Competitive? Or am I paranoid?

How do you handle a friend who’s competitive? How do you handle your own feelings when you have this kind of friends?

I have this friend, C, whom I’ve known for much more than 5 years. We have this one friend in common, X.

I think X is wonderful, and so is C. But lately, I haven’t exactly been very comfortable with C. My guts tell me that she’s being competitive. For X’s attention that is.

I’ve been sensing that C sometimes would like to draw attention that she is more a friend to X than I am. I’ve been wondering if C is trying to prove that she’s better than me in the friendship department. Prove to who lah? Herself?

I don’t need this kind of competition, which is think is really petty, and who benefits anyway? I certainly don’t. Don’t know about C though. Maybe her ego needs a boost? When other people see that C is a better / closer friend to X (than I am being right now), does that make C’s day? I wonder.

So, what to do when caught in this kind of situation? Confront C? Tell X how I feel? I don’t think X is aware of this, being the lovely soul that she is. Perhaps X will tell me that I’m just reading too much into C’s recent behaviours. Am I?

OK, admittedly my instincts can go haywire sometimes. But there are times when a woman has to listen to the little voice in her heart (or her head).

So, does that make me paranoid?

I don’t want to feel uncomfortable around C.
Sad to say, that’s exactly what I’m feeling now.