It's a sad truth: Throughout life, we meet a lot of people. Some become friends. Fewer stay friends. And an even smaller percentage can turn out to be your worst nightmare. Whether it's betrayal, obsessive behavior, passive-aggressive comments, or even serious crimes, sometimes those people that we think are our best friends turn out to be our worst enemies. These people took to Reddit to share their stories of friendship gone utterly, horribly wrong—read at your own risk, you may never be able to trust anyone again.
1. Odd Man out
I tried to invite my friends to an event I go to every year, but they said no. The day of, I went by myself—only to find out weeks later that they went as a group without me.
2. Bon Voyage!
A month into a new job, I went on a vacation with my boyfriend. An older man I had spoken to just a few times made me a scrap box filled with gifts about my vacation. I distanced myself immediately because I found it so strange that someone I barely knew would make me a gift for going on vacation. Why does going on vacation warrant a gift?
Now that I’ve worked there for years I’ve learned he is known as the office creep and asks all the new female interns if he can take their pictures.
3. Not Separate or Equal
I used to go out for dinner with some college friends. Unlike me, they'd order multiple cocktails and the most expensive things on the menu. Then, when the huge bill arrived, they'd say, "Let's just keep it simple and divide it equally." The guys knew I was paying double or triple what I should have, but that didn't seem to bother them.
4. Not the Best Pickup Line Ever Heard
I was acquaintances with a guy who developed feelings for me. I told him from the beginning that I didn’t feel the same and everything seemed fine until he told me that he liked to cut out body parts of women from magazines and put them together into what he figured I looked like naked and would talk to it at night as if he was having a conversation with me.
He actually told me this as if I was going to be flattered or impressed. I immediately got right out of that friendship.
5. Now’s the Time to Power Nap
He was an online friend who was driving cross country with one of his friends. I said I had a couch/floor they could crash on if needed. He was great, she was annoying. She hated everything, was annoyed by my cat, didn’t like anything I had to eat or drink, etc. They were literally there for like 16 hours.
6. Friend = Free WiFi
Our friends' group of around six guys was all out playing basketball, except for me. I only found out about it when I went outside to do errands because of how bored I was at home. Not only that, but I also heard they came to my place and stood outside using my WiFi so they could message our other friend to come to play with them.
That really messed with me and I never felt the same around them.
7. There’s No Place Like Home
In college, I was getting to know a classmate. He was awkward and twitchy, but I saw no reason not to be kind. We would arrive outside the classroom at about the same time, so we would chat for a bit. Maybe the fourth or fifth time, he was asking about where I'm from. I told him. I described it as an especially small town.
He seemed skeptical of how small I'd said the town was, so he grabs his tablet, opens Google maps, and brings up my town. It was several states away from our university, mind you. When he brought the town up, I saw my house. Being an idiot, I pointed it out. So quietly I almost didn't hear, he whispered, "Gotcha!" as he bookmarked my house's location.
I honestly didn't know what to do and I went out of my way to never speak to that guy again.
8. Party of One
My bachelorette party is this weekend. I invited over 10 people. About five said for sure they were coming. All of them canceled this week, apart from my maid of honor. Now I’m having a party with one person.
9. Read Any Good Books Lately?
When I was a young girl in my early 20s, I shared an office with an older man in his 40s or 50s. He traveled most of the time so it was easy to share the space. One time he left me a copy of a book he thought I'd like. It was an erotic novel. I wasn't as friendly with him after that.
10. That Personal Touch
I knew it was over when a friend I was very close with texted me for the first time after several months of nothing. The text? It was about a pyramid scheme he was trying to recruit more people for. I was one of a dozen or so on the text.
11. Denial Won’t Get Her Anywhere
A girl I know likes to make people cry. Just that, she enjoys watching someone cry and she is trying constantly to lead people into it. I talked to her about it after a mutual friend lost his father in a car accident and she would start the conversation about it just to make him cry. She said she didn't think it was a bad thing and that "everyone does it."
I told her she should get some help with it but she says it's something she enjoys so it doesn't need to be taken care of.
12. An Affair Not to Remember
I had a friend who was married and her husband cheated on her all the time. She would call me and complain and for a shoulder to cry on. Everyone thought we were really close, and so did I—until I made a chilling realization. The times that she had relationship problems were literally the only times she would call me.
Sorry, don't want to be the stand-in for when your husband fails, not sorry.
13. Social Conventions Exist for a Reason...
This guy I knew would often get drunk and strip down to his briefs at social gatherings. He's currently awaiting trial for some sort of awful crime.
14. The Silent Treatment
After high school, I started to realize that if I wanted to talk with anyone, I was always the one to start a conversation. I brought it up one day to someone and they refused to believe it. So, I came up with a plan. I stopped messaging people first to see how long it would take for someone to try talking to me first. It was about three months.
I stopped hanging out with that group. Now, every few months, maybe once a year, I may see a few of them for a hangout and I get quickly reminded that I'm not part of that group. I never feel so alone as when I'm with that group.
15. A Less Than Fairytale Living Arrangement
Back during WoW's second expansion, there was this guy in my guild I'd become friends with, mostly through other friends. We talked more and more over time and became fairly close. He had this jerk roommate, and I could hear the guy sometimes, especially when something went wrong during a raid. He'd scream and throw fits; he was pretty awful-sounding.
My friend told me he wasn't just loud and obnoxious, but verbally and sometimes physically abusive, too. I had my own apartment, so I said, “You know what? Come stay with me. Just long enough to get you on your feet and into a place that's safe.” He showed up at my place with a trash bag full of his stuff and a laptop.
I set him up in the apartment and started trying to help him find a job. Well, he did not want a job. He did not get a job, either. He sat in my apartment, day after day, eating my food and slowly draining my savings. No matter how hard I tried to get him motivated, he would just dig in his heels and somehow become more sedentary.
Eventually, I told him he had to go. I couldn't afford to keep him there. He was just couch surfing. I spoke to some people and eventually pieced together that his method of securing a new "temporary" place was playing on the sympathies of his friends to convince them he was in a terrible living situation. It just worked really well on me because he had that loud, obnoxious roommate to play off of.
He wound up calling a nearby relative to come and get him, I think his aunt. I don't know what he told her I supposedly did, but I have never seen a more venomous look from someone in my life. As far as I know he moved in with his sister and brother-in-law after that, but frankly, I don't care where he ended up. He also stole a bunch of my stuff. First and last time I do anything like that.
