Girlfriend Rules: Fade into the Night

A good friend will hold your hair while you are drunk off of your ass, puking in a dark alley, swearing to never touch the sauce again. She will also tell you, after the third occurrence of such an episode, that you need to get your shit together.

A good friend will let you go on and on about your break up, make you dinner when you are depressed to shower, let alone go to the store and buy food. She will also, once she's near her breaking point, tell you to it is time to move on.

A good friend will, when you two are together and you are vibe-ing with a cutie, fade into the night. One minute she's there...the next she's not. Realizing the connection, she makes herself scarce but watches from a secluded place just in case you flash the 'danger' sign and need back up.

I consider myself a good - albeit often absent - friend. Too bad I cannot say the same for a couple of my girls.

I haven't had any drunken, alley puking episodes (that they've witnessed). Nor have I had a break-up that caused me to be so down and out that I forgot how to function. But I have had - you guessed it - many occasions where I've been deeply engaged in convo with a hottie only to be disturbed by my girl who - usually loudly - interjects her unsolicited opinion into the discussion.

Last week I was out with a friend. We were having a decent time. Enter the cute boy. He and I traded barbs; I was impressed. But the energy was disturbed by my girl and her loud, drunken commentary about nonsense. He looked confused every time she spoke, even going so far as to ask me if she was my agent. Too bad I couldn't wiggle my nose and make her disappear.

But this isn't the first time I've had a friend do this. Last summer, I met a HOTTIE. I actually filed him under "Ooo Aaah" in my phone. He was that smokin. As he was talking to me, a friend (different chick) kept jumping in the convo, telling him about her work, how she liked the restaurant we'd just left. If looks could kill...

I won't even spend too much time talking about the one friend who always, whenever anyone is being macked, has to interject to talk about politics and healing broken communities.

All in all, these women are fairly decent people. But, I am wondering: did they not read chapter 3 in the Girlfriend Manual, that clearly spells out that, when your girl is getting her mack on, you should blend into the background?

Does one need to tell her friend "Hey...I'm digging this cat...can you give us a second?" Isn't this something we inherently KNOW to do?

What say you?