Your friends are supposed to stick with you through thick and thin—but tragically, sometimes our friends turn out to be more like enemies...
1. This Friendship Went Six Feet Under
He was my best friend and a coworker at a funeral home where I worked. He leaked personal files that were information about the people we took in and tried to blame it on me. It was a serious mistake.
Those files included autopsies, pictures of the actual body, personal information, and so on. But that wasn't all. He would also not follow the requests given by family members—religious practices such as thoroughly cleaning the body before burial and others.
He was just a horrible person overall, and I truly believe that he leaked those things for his own weird fixation, because he had serious problems and we were suspecting him already.
2. It Was God’s Will
I was a stay-at-home mom and my husband was the sole earner in our little family. Unfortunately, my husband had to step away from his job, because he was dealing with pretty severe mental health issues. It was really devastating not only financially, but socially as a lot of our social life revolved around his job and work friends. If this wasn’t bad enough, it quickly got worse.
I was really good friends with a coworker’s wife. The coworker moved into my husband’s higher-up position when my husband had to resign. We had to sell our home since we couldn’t make the mortgage payment anymore. The friend came to help me pack, and while doing so, he told me something that still makes my blood turn cold to this day.
She said that they always knew this would happen because the Lord had revealed it to her husband in a dream several years earlier. They had basically been waiting around for my husband to “fail” so that coworker could “succeed” and fulfill the Lord’s prophecy. I said goodbye to her, moved out of state, and never looked back.
I won’t tolerate people using religion to be jerks.
3. Wife Needed Help
He was my best friend, and I knew his wife really well too from working together a few times. We all hung out together in a tight-knit circle of friends, and I announced that I was looking to move elsewhere to better work on myself, my career, and my independence. When his wife suggested that I journey a little closer to them, I took her up on the offer, and began planning very carefully. This was the beginning of the end.
I took a full year to plan and make my preparations, as I wanted to save enough money so I could live comfortably for a few months without a job. I wanted to be prepared in the event I couldn't find an employer. After six months, I had already saved several thousand dollars, and my friend fully realized I was serious about moving closer to him. That’s when something totally shocking happened: he started to try and talk me out of moving.
Soon he was trying to convince me not to move on a daily basis. While I understood that he needed space, I wanted to clarify as much as possible, that the move wasn't just to be closer to him, his wife, and our friends. He was not satisfied. Eventually, moving day came, and I was really worried about how my friend would react.
I moved on his birthday, and I threw a big party for him. He started getting inebriated and was teasing and poking fun at me progressively through the night, until even some of our friends were joining in saying really cruel things, which felt reall weird... Eventually, our friends went home, he passed out, and his wife asked if I would sleep in the guest room for the night.
I thought it was odd, but I took her up on it. She told me it was the first time in some time that she had slept so well. I didn’t ask why at the time. A month later, I was still jobless. I had applied for several positions and was pretty confident in my chances, but I had not heard anything back. He was also unemployed and considered himself a stay-at-home dad despite not having kids.
He said that his wife makes the money and he handles taking care of the house. I jokingly said that it seemed like all he really did was play games all day, and noted that I have seen his wife clean more than him. This was the wrong thing to say.
He didn't like it when I pointed that out to him, and his wife asked me to stop saying things like that and also to stop talking about job searching. I obliged but was kind of worried about what was going on. Shortly after, I got a call saying that he was being rushed to the hospital in need of emergency surgery.
It was appendicitis, and, due to complications, he was kept at the hospital an extra day. While he was still in the hospital, I visited his wife unannounced and gave her some flowers and brought a pizza since she must've been worried. She said that if he found out I was there he would go ballistic, and, without questioning it, I said my condolences and left.
All these weird things his wife was saying were starting to make me really nervous. The day after he had returned from the hospital was when everything was over, at least for me. He had never had surgery before and was limping around the house. His wife called me and asked if I would help her with the laundry in the basement, since he couldn't do it himself.
I came over and headed straight down into the basement, where she was waiting for me. She was obviously very distraught and needed to tell me something. She was choking on her words and stated that he was passed out on the couch after getting high on his post-surgical pain medication.
She kept her voice down and whispered quieter than a mouse. She told me that he cruelly mistreated her, mainly mentally and physically, and oftentimes would try to do “it” with her while she was asleep or even threaten to harm himself if she did not obey him.
She went on to say that she felt trapped and that he felt intimidated when I began planning my move. She said that he had been spreading rumors to our group of friends, that I was planning on trying to take his wife away from him, and that I was making threats against him and his wife for not including me in everything they did.
Obviously, I was hurt. It was my first legitimate friendship with someone that felt meaningful and real. I admittedly was skeptical to hear this, even after she had shown me some messages. She told me that he demanded her passwords to all of her socials and even demanded to see her text messages every day. I still had my doubts, but I stood by her.
We finished the laundry, and when I went upstairs, he was there at the door, high on pain meds. He told her to go to the bedroom, and when she said she still had to go to the store, he grabbed her by the hair and told her she can go "after". I grabbed her and told him that we would be back later and that he shouldn't wait up.
Inside me, all the respect I had for him was gone, the love I had for him, he was like a brother to me. It shattered, and I held back tears as his wife confessed everything she had been through because of him for the next four hours. She admitted that she wanted me to move closer so someone could finally witness his horrible treatment of her firsthand, and she knew she couldn't say anything to anyone online since her social media was being monitored.