16. That Poor Little Hamster!
Kid version of me learned from my mother that the girl down the block squeezed her hamster to death, so I was no longer allowed to go over there.
17. Super Disappointed
I decided to throw a Super Bowl party a few years ago. I went out and bought a brand new grill and mounted an extra TV in the kitchen for any people who wanted to hang out in there and snack while watching the game. I had tons of food and beer ready. Just about 30 minutes before kickoff, I got a text that made my blood run cold.
The whole group decided to go to someone else’s house and that I should bring all my food and beer over there. Needles to say, I didn’t go, and I haven’t thrown a party at my house since.
18. It Takes Two to Game a Relationship
A guy I knew in college met a girl online and spent every day talking about her. She lived about six hours away, so he planned to take a semester off and pursue this relationship. He got a job in her town and asked if I'd help him move out there, since my car would hold more than he could take on a bus. I had a long weekend off and figured why not?
A road trip cold be fun. I'd drive him out as a goodbye present, and the way back I planned to visit Yellowstone. Well...we arrive, and it turns out he doesn't have an apartment lined up and while he found a job posting in his girlfriend's town, he hadn't actually gotten the job. Or even applied yet. I make a bunch of phone calls and find him a room to rent that will let him move in that day with just first, last, and deposit, even without a job.
I'm tired and disgusted with his lack of planning, but figure it's worth staying the night and trying to end things on good terms with my buddy. Then he breaks down and confesses that he hasn't actually met this girl. The nights he spent "video chatting" with her were really just him watching her vlog and jacking it. They've never talked. Never texted.
Never even emailed. Hell, he's never even left so much as a comment or "like" on one of her videos. She genuinely didn't (still doesn't) know he existed. His plan was to hang out at this game shop she talks a lot about, until she showed up and somehow create a relationship from that. He thought that they'd meet, and she'd fall in love with him and move back to our college town to marry him...all before the next semester began.
That didn't happen. Instead, I made my "buddy" buy a bus ticket for his ride back to school and left. He came back to school and got more cringey, not less. I lost track of him after that.
19. Vengeful Neighbor
My friends and I in college knew a girl who purposely kept her case of chlamydia untreated for months just to try and infect all of the guys that wronged her during her undergrad.
20. Sweet Dreams?
One year I had a sleepover party with a bunch of childhood friends from the neighborhood as a teen. It was really fun and I invited 15 or so kids. I had to convince my parents and spent a ton of money to make it perfect for everyone. We went swimming in the pool, played dodgeball, kickball, had tons of food, had a Nerf gun war, played pool, played video games, and watched movies.
It was a blast and everyone was clearly enjoying themselves. Then they tried to watch a horror movie that my parents would kill me if I saw, and I objected for a while before reluctantly putting it on. I hated horror movies, too, but I wanted them to have fun. It was like one in the morning. They got bored during the movie and asked if we could all go to the community clubhouse to meet up with some girls in the middle of the night.
I said that my parents would never let it happen and that I didn't want to get caught, so I told them we couldn't go. After that, about five of them left at like 3 AM to go without me. They said they'd be "right back" and that "one of them needed their medicine so they went to get it." Within the hour, everyone was gone except me.
I was crushed, and too embarrassed to tell my parents, so I finally put on the movie I wanted to watch before going to sleep. In the morning, it got even worse. My parents were furious because over a dozen kids that they had promised their parents would be at their house had disappeared without a trace. Sad and tired me had to call all of them to figure out where they were and let all of their parents know that they didn't spend the night.
Even though my parents made me do it, a lot of them got mad at me for that. The worst part by far was figuring out that they had all went to a different kid's house to spend the night after leaving mine.
21. Addicted to the Distance Between Us
Back in about 1998, I met someone playing an online word game. We were both 16-year-old girls and we just hit it off and became very close. Finally, in 2004, she was passing through where I lived, so I invited her to stay for a few days. She shows up totally coked up. Then, she invites some guy over and they were snorting it off her car keys in my living room.
I didn't know she used drugs, and I was so uncomfortable the entire time. It was like having a stranger there, yet we knew everything about each other. We remained in touch and I still really like her, but it was just such an awkward visit. We haven't seen each other since, though.
22. Witness for the Prosecution
I met my ex-best friend, who I shall refer to as Jason, in 4th grade, and our friendship officially ended in 11th. From around the start of 7th or 8th grade, he started acting really weird around me. I don’t remember which of the inappropriate things occurred first but the earliest memory I have is when myself and another friend were at Jason’s house.
We were playing Twisted Metal and some other games. At some point, we stopped and just started talking and throwing around action figures or something. At this point it was dark outside, so the only source of light was the overhead fan. Jason got up and turned the light out, which myself and our other friend found annoying.
We both started telling him to turn it back on. I suddenly hear someone get closer to me and feel someone’s hand go up my shorts, into my boxers, and start groping my private area. I naturally freak out and start swinging. I hit him a few times, he runs back over to the light and then turns it on and acts like nothing happened.
I leave and we don’t talk for a while. Being young boys who did a lot of stupid stuff (none of which was sexual), I end up forgiving him and chalking it up to his stupidity and to just trying to get a reaction out of myself and others. Fast forward to high school (10th grade) and we sit together during lunch.
Every chance he would get, he would reach over and grab my junk. I’d yell at him to get people to notice, but no one ever caught him doing it and therefore no one ever believed me. The teachers I told also didn’t believe me (super messed up now that I look back on it). One day a friend of the girl I’m dating is sitting to right of me, Jason is on my left.
I had told her to look out for my signal. I know it’s coming so I move my chair back a bit and crouch over the table and give my friend on the right a look. When I see his hand coming over I lean back and he once again grabs me. This time I have a witness and she gladly starts yelling that Jason is grabbing my you know what. That finally put an end to him doing that.
At that point, I had already made new friends and was trying to get as much distance from him as possible. When he saw me starting to mainly hang out with other people he went psychotic. He buddied up with my ex and tried to make me jealous, he took it out on another good friend of mine who he already hated by pissing on his truck (and other nasty, stupid things), and then just went around trying to do damage control by saying it was me groping him all the time.
I haven’t spoken to him since our junior year of high school, over 17 years ago. I did see him years later at college. We were on the same sidewalk about 200 feet apart, headed right towards each other. When he realized it was me he made a mad dash to his right toward an empty field just to avoid me.
