ones build you and change you into a better person, the bad ones are just there wasting your time and energy and draining your wallet.