That was years ago at this point, and I still feel like I can't trust another person. The divorce they went through too was extra messy, and it led to our whole circle falling apart almost completely. As painful as it was, I guess I'm just glad I found the truth out sooner than later.
4. Designated Driver
He’d been my best friend for 11 years. After a night of drinking and a good time with friends, the girl I was newly starting to see and vibe with and I were heading in opposite directions. He was the designated driver and was stone-cold sober and heading in her direction. It was then decided that he would take her home and I would catch an Uber. Big mistake on my part.
Being my best mate, I thought nothing of it. I trusted him wholeheartedly and so did she—turns out we were both delusional. When he was taking her home he tried to force himself on her. Luckily she knew some martial arts and fought him off. He then used text messages out of context to paint me in a bad light to further his goal of getting with her.
Now here’s the real kicker: he met up with me the next day with a smile on his face like literally nothing happened. He just said he dropped her off safely. I only found out a few days after when she told me what had happened. She and I both had to process what had happened. Needless to say, it chilled me to the bone.
I can still vividly remember the smile on his face. After this, I cut all contact with him, and he was exiled from our friend group. We haven’t spoken in four years.
5. Pet Peeves
My family was going through a hard time, and we had to move to an apartment suddenly. We had eight cats and the building would only let us bring two. So, my friend said she had really bonded with one of my cats and asked if she could take her. I really didn’t have many options for people who would take my cats on such short notice and was so heartbroken over this situation so I was absolutely delighted that she wanted to take the cat.
Well, a couple of months into her having the cat, I asked her how it was going and she told me that the cat had started peeing on the furniture. I felt terrible until I heard what she had done. She let the cat go outside. This cat was a totally indoor cat so of course, they hadn’t seen her since she went outside.
I went and searched for the cat and couldn’t find her. After not speaking to my friend for weeks, I decided to try to have a friendship with her again. Unfortunately, it won’t work—I simply didn’t like her anymore after that. Every time she would text me, I would just roll my eyes and barely had the energy to respond. Then I finally just let it all out and blocked her on everything.
6. We Got On Like A House On Fire
My best friend burned my house trailer down due to sheer incompetence and hasn’t had the basic decency to at least apologize or even help in any way. I am handicapped and was suddenly homeless at 59 during one of our coldest winters just a few weeks before Christmas.
I lost everything and had no insurance due to the age of the trailer, the rural location, and the lack of fire hydrants in the area. I had just recently moved in with my ex, so we lost every single thing we had collected. All of our family mementos, keepsakes, even our beloved dog’s ashes.
Everything was gone in an instant—like our life was just wiped away. It's been brutal. And by the way: still no apology.
7. It Was The Wrong Crowd
There were basically 10 years of friendship, from ages five to 15. The dude started hanging out with the wrong crowd, to which I advised him against several times. Eventually, we argued after he told me I was being irrational about his new "friends" and it led to pushing each other in the middle of the street.
Some other kids saw that we might fight so they came by to watch and we both realized what was happening, so we snapped out of it and walked separate ways. Later on he apologized and I told him that it was cool whatever he wanted to do. Just not to involve me in it, or bring any of his new friends over to my house.
Well, shortly after my birthday, which I invited him to, and after a long paper route I would do weekly, I turned on the ps3 and, before I could sit and relax, I heard a knock at my door. Turns out it's him, but he’s not alone.
He had his other two friends—the ones I had specifically told him never to bring to my house—hiding behind the bushes. They convinced me to come outside to the park, but I had an uneasy feeling. I reluctantly gave in to their immense pressure to come outside. I figured, “What's the worst that could happen"?
Well, they ambushed me, tried filming me whilst all beating me up, and then they took my phone. That night, a meeting was set up with all the parents of the involved and they all apologized profusely and my dad said he would take matters into his own hands if they ever tried anything again.
I never spoke to him again after that, even in school, which was awkward because we were in the same class. The last I heard he’d quickly spiraled into using and depression, not being able to hold down a job or anything. His parents tried desperately for me to reconnect with him as they saw me as the "good kid" that had a positive influence on him.
8. This Girl Was Agony
I was her agony aunt for seven years while she navigated a train wreck of a relationship with an addicted—and secretly gay—boyfriend. She went and married him against the collective advice of family and friends. So, now I was her agony aunt once more through three years of marriage. There were never any fun times, but what was I going to do? Abandon my friend?
She eventually filed for divorce and right about that time, I was pregnant and ended up having a miscarriage. I couldn't really be there for her, because I was going through my own mental agony. Also, physically I needed intense treatment to bounce back. Her reaction was despicable.
She pitched a hissy fit about how I am selfish and uncaring and badmouthed me to all our common friends.
On top of that, she messaged my husband on Facebook and talked trash about me by bringing up my relationships before him and invited him for drinks with a promise to dish out more about me. That's when I slammed the door shut in her face. My only regret is that I took years to do it.
9. Dump Him Or Else
My best friend dumped me because I stayed with my husband after a huge fight. The dude was being harassed at work and shouldering it because that’s what you do. He’d come home to fake being okay. He made a mistake. I’ve made so many mistakes. My friends told me that what I had to do was leave. They’d protect me and fund me leaving with my kids.
When I said I wanted to help him be better: that I wouldn’t burn twenty years and a family over literally half an hour, I was told I was sick and they hoped I’d get better. This caused a devastating ripple effect.