From everyone I’ve spoken to about him over the years, it was clear he had feelings towards me and didn’t know how to express them. He never ended up dating any guys, as far as I know. However, from the stories I was told, he was very abusive to the girls he dated over the years.
23. Birthday Surprise
I was part of a group of friends. About 20 of us would get together at least once a month, but cliques started forming within the group and I found myself in the middle of them. I lived about 30 minutes away from most of them, so sometimes they’d hang out without me even though I told them I’d drive to hang out. I never got invited.
Then, the final straw came. I was planning my birthday. I sent a FB invite to the group and mutual friend/acquaintances only to be “reminded” by an acquaintance that one of my friends from the group was having a big party that same day. I wasn’t invited to that party. I still had mine with the few good friends I (still) have, and I haven’t really talked to the other group since.
24. Been There? Not Physically
I never actually met the guy but spoke to him on the phone. We’d met on Myspace when I was in college and exchanged email addresses when we realized we lived in the same town. Eventually, I gave him my phone number and made plans for him to call me. When he did, his voice creeped me out. It was how I imagined a serial killer would sound.
By the time I got past it and was comfortable talking to him on the phone, I started noticing other red flags. Whenever I brought the neighborhood up, he changed the subject. At one point, I asked him what his favorite restaurant on the boulevard was and he hedged, so I made up a restaurant that I said was my favorite.
He immediately said that was his favorite too and that he especially loved one of their dishes. He went on and on about this wonderful place that didn’t exist (and there wasn’t a similar one in town, so he couldn’t be confused). I called him out on the fact that he’d obviously never been to my neighborhood. Turned out, he didn’t even live in the same state as me.
25. Taking Advantage
I had a friend at the time who forced himself upon an intoxicated girl. We were around 17 and at a camping party. Drunk, of course. A girl he was digging passed out early and, as far as I know, he only put his hands on her once. But, it was enough for me to say something and he backed off. But, the look on his face was enough for me to instantly go cold.
It ate at me until I got home. I promptly told my mom and called his mom and, later, I told her. They all just blew it off with a shoulder shrug. I haven't spoken to him since that night.
26. Silence Isn’t Golden
I was at an event and 20 of my "friends" couldn't come up with one special memory or funny story about me. Instead, they treated me to one minute of silence with all of them staring at me awkwardly. It only ended when one of them got uncomfortable and made up a fake story about me. Despite me telling them it was a fake story, they decided to move on.
We had been friends for three years, seeing many of them daily and others at least once a week. I don't hate them, but I can never really trust them. So I cut all ties with them. And five years later, I have zero regrets about that decision.
27. Sick of You
This is way back in the mid-90s. Bulletin Board Systems were all the rage. I made friends with this guy from NC—he was friends with a bunch of us from my dorm, mostly females, which should probably have been a red flag, but I was extremely naive at the time. A couple of months in, he mentioned he was coming to our state for a wedding and asked if he could come by our college to meet everyone.
It was agreed he’d sleep in my dorm room, since my roommate was almost never around. Now, there was no discussion of sex, but I was pretty excited to meet this guy and see if he was as funny and charming as he was online. Well. The day arrives, dude shows up. I should mention that I and all my college friends were 18 or 19. This guy was 24. Or so he said.
Guy looked like, and I’m not exaggerating, a cancer patient. Pale, gaunt features, long greasy pale blond hair except where he was bald on top, and just generally looked like he was about to die, or he was dressed as a ghoul for Halloween. He insisted on hugging all of us. I was trying to remind myself that looks don’t matter and that he was a cool guy despite his very unsettling appearance.
But then, when we all started hanging out together, things just got way worse. He was asking really invasive questions to all of us, making weird comments about whatever was said, just all around creepy and distressing. I was sitting on the floor with another friend and actively rocking back and forth from discomfort.
I lied and said I had hurt my back and that sleeping on the floor helped, because that night he kept insisting we could share my tiny twin college bed. Nope nope nope nope nope. Last time I ever met anyone from that site.
28. A Series of Unfortunate Events
I used to play Dungeons and Dragons in high school with a group of friends. There was this really uptight guy who would always be very excited about the prospect. I was the DM and convinced my friends to try him out for a few sessions. Turns out he was just socially awkward due to very mild autism. He was hilarious at the meetings and we all enjoyed having him around.
Although he had a huge crush on my cousin who played, and was very socially awkward about it. My cousin found him attractive and actually dated him for a while and slept with him. On Halloween we are having a game and my cousin is dressed as a sexy zombie. He was acting very weird and behaving very strangely the entire game.
We all noticed it and my cousin was quite concerned when he looked like he was going to just explode on us in anger. She walked around over to him and he freaked out and she just said "OH my god!" She looked at us and said, "He is touching himself under the table." He freaked out and stood up without zipping...walked out into the bathroom and came back trying to act all normal and wanted to continue the game.
He legitimately did not understand the severity of what he just did. Removing him from the group after that was the saddest thing I ever did. He legit did not understand why we wanted him gone.
29. Friendship Tax
I had this weird thing a while ago where, to celebrate one thing or another, this group of five I was in would go out drinking every night for a week. I couldn’t join them on one night, and the next night they wanted me to pay for my share of the drinks...from last night? They kept going, “Yeah mate that’s 10 for today and another tenner because you didn’t pay yesterday.”
I’d say it was just them pulling my leg, but the guy who paid the bill that night didn’t stop until I actually gave him the money! Anyway, I drink with different people now.
30. A Blast From the Past
I just got out of the Navy and I was taking a few classes at a community college. I'm there for maybe a week or two when I get an email on my student email from a guy who says "Hey, you went to X School for first and second grade, right? We used to hang out." I see the name. I remember being friends with a kid with that first name back then, but last name? Who knows. Do you remember the last names of everyone from your second-grade class?
But hey, cool, I tell him I'm at the library, come by and say hello. Dude walks up and I instantly recognize him. He's totally a guy I went to grade school with for a year or so. But he has this stoic, creepy demeanor. We exchange pleasantries but I begin noticing that he is generally parroting back to me whatever I say. He also said he'd been in the Navy for six years. Then I asked him a question about his rate. This is the way we tell when someone is lying about being in the Navy. He failed.
