I have a question about Facebook friends.?

[Quevin Bambasi]

Hi! I was wondering, if for example I have a friend on Facebook. He has 17 friends but when I looked at his list of friends he only has 16 friends. Why is that?
Hi! Sorry I forgot to add something. This friend I mentioned before isn't friends with me on Facebook. But he is friends with a girl and I really think her account is fake. Now she is gone in my friends' friend list and when I tried to search the girls name, it's gone.
The total number of friends my friend has including the girl is 17 but the girls account is gone and his number of friends is still 17 but when I counted his list of friends it was only 16.

[Jeannie]

The list probably excludes you because you know already you are friends with him.

[Judy]

You can actually control who can see your friends or not and you can even choose a certain friend that you don't want others to see.

From the website I used as my source:
Here’s how to do this:
Navigate to your own profile page. (When logged into Facebook, look over to the right at the top of the page. Click on Profile.)
Find your ‘Friends’ section. (On the left side of the page, about half way down.)
Click on the small pencil to the right of the word ‘Friends’
This will bring up a box where you can edit your settings. You can choose to display 6, 9 or 12 friends. Below this, you can enter specific names of friends you would like to have displayed permanently. If you choose to display 6 friends, you may specifically name up to 6 friends to display (it can also be fewer than 6).
Click outside the box. Your settings are saved. Take a look at your profile.