My entire social circle—women I’d held as we delivered our various kids—turned their backs on me. All but one, and she’s scared if she’s too nice to me they’ll find out and she will be alone too. And what about my husband?
Thank God he got better. I forgave him and we have a beautiful life. I’m still really hurt though. I would never ever have dumped anyone, even if I thought staying was nuts. I meant what I said when I said loyal. They weren’t. When it got hard they bailed. Lesson learned: They’d have bailed when it was hard and I was homeless too, no doubt.
10. She Turned Into A Monster
All through our friendship, I never had to see her every single day so we had space. When we lived together, however, she turned into a monster. She would flip out on me for absolutely nothing. She would let the dishes pile up until the kitchen smelled like an outhouse. She was obsessed with getting high all the time, and the second it wore off, she turned into a shrieking monster.
Everything was about her: her needs, her insecurities, and her comfort. I moved out shortly after I got pregnant with my son, and during the entire pregnancy, while I was there, she did not care at all how I felt. She did absolutely nothing to make me feel okay about anything. I had been there for her for everything, and she would scream at me over nothing.
I also finally realized that she had always looked down on me for being poor. I guess I should have thought to have wealthy parents like her. The last thing she said to me was her throwing my childhood trauma in my face to win an argument. I mailed some things back to her from our childhood and never looked back.
Honestly, I hope her parents find out how much of her allowance she wastes and cut her off.
11. She Didn’t Feel Like Going Anywhere
Well, I was lucky enough to have two best friends: one male and one female. Almost two and a half years ago, my male BFF suddenly ended his own life. He was a real, reliable good guy. Besties for over 10 years. The female friend, on the other hand, was a whole different story.
I became exhausted with because she contacted me 24/7 for years asking me for advice or venting about her slim-bag cheating husband, or the affairs she was having. She constantly called me to help her with her kids even though I am a single mom of two kids myself. I didn't ask for anything.
One day, my doctor ordered me for an urgent mammogram out of the blue, because he found a couple of bad lumps in my breast. I asked her to come with me, and she said: "Of course I will go with you! You're my best friend! I promise"!
The next day was my test day and I called her repeatedly. I texted and did everything I could think of to contact her. She wouldn't reply. I looked out my patio, and there she was, sitting across the road on her balcony on her phone ignoring me. I yelled over that we had to leave, to which she replied: "Yeah, I'm not going to go. I don't feel like going anywhere".
So that was the end of that mess. About a year later, it was all over the media in Ontario Canada that her slimy husband was taken in by authorities for robbing their elderly neighbor’s pension savings. $130,000. He was kicked out of Canada back to the UK, ending up behind bars. Of course, she denied knowing anything. Yeah…right. Good riddance!
12. Three Years Of Purgatory
My best friend just completely ditched me to go and party with his awful cousin for days. I couldn’t locate him, and he didn’t return my phone calls. To just add to it, while on my own adventure, I had an accident happen that caused me to end up in the hospital!
The hospital didn’t want to release me without someone to pick me up. Finally, my friend and his dumb cousin answered their phones. I didn’t talk to him for three years once we got back home from the hospital. Three years later—and a bit more mature—my friend called me and said he wanted to meet up and talk.
He was very sincere in saying that he messed up badly. He said he regretted that trip and how he acted every day since it happened. He is now back as my best friend. He is married with kids, doesn’t party, and doesn’t associate with his cousin. Sometimes forgiveness does work. We managed to save a 15-year friendship.
13. This Friendship Had Trouble In Store
When my best friend was down on his luck, I found him a job. I had my own store that my father had given me, so I was in a good position to help my friend out. What could go wrong, right?
Well, my friend quickly started calling me “daddy's boy” and saying I was spoiled. I was paying him more than his last job, so I couldn't figure out why he was complaining. Then it got worse. He started getting all high and mighty about things we sold at the store.
He even refused to sell some stuff to a few customers based on some kind of morality he suddenly had. In the end, I had to fire him. I heard he’s a marine now, and I always wonder if he has the same problems there.
14. Empty Apologies
This one hits deep. We grew up together and have been best friends since 6th grade. I, however, was the only one really reaching out and making plans. When we'd make plans eight out of 10 times he'd cancel them at the last minute.
I would always tell him, "It happens," and he'd apologize over and over but those apologies felt more and more empty each time. But the disappointments just kept coming.
Finally, we hit a point where we made plans, and he left me on “read” and ghosted me. That's when I decided I mentally couldn't take this anymore, and that I've been making up excuses for him in my head for the past decade. I'm glad I finally realized it, but it does make me sad to lose someone I thought was my best friend.
I haven't heard from him since that last message he left me on “read”.
15. Got Ghosted, Got Ghosted Bad
I moved to America at the beginning of the fourth grade speaking zero English. I started school scared out of my mind because I had no English. One other kid in my class was from my country and had been here a month longer than me so he also had no English. Of course, we clicked up instantly. I told my mom about my new best friend and she was very happy for me.
A couple of weeks go by and we realize, wow, we live in the same apartment building! So now we're hanging out every single day. We lived in the same building and went to the same school in the same classes from fourth to eighth grade. In ninth grade, after three months of being in a different high school, my mom transferred me to the high school he went to.
We took the train together every morning. We shared a locker at school. When I say we were close like brothers it's an understatement. If you saw one of us you saw both. We had the same friends, same sports teams, and same music taste. It went on like this until high school was almost over and then it all came to a slow and agonizing end.