All in all, just a creepy and weird interaction all around. Then I get home and I really think about it, was this guy just sitting at a computer near, but not in, the library punching in the names of everyone he knew throughout his life? He didn't pull my name off of a new student list. He found it by searching the directory. I never saw him again. Never really cared to seek him out.
But definitely one of the strangest encounters I've had with someone.
Defense.gov Photos Airman Kathleen Gorby
31. Enlisted into the War at Home
We were both in our early teens and had already met in person once before at a public event. We decided to meet up again, but at her house this time. In the short span of time I was over there, I watched her physically attack her mom and bust a door. I mean, I was already aware of some home problems, but I was not prepared to get caught up in the middle of it immediately.
32. Secret Sleepover
When I was in seventh grade, I found out who my real friends were. I asked a friend if we could have a sleepover after spring fling, but she said her mom told her no one could stay over. So I asked a different person, who said the same thing. I asked three people who gave similar answers. After spring fling, as we were all heading to our parents’ cars, the third one told me they were all having a sleepover together.
Oh, and also that they had gotten ready together for the dance, but didn't bother inviting me. I was so pissed off, I remember rambling to my poor mom about it in the car.
33. Three Strikes and You’re Out
I used to be friends with someone who was legitimately delusional about a sports celebrity figure that she was in love with, to the point where I was so creeped out that I couldn't stand being around her anymore. She committed fraud to get tens of thousands of dollars to move to the city he lives and plays in so she can go to every game.
She started learning another language so that they could communicate, as he's not a native English speaker, etc. She even went so far as to live her life around the uniform number he wears. For example, the temperature is only ever set at that number, because it's his number...thankfully it's something vaguely reasonable.
She once held up a sign at a game and he saw it, and she was 100% convinced that he'd remember her forever. The sports figure is also married (to a supermodel, of course) and she was obsessed with the wife too. There were other awful behaviors, but she was so obsessed that I literally couldn't stand to be around her.
34. Return to Sender
After more than four years of playing WoW together and chatting (online and on the phone), he invited me to visit him in Australia. I figured it was safe, since I'd known him for quite a while and had never gotten any weird vibes—no flirtation, no creeper-ness, nothing. Two days into my very-clearly-stated platonic visit, he tried to assault me.
I ditched all of my stuff except what I had in a small duffel bag and took off, traveling on my own for the two weeks until my flight home. A few months later, I received an unsigned postcard from the Gold Coast that just said, "Thinking of you," with a smiley face.
35. Anger Management
We all had a mutual friend with high-functioning autism. I'll call him Ollie. Ollie is a good person, but at times, he makes people uncomfortable, and once in a while he even has angry outbursts towards us. Nothing we could say or do could stop him from going into one of these rages. When it happened in public, people would stare at us.
One time at a coffee shop, the police were almost called on him. It usually happened if he didn't get his way about something. Like in the case at the coffee shop, the rest of us agreed on going to Olive Garden next but he wanted Mexican food. I'm making him sound like he's a bad person, but he really is good-hearted otherwise.
We're all in our 20s and we know it's his autism that was the reason he acts the way he does sometimes. He always apologized shortly afterward and then he wouldn't have another rage for a long time. He'd often say things unknowingly to people who don't know him well. Like one time at Zumiez, he was making one of the girls working really uncomfortable with the stuff he was saying.
I was the only other girl in our friend group out that day, so I apologized to the girl that was working and tried to explain he just has autism and wasn't trying to be creepy on purpose, but now we're all too embarrassed to ever go in that store again. It got to the point where we started making plans without him and not even realizing it.
After we realized what we were doing and talked about it amongst ourselves, we figured out that the less often we hung out with him, the less often the rages would happen. So we started only inviting him to every third or fourth concert or outing we'd go to. Except that one night, this all ended up backfiring on us horrifically.
At one concert we didn't invite him to, it just so happened his family drove him there. He cussed us out in front of all our other friends in the lobby for not inviting him. He's since apologized to us, but we haven't hung out with him since. He eventually got himself kicked out of that concert venue anyway. In that situation, every single person involved was the bad friend.
36. A Dark Comedian
I’m a 24-year-old guy and the only person I ever tried to avoid is the guy that hosted the foreign exchange students while I was in high school. He was a normal-looking 50-year-old guy that was single and lived by himself, but he always hosted foreign exchange students every year, and I was usually friends with them. I’ll give an example of some of the things he has done that creeped me out.
First time meeting him we were going to an amusement park with the German foreign exchange student, and as I get in the car he says "You're actually pretty ugly. From far away you looked good but you're ugly up close." I’m just like what? That was the first thing he EVER SAID TO ME! Later that day while driving there, somehow they started talking about avalanches and he said, "If we were driving and an avalanche was covering us and we became trapped, I would just rape all of you guys. If I knew we were going to die I would hold each of you down and rape each one of you."
It was me, the German guy, and a girl, all around 16 years old. They all thought it was funny. But he didn’t smile when he said these things. It made me insanely uncomfortable. He asked if I was a virgin, and was making fun of me constantly about the fact that I was. Another time he randomly messaged me on Facebook and said "hey, if you ever come over and see me getting naked in front of the computer just don't worry about it...either that or you could join me."
Then he asked me if I wanted to come over and watch movies with him, but again noted that he might be naked. That was the last straw. I blocked him on Facebook. The strange thing is that this guy is loved by so many people. A lot of the parents at the school I went to loved him, and the teachers, and he was friends with a ton of people from my high school on Facebook.
His sense of humor just didn’t sit well with me, pretty much everything he said made me uncomfortable.
37. Catty Behavior
I started a new job recently and a few of my coworkers have asked me about myself and gotten to know me. In a meeting last week, two girls asked if I had any animals. I let them know I had a cat and they asked if they could see a picture. The meeting hadn’t started just yet, so I quickly went to my desk and got my phone.
I came back and it was still just us in the room. I showed them the picture and put my phone in my pocket afterward. Fast forward, and I recently had my 30-day review and was told that me being on my phone during meetings was unprofessional and that I had offended someone in the office. When I asked which meeting my boss was referring to, I was stunned. He said it was the one from that week.
They were the only ones there at the time it happened, and I didn’t get out my phone again so it must have been them. Really bad way to start a job.
38. The High Price of Online Friendship
We were friends online for years. We’d meet up every so often and when we started families we’d meet up and take the kids to the zoos or whatever. She wanted us to go on a cruise together, with our husbands and kids. I made the comment towards the effect of “We can’t afford that,” and she went nuts. We shouldn’t have had kids if we can’t afford them, we shouldn’t have more children, our life sucks blah blah blah because I didn’t want to go on a cruise with her and her bratty kid. Sounds like a nightmare.
39. Ahead of Their Age
I stopped hanging out with a guy when it finally dawned on me that all of his “friends” were teenagers, most of them girls, and that I wasn’t just “so mature” for my age that a man in his early 20s found me exceptionally fun to hang out with. I tried to discuss this with some of my girlfriends that he was “friends” with, but none of them saw the issue.
I remember saying “What would a 21-year-old guy be getting from hanging out with a bunch of 13-15-year-olds?” and feeling like the answer was just so obvious, how could they not see it? And they were all so offended at the concept that maybe we weren’t just the coolest people alive. Amber even said, “Because we’re more mature than normal 14-year-olds.” But we’re still 14, Amber! Why is he not hanging out with people from his college?
So I just stopped going out with them when he was around. They eventually stopped hanging out with him after he “dated” and subsequently broke up with a few of them. Stuff like that makes my skin crawl now as an adult. If I ever have kids I don’t know how I’m gonna feel comfortable letting them ever leave the house alone.
40. Of Course Her Name Is Karen
I was with friends on a trip to Japan, drinking one night in the Roppongi district. I'm trying to taper off, but Karen (no, really, it was her name) keeps putting drinks in front of me. She kept paying the bartender for weird shots for me but not for anyone else in the group. She's saying really catty stuff but laughing like it's all good fun, we're pals.
Then, she starts saying some pointed stuff that makes me think she's been holding on to some really ugly resentment for a while. After I'm good and sloshed, she pushes me over to my partner and tells him to grab a taxi and take me back. On the way back to the hotel I look at my partner and say, "I didn't realize until now that Karen hates me."
He replied, "She sure seems to." Neither the trip nor the friendship was the same after that night, and I had the worst hangover of my entire life, passed out on the floor of a Tokyo hotel bathroom.
41. Creepy Larry
Creepy Larry (not his real name). Holy cow. My friend was dating this guy who had a pretty weird background. Parents did cult-y things, no one really knew where he came from, etc. I've never seen the warning signs of a serial killer so clearly exhibited. The dude would find half-dead roadkill, finish them off, and then hoist their bodies from trees until the flesh was gone so he could turn their bones into jewelry.
I only met him once, and I'm not especially good at reading people, but I'm not an idiot. The dude made all the hair on my neck stand up. He had a really flat affect and didn't really seem to understand how to interact with anyone. Just sat in the middle of a party silently drawing a picture. I think it was some sort of face, but the features were all wrong and distorted.
At one point in the party he brought out wooden swords and hit a kid so hard he passed out, and then didn't tell anyone what happened. Just left him there on the ground and went back to the party to keep fighting with people. He's not with my friend anymore but works at my local grocery store and has the coldest stare I've ever seen.
42. A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Hurts
It was the end of term, so around 40-45 classmates agreed we would go to town after school, eat, take pictures, etc. It wasn’t strictly “invites only” or anything, yet the boys who I thought were my closest friends there were somehow surprised that I came. Eventually, we split. Some went to McDonald’s, others to Burger King, etc.
We then regrouped for a big group photo. At this point, another 10 students who weren’t initially going ended up coming, making around 50-55 people there. So one popular guy prepared to take a picture. Then some others were like “Why is HE (me) in it? Let him take it.” This picture literally had 70% of my so-called friends.
I didn’t feel good at all. No one offered to swap and no, it was not because I’m a great photographer.
43. The Notebook
A girl I was starting to be friends with at uni had some weird mannerisms, but I didn’t really care. Then she started talking all about how pretty I was and how different I was from all the other girls she knew (I think she was in love with me). I didn’t mind, but I’m not gay, so I didn’t fuel it. Then I heard from somebody else that she started saying she wanted to grope me.
That was creepy enough, but then one day she sat behind me and left her notebook open. Another colleague read it (not out loud) and called me. On it was written a diary-like entry (?) addressed to God, saying that she feels so sinful for masturbating and describing how she wanted to kill herself. She also wrote that it was my fault and that I was leading her to hell.
Like what the heck? Me and my colleague agreed to be quiet about it and just distance ourselves from her. I think she must have left the notebook open on purpose because that was just too bizarre.
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44. Till Marriage Do Us Part
He was the best man at my wedding. Then we both got busy for a while and didn’t have much contact for a few years. Nevertheless, I still considered him my best friend. I heard about his wedding well after the fact. I guess we're not best friends anymore…
45. Mean Girls
The group of girls I hang out with at college have never once made any effort to see me outside of school, and yet they're all super open about the fact they meet up as a group without me. Like, they'll talk about group plans that I'm not a part of when I'm sat right there with them, and still, not a single one of them has ever asked whether I want to come.
It's been two years. I would make new friends but I go to a really small college and there's nobody else I could really integrate with, especially this late in the game.
46. Busted
I walked into my apartment that I shared with a roommate. Right as I walk in he had his girlfriend pinned down on the floor and her shirt was ripped. She’s crying and they both look up at me. She gets up and takes off running out the door and he goes to his room. Not a word was spoken. I knew what I had to do. I kicked him out the next day.
I don’t know if it was a creepy situation or a domestic fight type thing, but the look in his eyes said all I needed to know. I didn’t know the girl to reach out to her and this was pre-Facebook/everyone being connected online days. Police took a report from me but nothing came of it, presumably because she didn’t report it.
47. Through Thick and Thin?
He suddenly ghosted me right after I told him that I had a cancerous tumor. That is not a friend.
48. Too Cruel for School
I was roommates with said friend before we actually started hanging out. It started nice, gossip here and there, mutual loathing for our professor. But then she started drama with the club we both go to and started ruining it for me by constantly stringing the guys in the club along. It was obvious they flirted with her, and she would manipulate them into buying her stuff.
Gradually, to avoid drama, I stopped going to the club and talking to her. So she kept telling our mutual friends, “Oh, I don’t know why but she is mad at me and ignoring me! I didn’t do anything,” and generally paint me as the bad guy. FYI this girl never asked me anything. She didn’t greet me or try talking to me, but she said she did.