Towards the end of high school, we started growing apart. I was much more interested in girls than he was. I was trying to dress better, while he was still content wearing sweats every day. We still shared the same locker, but we each had a separate group of friends. I got a job. He got a job. We went to the same college, but had different schedules cause my job was during the day, so I went in the evenings.
Then I got a steady girlfriend. We still hung out often, but now we lived in different neighborhoods—about a 20-minute bike ride away from each other. We'd meet up in a park halfway between and play basketball or whatever. Then one day I called his house like I've done every day for the past decade and his mom said he wasn't home.
This was cool. I knew he'd call me back like he always did. But then nothing. I called again, and she said he wasn’t home. I called again, nothing. No call back. A month goes by. He’s never home, and he never calls back. Whatever. Another month. Three months. Eventually, I bumped into him at college in the hallway and his reaction was crazy.
He jumped backward like he saw a ghost. He then just backs slowly away from me. I haven't seen him since. Twenty years later I still have the occasional dream where we run into each other and I'm just: "Why did you ghost me"? I just want some closure man.
16. Kicked To The Curb
My best friend used to disappear on me any time she was romantically interested in someone. The last straw was when we made plans to meet up for lunch and she stood me up for multiple hours to play online games with someone else. I decided not to reach out anymore after that.
The next time she contacted me was a year later to let me know that she was engaged. I answered pretty honestly about how I don't know why she was telling me because she hasn't talked to me for a year and that was it. I still feel somewhat guilty about my knee-jerk answer to happy news.
Years and some therapy later, I realize I probably should have been more honest in the moments that she blew me off instead of letting it build. It might not have saved it, but it would have been healthier.
17. She Left Me In The Dark
I was living with my best friend, and one day I checked the mail and saw a late notice for the electric bill that was in her name. I was confused because my boyfriend and I paid all of our part of the bills in full every month, and we were under the impression she was paying the electricity bill. Nope.
Turns out, she was paying the bare minimum to keep the lights on and pocketing the rest. I put two and two together that she was taking stuff from us when she refused to let us see the accounts for the bills or anything.
Also, one night, while I was sleeping, she grabbed $15 off the desk in my office. I was going to use that to buy us a microwave in the morning. Why would she do that? That was nothing compared to what was coming next.
She moved out in the middle of the night and cut off water and electricity. She literally left us in the dark and with no water. I had to pay over $1,000 in past due bills and late fees to have our utilities turned back on. She also purloined a bunch of other stuff from me. I kept finding late notices hidden in random drawers for a month.
In hindsight, I should have expected things like this because I knew her my entire life and knew she had a habit of shoplifting and stuff. The part that hurt the most is that I would just give her money whenever she needed it, but she had to swipe it and throw away a 20-year relationship instead.
18. All Work, No Party
I had a "friend" who invited me to a "work party". At least that was what he called it. At the party, we cleaned up his half-acre lot by mowing, trimming bushes, and getting rid of debris. We even helped him set up a volleyball net in it. After the work was done–at about 2 pm or so–he got us lunch, and I noticed a lot of food and drinks were being set out. What was that for?
My friend eventually comes up to me and says: "It looks like things are wrapping up here, so you can take off whenever"/ I looked around and saw that most of the other people had taken off, but others were slowly arriving. I kind of wondered who these new people arriving were, but because no one said anything to me I left.
Later that week I found out that the "work party" was in preparation for an actual party that everyone but me who had helped out had been invited to. People were shocked and angry about how I was treated, but not shocked and angry enough to stop hanging out with him.
19. From Friends To Lovers To Nada
I was dating my best friend. When we originally started going out, I remember saying that if we didn't last as romantic partners, I wanted to preserve our friendship, because she was so dear to me. We spent two years together, but I felt like we had grown distant, and that neither of us had the time or effort for a relationship. That’s when the trouble started.
So, I tried to step away and go back to being friends. She didn't comprehend that at all. She immediately just read everything I said or texted as the absolute opposite. She cut me out of all our mutual friend groups and from mutual friends. She burnt the bridge and I was devastated.
I tried so hard to be absolutely clear that I just wanted some space, I just wanted to be friends again for a bit. But no. It was either girlfriends or nothing. So I got nothing. To be honest, I'm totally broken. She was my best friend, and I truly did care and love her.
But now she's hurt me so badly by being passive-aggressive and petty: doing things that she knows would hurt me and they do. I hate everything. I didn't want this. I feel so empty and lost without her, as we were friends for 10 years. She was one of the few constants I had in my lousy young adulthood.
It's been three months now. I don't know if I'll ever recover. It seems like she's replaced me already, and all I can do is sit here, in silence and suffer alone.
20. She Likes Sloppy Seconds
Every single time that I would tell my best friend I was interested in or talking to a guy, she would try to get with him. She was never successful, but it hurt that she kept trying. I confronted her about this in a very nice and civil way and explained to her how I felt about this. She apologized profusely and promised it would never happen again. Problem solved, right? Wrong.
It soon happened again. I just immediately cut her off after that. I gave her no explanation at all. She knows what she did. I haven't spoken a word to her since.
21. She Waited Eight Years
I met my future wife and her friend on the same night. It was the friend who was the one who initiated the contact with me while they were out at a bar one night.