She then started saying how I owed her for all the things she paid for, which confused me because every time I offered to pay her back she would decline and said it was no problem. I also would pay her back if the thing she bought was too expensive. This went on for the rest of the year, and I was so depressed when all the low-key stuff she would say to our mutual friends came back to me because they wanted both sides of the story.
Luckily, she got academic probation, mostly because I also stopped doing her homework for money. So now I don’t have to see her anymore or be roommates.
49. Stalking is an Understatement
I had a "friend" who was so jealous of me and the person I was dating that she messaged him under a fake alias. She pretended to be a Chinese female student when she was not, and told him via email that I was using him to advance myself. This high level of stalking and harassment was like nothing I had ever seen before, considering we were undergraduate students and not in high school.
50. Time On Her Hands
We graduated from high school and she went away to college halfway across the world. Whenever she came back to visit, she always claimed to be busy when I tried to hang out with her. I later saw tons of pictures posted on Facebook of her and other girls having fun together while she was in town. So I guess that’s what she was so busy with. I left her alone after that.
51. Dino-Sore
I had a friend purchase a bunch of tickets for our group of friends for the midnight premiere of Jurassic World a few years ago. There were probably 16 tickets purchased, and I was pumped to go. The DAY OF the showing, he texts me at like four and says that there are not enough tickets for me, because he "forgot to buy" my ticket.
I pressed him on this, and asked him how of the 16, how was it MY ticket he didn't purchase? He backpedaled and claimed I told him I didn't even want to go. So I texted him screenshots of the five times I told him how I wanted to see it when we discussed where we were going to be at the theater, etc. So then, he came right out and said it.
He was giving my ticket to his new girlfriend, who he had just started seeing the week prior. I was pissed, and ripped him a new one. But, the worst part is? None of the other 16 people who went ever said a word to him about it. It was at that point I realized they didn't really care about me. I no longer talk to any of them.
52. Start Spreading the News
After my significant other passed away, a "friend" of mine who would hit on me constantly, and knew my significant other, messaged me within a day or so of his passing to ask me if I had heard the news about my own boyfriend dying. He then began to pester me as if we were best friends so that he could find an in to hit on me again.
The final straw was when he told me a week after my boyfriend passing that I needed to move on, and "get my act together." I haven't spoken to him after that statement.
53. Don’t Be Sensitive Bro, It’s Just Your Ex-Girlfriend
My core group of high school friends had an entire night while I was working late where the running joke was how they could screw with my life because my reactions to chaos were "funny." I don't mean pranks. I'm talking, "Who should sleep with his ex?" "Should one of the women here date him and have it be really dramatic so he's stressed out?"
All sorts of scenarios about doing real damage to my life in serious ways and cackling. This was also the same crew who, when one of the dudes slept with said ex six hours after we broke up, called me immature for being hurt. When I asked them about it individually, they each said that my feelings being hurt by the conversation meant I needed to learn to take a joke.
I walked away from them entirely pretty much on the spot and didn't look back. Two decades later, I hear things occasionally about them through random connections or social media. Most of them are professionally mediocre social train wrecks. Really drove home that the best revenge is living a better life than the people who did you wrong.
54. What the …??
This guy in my friend group thought childhood sexual abuse was beneficial. A former dear friend of mine was in a discord chat with my two other friends and just asked why CSA laws exist since it can only be good for a child to be abused. He was convinced that children need to be diddled in order to know if they are gay or straight and that it wouldn't be bad or do internal damage to a child of either sex.
He said this in a group chat with three CSA survivors. He will never meet my children, which is a shame because we've been friends for 13 years, but I refuse to risk my children's safety just to keep a friendship.
55. Teacher’s Rat
When we were in high school, one of the students was drawing the refraction diagram, and for a minute I got confused and whispered to my friend that I felt like he was drawing the wrong one. I quickly realized it was right, said never mind, and got on with reading. I didn't know the teacher was observing us, but then he asked me to stand up and tell the whole class why I was talking.
I simply apologized, then he asked my friend and she said that [My name] thinks it's the wrong diagram. I immediately said that I was confused and it's the right one. But the teacher had stopped listening after my friend's "[My name] thinks it's the wrong diagram.” The thing is, it was a well-known fact that I wasn't this teacher's favorite student.
He kept on saying that if I think it's so wrong, then I should correct it. I kept saying, "No, sir, I was mistaken," but he just wouldn't listen. So after giving my friend the stink-eye, I went to the board, erased the diagram and said, "I don't know." The teacher was furious. Thank God the class ended and the next teacher was standing right outside.
56. I Spy
I went to a conservative Christian college and my friend group included an RA. He was gay but we were fairly progressive guys (especially for a conservative Christian school) so we didn't care. Eventually, things started to get a little strange when it became clear that he had crushes on a few of us. Still, we liked the guy, didn't want to be homophobic and brushed it off.
It all culminated with him breaking into one of my friend's rooms (the RAs have keys) and hiding a camera in a sock with a hole in it. He hid the sock in the roommate's bed while he was out of town for the weekend and had it pointed towards my friend's bed. Fortunately, we found it and stopped being friends with him after that.
Although it did suck that he betrayed our friendship (and the passive-aggressive Facebook posts and rumors he started about us were strange), we lived to drink another day.
57. Dogs > People
When a person that I thought was my friend threw a rock at my dog, everything ended right there. Contacted me a few months later to hang. I said, “Nah, don’t ever contact me again bro.”
58. All Out in the Open
A girl I used to be friends with didn’t have the cleanest of homes. I’m not a snob and I generally wouldn’t judge anyone, but the house was particularly dirty (This isn’t the thing, I'm just trying to build a narrative). I went to her house after school one day and we went straight to her bedroom. There were at least five pairs of OVERLY-used knickers all over the floor.
I’m trying to put this politely but they were crusty and creased with actual skid marks over them and they were just out in plain sight. I tried to act like I couldn’t see it and I left pretty much right away. It put me off going to her house for a while but a few months later I returned with a friend. Same underwear on the floor, but more this time and even dirtier.
It's not really CREEPY, it’s more just gross. But when I think about the fact that they were openly left on the floor and she didn’t care about people seeing it, that part does creep me out.
59. The Feeling Is Mutual
When my girlfriend, who had become part of the group, started cheating on me with a friend from the group, everyone just said they "didn’t want to choose sides." Yeah, I don’t want to choose any of you either.