She was cute, but my now wife was the one I was more interested in. I guess this caused emotional and psychological damage or something like that. She brooded on that one night for years until she finally took action in the most deranged way.
Eight years later, the friend tried to get with me–on our wedding night!!! All of the signs immediately became apparent to me—I guess I’m kind of dumb. I told my wife what just happened, she didn’t even have a reaction. They had it out in text messages and confessed she was vexed by that first night the whole time.
The friend was kinda messed up, and she never moved on.
22. Tired Of Being A Life Coach
My best friend uses me as a therapist, but when I try to vent to her, she gives me a few cliche words of support before turning the conversation back to her. It's gotten to the point where we don't talk unless she has a bad day and needs someone to talk to. I try to get her talking about other things, but it doesn’t work.
She'll take days or even a week to respond to a funny meme but then immediately start dumping on me about things going on in her life. I'll invite her out to have fun and within a few hours, I'm being her life coach. We also just started to grow apart. She's turned into her parents and her parents are the typical snobby suburban people that are extremely judgmental.
23. He Lost Them Both
Here’s two ended friendships in one story. I got him his first girlfriend, then the three of us had an awesome time together. Later he grew lazy and stopped taking care of her. He gave up on his studies since he thought he was too smart for IT anyway. He rotated between several games he was playing daily and expected us to join all of them.
He started yelling at his girlfriend for no reason at all. So his girlfriend decided to go on long walks with me for an entire day. Each time, we grew closer but kept a distance. Later, I realized that I was talking only to her while visiting them. He never contributed to the conversation, nor did he seem to care about real relationships anymore. So she became my best friend instead.
After they broke up, he didn't bother texting any of us or replying to any of our messages. It's been a few years now, but I never wanted to contact him again. His ex, however, helped me through some hard times, and I reciprocated. We flirted with each other with no restraints, but she somehow ended up with some other guy.
She kept it a secret for a couple of months, and later she decided on dating him instead of me. That was the moment she changed from a lovely girl to a little monster that oscillated between begging me to sleep with her, offering herself, and confessing her love to me, and then talking all day about how her new boyfriend is so perfect that she doesn't need anyone else anymore.
She continued decaying mentally due to all of this confusion and later became insufferable to all—except her new boyfriend.
24. You Wanna Mess With Me?
So, I've known this guy since I was six or seven, which has now been over 40 years. He was my best friend, and I'd still consider him as such. We were both best men at each others' weddings, and I was the first non-family member he invited to the hospital to hold his children after they were born. Time just sneaks up on you, however, and it's the small things you start to notice at first.
Eventually, the relationship is still there but there's no significant time or contact spent on either side. We still text and call each other about one or two times a year about serious matters–family or jobs–but the regular messing around time we used to have is done and gone.
I know if either of us called the other and said, "Hey, I need help ASAP" we'd both still drop whatever we were doing to help the other. What I really miss, however, are the small goofy interactions we used to have.
25. She Came Out, Then Took Off
You know, I still don't know what ended this friendship. We were super close for about seven years–since my first year in college. Then she just didn't want to be friends with me anymore. Clearly, she felt something was amiss between us, because our mutual friends also gave me the cold shoulder after that. Honestly, it actually wasn't as devastating as it sounds.
I think she would have told me if I legit did something bad so probably something else was going on. She came out as a lesbian and got a girlfriend right before this, and I think that had a lot to do with it. Maybe the girlfriend didn't like her girlfriend having such a close female friend? The weird thing was I did not find it devastating and I never thought I would be that kind of person.
As soon as those other people sort of turned on me, I was out of there with that group. I felt it was good riddance to bad rubbish–if that's what they were like. Maybe I would have been distraught if we were all still in college, however, we were way past that time. Plus that type of politicking seemed childish.
26. He Joined A Cult
When my father was facing the end of his life due to cancer, my “best friend” called me to catch up. Of course, I told him about my dad’s health, and his response floored me, “your dad’s sick because he isn’t praying enough, and that he would be healed if someone spoke in tongues over him".
I was in disbelief that my friend had gotten roped into the insane religious cult that his parents had. I told him that was the grossest thing I could ever hear from him and hung up. My father passed two weeks later. It’s been two years and he hasn’t called or texted once. All I can say is good riddance Tim. I’m better off without you.
27. We Were On A Break!!!
I was in a band with my best friend. When he decided to leave our band, we replaced him promptly. He then doubled back and said he didn’t want to leave, he only wanted to take a break. We had already practiced with the new guy for a few weeks, and he was actually much easier to work with.
It didn’t feel fair to be like “oh never mind” after all the work he’d put in learning our material. So, we kept the new guy. My friend and I didn’t talk for about five years. Now, we’re on good terms even though he lives in another state.
28. This Was The Last Straw
I had a friend that I met in fifth grade. She surrounded herself with and thrived on drama. She would jump in and out of relationships saying each guy was her soulmate. It was a lot of work being friends with her, and very draining. Finally, she married a great guy whom I became good friends with. Sadly, after only four months of marriage, she left him. That, however, wasn't everything.
When she ended her marriage, she completely trashed their apartment in the process—even enlisting the help of her three-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. She broke things, ripped things up, and scattered the pieces all over the place. She threw his family photos in the garbage, then she lied to everyone and told them he walked out on her.
This was the last straw for me. I couldn't take her behavior any longer, so I cut contact with her and actually stayed friends with her ex. He and I are still great friends three years later. She found out after they split that she was pregnant with his baby. So she had her second child, and then she got married again. So she now has three children, each with a different father, and she's working on her second divorce.
She totally embodies the "crazy" that guys are warned not to get involved with. Anyway, my life has never been more peaceful and happy! 15 years of being friends with her was far too long.
29. He Got Called Whipped
My best friend hated that I started dating my now fiancé, soon-to-be wife. He started calling me whipped, starting talking trash behind my back—especially about my girl—constantly. I found out he was like that pretty much throughout our entire friendship. It ended up causing a lot of problems when we were renting a property off of his mom, and that’s what ended the friendship for good.
He started texting his mom, telling her how my fiancé was a bad person, and his mom showed us the texts. You can disrespect me all you want, but don’t disrespect my girl. He was obviously never a real friend, but he was the only actual friend I had growing up. We were 21 when we stopped being friends. I don’t really have any friends now, and it sucks.
30. She Wanted All The Stuff
This friendship ended because of jealousy. We were super close for 20 years, and as we got older she compared absolutely everything we did. I wound up getting a great job and an apartment, and I watched it tear her apart. She even admitted to me that she had a hard time watching others do well. It was impossible for me to stick around.
There were also constant microaggressions that drove me crazy. I tried my hardest to stay friends, because we had been through so much together. I finally realized, however, it wasn’t fair to me to constantly—I mean constantly—be secretive about my achievements or be on the receiving end of utter disdain. One day, I stopped taking her calls and never looked back.
31. Lost In The Weeds
In high school, I had two best friends, and we'd hang out as a trio every day. One day, me and Nick tried some illicit substances together and really liked it. The other best friend, Dan, was vehemently opposed to it for some reason.
I mean, he drank and we lived in California where the stuff was basically legit anyway by the mid-2000s when this happened. So I’m not sure what his deal was. I think he took D.A.R.E.'s lies too seriously and thought we were junkies all of a sudden.
We had no problem at all with Dan not wanting to light up, but what ended it for me and Nick was him snitching to his parents about it, who in turn told our parents. Neither of us got in trouble because we didn't know it at the time but both our parents smoked. But the fact he didn't even talk to us about how he felt and snitched to his parents immediately ended our trust in him and subsequently our friendship.
Almost 20 years later Nick and I are still best friends, and I was the best man at his wedding. I quit the stuff over a decade ago. Neither of us ever reconciled with Dan nor have the desire to—his loss!
32. I Said Goodbye To Peter Pan
We’d been friends since primary school. Back then, she had a very typical child-like personality, as you'd expect a child to have of course. The thing is, as we got older, she never lost this personality.
She still behaved like a child in the sense that she was over the top positive about every little thing that happened. I don't think that's a bad thing; she saw the world through rose-colored glasses and added her own glitter to it.
The thing is, there are reasons for her being like that: She had a dysfunctional family life and a frightening father. To make matters worse, she was the middle child who felt as though she had to keep the peace amongst everyone. Because of this, she developed this personality to compensate for the negativity of her home life.
The problem was, I didn't feel like she and I were compatible anymore as friends as I often felt like I had to match her energy when I was around her. This slowly got more and more difficult, especially in my late teens as I went through a severe period of depression. Being her friend overall was exhausting. Eventually, we just faded out of each other's lives.
She's the one friend I feel guilty about drifting apart from because unlike my other friends, she did absolutely nothing wrong. She's someone who's truly wholesome in spite of everything she grew up with. We're in our twenties now and our moms are still close.
Last I heard she's met a wonderful guy whom she's living with. She doesn't want to get married—and I don't blame her—but he treats her right, which is all that matters, and I couldn't be happier for her.
33. Choose Sides, Or Else
We had known each other for almost 15 years and had been best friends for over two years. We were literally inseparable. I realized something a long time after that: I’d been in my first destructive relationship. I didn’t accept it at first because I had never heard about that happening between friends, only in romantic relationships.
It started off with me being generous with my money since I had it very good financially at the time we became close. When I then lost my job and couldn’t spend as much, she would guilt trip me for caring less. She lived in the city while I lived in the countryside, so when I couldn’t afford to drive out to see her, she would tell me I was too lazy or just didn’t care enough to meet her.
For two years, I drove to the city almost every day of the week, whereas she’d seen my home only four times. She would yell at me for making small mistakes, but whenever I raised my voice in heated fights, she would guilt-trip me for making her want to take her own life. Apparently, she had trauma from people yelling at her. But this was only the beginning.
She didn’t let me be close with other people. She didn’t actually say it, but she always made me dislike people I started being close with. For example, she made me hate my roommate so much that I moved out and only left a note. It took four months to even get her to talk to me again when I realized what I’d done. And then there was the problem with men.
She really didn’t want me to have close relationships with men. She was too paranoid that I would find a boyfriend and spend less time with her. Every time I wanted to see a guy instead of her—which happened like once a month—she would lash out at me. The final thing that ended our relationship was that I became close with a guy.
This guy and I hadn’t done anything, but she sensed that something was in the air. One day I told her he was having a bad day, and that I wanted to do something for him. She told me that she thought she could help him since she had gone through similar things that he was going through at the time. So, she met up with him to help him through this difficult time.
Well, instead of helping him, she started a fight because he was acting kind of off and wasn’t being nice. I told her that nobody should be expected to be nice in such a situation, but she didn’t agree. She told me to pick sides. I looked at her, thought about it for a second and walked away. I’ve never been happier.