60. And I Do Mean Anything!
We had this new dude in our unit and he was tasked to go to the motor pool with me. He didn't have a car so I was driving. I drove a coupe. As I enter my side this dude folds the passenger seat down and climbs in the back, closes the door and pulls the seat up. He plants himself right in the center of the back seat. I tried to get him to get in the passenger seat and he wouldn't.
Ok, whatever. So on the ride to the motor pool, he just kept saying he's a behavioral health specialist and I could come to him for "anything." He kept emphasizing it. Whenever my eyes looked into my rearview mirror he was staring at me through it. I avoided him at all costs after that. He eventually got kicked out after he began soliciting his soldiers for sex.
61. Do You Have to Let It Linger?
I recently invited a friend over to watch the election results roll in. Nerdy I know, but it is a bit of a tradition we have had for over 20 years. He spent the whole night playing two poker tournaments on his mobile phone, making almost no conversation. He crashed at my place that night, and I told him that I needed to start work at 10 am the next morning, because he has a bit of a reputation for being hard to get rid of.
The next morning, I made us breakfast at 9 am, and then at 10 he decided he needed to use the bathroom, took his phone in there, and didn't come out for 40 minutes. Then I reminded him that I needed to start work. He took 30 minutes to put his shoes on, all the while repeatedly checking his phone. It didn’t even end there.
Once he had his shoes on, he then told me he was just going to have a couple of cigarettes before leaving. He sat outside in my courtyard for another 30 minutes, and then just walked away. No Thanks for having me over, or Thanks for breakfast, or Good to see you, or even Goodbye. Just walked away. Then he sat in his car across the street smoking another cigarette.
This was the same guy who a few years back was three hours late to come over for dinner, partly because he stopped for a freaking burger en route. And the same guy who showed up six hours late to my daughter's second birthday party. And just didn't show at all to my 40th birthday. I reflected on it afterward and realized that he's not really one of my oldest friends, he's just some jerk I've known for a long time.
Needless to say, he'll be receiving no more invitations from me.
62. There’s Something Between Us
We went to a convention, and he drunkenly told me and my boyfriend that he wished we weren't together, so he could sleep with me. It was very awkward, and he's lucky my boyfriend—now-husband—is a patient man.
63. When in Doubt, Spam
A guy that I was close with told me one night when we were drunk that he had a photo album on his phone just dedicated to me, like hundreds of photos of me. I noticed he'd been screenshotting my Snapchats then giving excuses when I called him on it. I then found a post from his old page that was paragraphs long about me. He made up quite a few lies on it, said he was in love with me, and he put a lot of my personal feelings on this post.
Then when I distanced myself, he started spamming me with messages and stalking me online, not good.
64. Knowledge Is Power
My best friend sent a nude photo to my girlfriend. When she called him out for being a jerk, he replied with “He doesn't have to know'!” Spoiler alert: I know.
65. What Would I Do Without You…And Your Car
I was grounded for a while, and when I was finally able to leave, they said this to me: "We’re so glad to see you again...we had to walk around everywhere." I was the only one with a car at the time.
66. BFF Stands for “Big Freaking Fake-down”
It was my friend "Kate," who befriended this girl, "Jessica,” who allowed us to come and stay with her when we traveled to the US. Jessica was rude to me instantly and kept my friend away from me. I'd go upstairs, and she'd find a reason for them to go downstairs. She had Kate share her bedroom, and she'd lock the door for hours, and so I'd just go off and do my own thing.
We met her two (odd) friends and they both ignored me. When it was time for Kate and I to move on to another state, Jessica insisted on coming with us. The lady we stayed with in another state, "Robin," took no BS and called Jessica out on her strange behavior. Jessica proceeded to lock herself in a room and demanded Kate stay in there with her.
They were in there all day and eventually, Kate came out and said to me that there's something wrong with Jessica and she's actually scared. We (Kate and I) had plans to stay with another online friend, "Matt,” in another state and Jessica demanded we cancel because she doesn't like or trust Matt. We said no, this is our holiday and we've paid for flights, and Jessica said then she will come with us, but we can't meet up with Matt.
We said no, she cried, we left. Kate blocked her on everything. Kate's mother called us not long after saying Jessica contacted her crying, saying Kate is in danger and we abandoned Jessica, and she's so concerned for my friend's safety. As a I recall, she claimed to be concerned about Matt and basically wanted Kate's mum to tell us to stay with Jessica.
It was actually incredibly scary. Kate found out later from another girl—they all knew each other from a forum—that Jessica had been telling everyone they were in love and had even slept together. I don't know how much of that is true, but I've known Kate for 20 years now and she's never identified as anything but straight. She denied it 100%.
Jessica was just obsessed with her, and months later Kate heard Jessica was telling everyone she was saving money to come to our country to find Kate. She never did, thankfully. Other than the time spent with this girl, we had a great holiday and made some good friends.
67. The Party’s Over
My friend had her sister and her sister’s boyfriend and child move in with her. My friend’s house was the party house since she and her girlfriend had their own place while we were still in high school. Anyway, we knew that the boyfriend just got out of prison for what we thought was robbing a bank and we were in awe of this dude. We were still in our gangster, Scarface phases and thought he was just the coolest dude.
Turns out, he was in jail for some pretty heinous crimes—never mind the fact that he was living with his newborn son. We were all pretty shocked when we heard that and my friend group collectively stopped hanging out over there, at least until they both went back to prison (not for anything having to do with the child) and the child was remanded to state custody.
68. The Smoking Gun
It was when they almost shot me in the head. They were about to drive me home—we were teenagers, just able to drive—and I saw them messing around in his dad's room as I was getting ready. We get in his parents’ car. I'm in the passenger seat, he's driving, the other is behind me. All of a sudden, it felt like my ears popped and there was just a loud high pitched ringing that wouldn't stop.
Right in front of me in the dashboard was a hole that wasn't there before, just an inch or so to my left. I looked back and saw him holding a gun, which I guess they took from his dad's room to play around with and look cool. When I started freaking out, they started getting pissed off at me to be quiet because his dad might notice.
He was mowing the grass by us, but had those giant headphones on. They forced me to sit calmly for the ride and made me swear not to tell anyone. I was pretty shaken and also sort of afraid of them, so I never did.