34. Like Mother Like Daughter
We were best friends for 20 years. But over the last five or so, I was the only person making the effort in the relationship. If we had a chance to talk and catch up, she’d be like “Oh my god, yeah let’s talk next week"! And they were always empty promises. I got tired of it and stopped trying.
I never heard anything from her again, except the odd comment on my Instagram that I pointedly ignored, because it’s so performative and empty. Funnily enough, her mom did the same kinds of things to my mom. My mom always said she was flaky. Moms know best.
35. I Never Knew The Real Him
I knew my best friend from college and thought of him as a second brother. When the lies started unraveling, however, I discovered that I didn't know the real him at all. I had stood by him in times of struggle on his part, but I never got his support when I needed it. And almost everything I thought I knew about him was a facade.
He had a brother that really didn't look like him, or his parents, at all. It was only once it all blew up that I discovered, from another of his friends, that he was adopted. I never would have been different with him if I had known, but apparently, I was not a good enough friend to reveal it to.
So many things made sense when I looked back with that information available. Which illuminated so much of his lies from our friendship. He was manipulative, deceitful, selfish, a liar, and phony, and I didn't or wouldn't see it for close to 40 years.
It still stings that he robbed me of so many of my memories of things we did together. Things I no longer can look back on without thinking, "Oh, yeah, that's when we were best friends. Or at least, when I thought we were".
36. She Held Back My Dreams
I’ve known her since I was eight years old, and we’ve been best friends ever since. We started having a falling out around age 25 (we’re almost the same age). She’s a tattoo artist and so is her father. I looked up to him as my own dad, since mine was not a good father. She struggles with self-hatred and has taken it out on me for years and years. Only now has it come to a head.
When I got married, she didn’t congratulate me. When I told her I was pregnant, she was disappointed and told me I was too young to have one—I'm 27, own a house with my husband and we have a stable income. I was telling her for years I wanted to be a tattoo artist, and every time she would roll her eyes and shoot it down. She told me that I couldn’t handle it.
It’s weird that she says I couldn’t handle being a tattoo artist, because I’ve been an artist my entire life, as well as a medical assistant with a year of dermatology experience, so I really didn’t understand it. I didn’t become a tattoo artist for years just to keep her happy. When I finally told her I was going to, we stopped talking.
I realized she's been a destructive friend since we were 20, so I really have to let her go.
37. Gossip Guy Ends Friendship
My best friend growing up would frequently talk about people when they weren't around. He was a real gossip. He'd share things with me that were none of my business. Almost 100% of the time it was negative or judgemental high horse stuff. In hindsight, I would say most of it was probably untrue. For some reason I just assumed he never gossiped about me—boy was I wrong.
It wasn't until I went to college that I started to think he might be doing it to me too. I think he was making things up or exaggerating and talking about me to other people. One of our mutual friends stopped by and crashed at my place during a cross-country move. He confirmed my suspicion, by letting me in on the stories shared about me.
I still talk to the dude like a few times a year, but I never share details about my life. I no longer consider him a friend, just a gateway to childhood memory nostalgia.
38. International Friend Buster
My ex best friend lived in a different country than I did: I live in England and he lives in Norway. We met online when we were both 15 and we had a 10-year-long friendship. When we were 25, I found out his girlfriend of four years was, as he put it, "turning 18 soon". Yeah, she was 14 while he was 21 when they got together.
I ended that friendship immediately. I haven't had a best friend since him. I'm now 29 years old.
39. Left On “Read”
I felt like I could've been best friends with this person. We worked next to each other and would constantly talk and laugh and had a lot in common. They had their last day of work, and I didn’t know how much I’d be affected by their absence. On their last day of work, we hung out for the first time and it was fun. At the end of the night, they let me know that I should hit them up and not be shy.
Cool! I was happy that I’d made a new friend. Right? Wrong.
Well, I did hit them up and have essentially been left on read twice after a while of texting. I guess I read us wrong and feel sad knowing how I wanted this person in my life. It would’ve been sweet and exciting. I don't remember the last time I felt such a connection with someone and now that’s gone and it sucks a lot… I tend not to reach out to people because of things like this.
40. This Weirdo Wouldn’t Change
This was four or five years ago and I miss her some days but she was changing and I was staying pretty much the same. She got more feminine as time went on, and I stayed the same weirdo who wasn't quite feminine, but also wasn't quite masculine. She was suddenly getting more friends and I was becoming more isolated.
It hurt a lot, but she has a future that I don't. We're still acquaintances, but we're no longer best friends. Then her grandfather had a stroke and she stopped hanging out in my neighborhood and we kind of just went our separate ways. We've gone from seeing each other all day, every day on the weekends to the last time I saw her which was at her grandfather's funeral in April.
I see her mom and her younger sister more than I see her. I wouldn't change that decade for anything though, no matter how bittersweet it ended. I barely know anything about her since she's changed so much and become such a “wonderful” person. She still knows a bunch about me, because I'm not all that different.
I'm kind of just vibing with the nonbinary chaos gremlin label right now.
41. It Only Took Eight Months
I can’t explain what happened to our friendship. We were out at a pub with other friends and got into an argument over some really dumb thing not worth arguing about, and I went home. I didn’t see him for maybe eight months but caught up with him and something strange happened.
I suddenly just hated everything about him: his attitude, his opinions, and the way he treated his family. It’s like I was blind to it. Then after eight months and a fresh view on life—because so much had changed in that time—I finally saw him for what he was.
He was a self-centered, egotistical, arrogant man that thought the sun shone out of his backside. To this day I don’t even give a head nod when we pass each other on the road. This happened four or five years ago. I’ve known him since almost birth and I’m 43 now.
42. He Was Cool—To A Point
My best friend was a 56-year-old gamer and also certified as an IT specialist—which was cool. He also lit up, drank, and used illicit substances, which I also thought was cool. He was an Italian chef, which made eating meals with him really cool. He was not the average nerdy lazy gamer, in fact, he had been a serviceman in the army, which I guess was kind of cool.
He insisted that I walk two miles each day with him, which was not cool. Friendship fail.
43. It Was Bad Breath That Did It
She always tried to one-up me or embarrass me in front of people when she was feeling insecure. One example comes to mind. We were at a party at her house, and she would always get inebriated to the point where she would just lay on the floor. As her friend, I went to help her get up, I mean…she looked unconscious.
As I lean down to talk to her and help her up, she perks up out of nowhere and says loudly, “Your breath smells,” and starts laughing at me in front of everyone. Yes, I had just lit one up and maybe she was right—lol—but yeah…she was one of those friends that had to embarrass me when she felt in a low position.
44. I Flipped His Switch
I turned a blind eye to his manipulative behaviors for a long time, because he never directed them at me. To me, he was a fun-loving friend that encouraged my creativity and adventure even though he always had some "drama" going on in his life. The first time I finally called him on his behavior, a switch flipped and he started threatening to expose every secret I had ever trusted him with.
I finally realized that this is who he was all along, I had just ignored it because he was fun to be around. I only wish I had ended it sooner.
45. Farewell Friendship Tour
My best friend and I planned a trip to another country. It just so happened that she had an online relationship with a guy who also lived there. The moment we arrived off the plane, she found her new boyfriend and that was that. I didn’t see her again until the end of the trip.
We met at the airport only because our flight was the same. It was a very awkward experience, made worse when she also wanted him to join us in a hotel room. She got upset when I refused to allow him in. Once we got back home from the trip, I never heard from her again.
46. It Was All In The Family
My best friend and I actually tried dating. It went okay, but there was no communication. Then, while we were still together, I found out from a tiktok that she had a new relationship. I can only guess that she was going to keep it from me, so I could be a backup. Maybe? The relationship ended and we remained friends.
I thought it was cool that we could still be friends, and then I found something out that made me freeze in my tracks. I discovered that she’d slept with my brother while we were talking, probably while we were together, and after we broke up. Now she wants a relationship with my brother, and I’m not speaking to either.
47. He Went Cat Fishing
My best friend did something so despicable I can barely type these words. For some reason, he set up a fake messenger account and tried to catfish me. What did he want? He wanted me to cheat on my wife.
At first, I had no idea who it was, so I played along to get clues. He screenshotted all of me playing along—and conveniently left out me calling him out—and sent the screenshots to my wife. This caused havoc in my marriage and almost led to a divorce. I literally have no clue why he did it.
He was the best man at my wedding and vice versa. He never actually fessed up to it and maintained it wasn’t him, even though I have good evidence it was. So, I blocked him on social media and deleted his number. I haven’t talked to him since.
48. I Was Her Scapegoat
I had a good friend in 8th grade who was a very kind and affectionate person. I never had a crush on her at all. We were both physically affectionate people, but it was just hugs and stuff—nothing more. She would mess with my hair and sometimes put her hand on my leg, so I did the same.
At the time, her boyfriend was aware of our relationship and was cool with it; I even was good friends with him. One day, I got called to the principal's office and I walked in and saw my mother, father, principal, and even a law enforcement officer asking me to sit down. I felt like someone I knew had passed, but no, what it ended up being was much worse than that.
They said that she had accused me of being inappropriate with her. I spent two hours crying, watching them comb through my texts, reviewing video footage, and interviewing the boyfriend and the girl. In the end, it turned out she’d lied to her parents because they’d found out about her and her boyfriend.
She just used me as a scapegoat, and finally admitted that her boyfriend had hit her. The principal eventually called my household and said that I was free, and that if we wanted to sue, we would win. The rest of the year, anytime I saw her, I walked away and threw up because I felt like I was a monster.
After suffering through severe depression, I sat in my room and got over it. In the following years, the boyfriend, who I remained friends with, and I would joke about it all the time.
Good man, terrible girl.
49. Personal Trainer? Try Professional Loafer
After 14 years of friendship, we get an apartment, and suddenly he loses his job as a personal trainer. This was because he broke some kind of a dress code rule–he allegedly wore a hoodie to work–and so he was out of work for two to three months. Then, after he agreed to pay me back eventually, all he ever gave me was $400 from his mom.
I ended up paying over $14,000 for the year. So, I paid the full-year lease, and he stayed eight months total. However, that wasn't even the most depressing part.
I also found a tell-tale receipt that proved he was trying to make a copy of my car keys make and model. Yikes!
50. It’s My Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To
This friendship ended when she didn't invite me to her birthday party. It was my first time back from college, and I would have been able to go. She made a whole Facebook event page and invited everybody but me. I found out through mutual friends. Now here’s the kicker: No one showed up and she called me crying that no one liked her. The first words out of her mouth? "No one came".
Sources: Reddit