69. Something Is Missing…
When I was 19, I jumped on a flight to meet a friend I had known for about four or five months. We both went through family bereavements and were a shoulder to cry on for each other, via the phone or internet, and we just decided to meet for a few days in a country between us. Until then, everything had been perfect, she was the coolest girl, really smart, the kind of person you want to be around all the time.
When we met, things started great but a day later, she confessed, "you're not what I expected." Erm, what? 19-year-old and not very confident, this knocked me sideways. "I don't know, just… you seem different.” I never hid who I was before we met, was completely open and it put a real sour taste on the rest of my time with her.
Instead of chatting nonstop and watching Jackass on TV in the hotel at night, we went quiet and straight to sleep, ate in silence. I put as much effort as I could into it, but I still never got to the bottom of how I was different. We went our separate ways, text for a few days then never spoke again.
70. All in the Family
My cousin always told me if we weren't related he would totally date me and that he's lucky that he has such a hot cousin. He would follow me around family functions, and would find any excuse to hug and poke me. I started to bring my serious boyfriend around so he could meet family, and my cousin was obviously jealous.
He told my boyfriend that if he hurt me, he would stab him (thankfully my boyfriend is sassy and can handle himself). If he saw my boyfriend put his arm around me, or be near me in general, he would quickly walk away and wait for his next chance to be near me. Now he avoids me because I always bring my boyfriend around, and I'm sassier towards him.
71. It's Your Birthday and I’ll Leave if I Want to
There were two terrible instances with the same group of friends when I was 15 years old. They would show up at my house to “hang out” and would just spend the next few hours getting off with their boyfriends. The same group of friends were supposed to come to my 16th birthday. I’d planned bowling/cinema, and one-by-one they dropped out a few days beforehand.
One of them, who I thought was my best friend, straight out said she didn’t want to see the movie I’d picked out for my birthday, but got her boyfriend to call me to tell me they weren’t going. The friendships with that group fizzled out a few years later. My best friend and I had a falling out—she instigated it—and the other friends never bothered to contact me afterward.
It’s been 20 years and I’m really surprised none of them have contacted me with one of those “hey girl!/hey hun!” Spam messages from an MLM scheme. They would definitely be the kind of people who would get caught up in that.
72. Pool Party Pooper
In middle school, we had a school day trip to a park with a swimming pool, mini-golf, etc. My three best friends all said they weren't going to swim, so I didn't bring my suit. When we got there, they all had their suits and towels. They said they changed their minds about swimming but forgot to let me know. I had to play mini-golf alone while they swam.
This was apparently all communicated by phone the evening before. I do think they were real friends, but they clearly didn't consider me as close a friend as they considered each other.
73. Three Is Not Company
Not quite an instant regret, but there were two people I was meeting. Maisie and Maya, for the purpose of the story. We'd discussed meeting again, planned to have sleepovers, just generally have fun. The first day we met up went really well! We all had a good time; I thought it went brilliantly. Then a few weeks later, I found out they were carrying out all the plans without me.
They still have sleepovers to this day when Maya is back from university, and I'm just left out. I don't speak to either of them anymore. It hurt.
74. Pet Peeve
A guy I was renting a room from told me that he had abused his pets as a child. In tears as he was giving me a ride to my hometown for the weekend. When I got back from visiting my family, my pillow was missing, and he said he had let his mom borrow it when she was visiting, rather than letting her use one of the dozen that were his.
I isolated all my belongings in my bedroom after that and moved out as quickly as possible.
75. This Goes From Bad to Worse
I was friends with this kid I shall call Dan. He was a neighbor, and we used to be friendly at neighborhood parks and pools. He was in the same karate class as one of my best friends. This class used to have the occasional "bring your friend" day, and she always took me. Every time we went, Dan would try chasing us into the bathroom because he wanted to "See our socks." Hm.
Fast forward to high school, Dan comes out as gay. He also comes out as a Republican. Not the moderate kind, but something more akin to the extremist version of the Tea Party. He began saying very inflammatory things, and when a dear friend of mine killed himself he told me my friend deserved it. He started wearing trench coats to school, and when that wasn't weird enough he began wearing a leash and collar and would tie himself to tables.
I used to be nice to him, but I just couldn't do it anymore. So I started ignoring him. I thought I was good to go when I got to college, but in my sophomore year I found out he was going to come to my school!!! When he gets there, he starts doing A LOT of acid and other drugs. One of my friends thought he was cute and I told him to STAY AWAY. He didn't. So Dan drugged him. I hate Dan with every fiber of my being.
76. Cabin Fever
I tried to plan a trip to a very cool cabin with a group of friends. I had wanted to go for a few years, but no one could ever go. Then, I accidentally found out the truth one day. Someone slipped up and said something as we were all hanging out. They were actually going to that specific cabin for my friend’s boyfriend’s birthday.
He didn't like me, so he told them all they couldn't invite me. None of them stood up for me. I lived with two of them at the time. I moved out a few weeks after that.
77. Not All Friends Should Be Forever and Ever and Ever
He got freakishly obsessive and possessive. We met online through a fandom. After a few years, the fandom pretty much fell apart but a handful of us stayed friends because we actually had a fair amount in common. D was very normal, the rest of the group seemed to love him, and about four years after just being online mates we met in person, it went fine.
We interacted a lot on FB and Instagram. I hit a really busy period in my life but managed to squeeze in a Christmas get-together at my place for my little group of friends, including D. After that, my online activity decreased drastically due to being busy and when I managed to get on FB, I noticed that most of the group were no longer friends with D, weird but whatever.
I checked my Messenger and saw message after message after message asking why I wasn't responding, what was I doing, could we arrange a meet up, etc. I explained I was super busy, and it was also coming up to the anniversary of my mum's death, so just give me some time and we'll see about meeting up another time.
He said "Oh yeah, I forgot about the anniversary. You can have that day, but I expect a response after.” Screw that. I blocked him, so he sent email after email after email asking me, “What is your freaking problem, what the heck do you think you're doing" etc., so I blocked his email too. After three very peaceful weeks, there was a knock on my door: it was D, and he had a six-page letter detailing why we had to be friends.
I shut the door, used an anonymous email thing to tell him that if he contacted me again or showed up at my door, I would call the police. Went on Facebook and told everyone (including the two remaining mutual friends) about it all, and could the mutuals not share anything about me/my life and actively discourage him from attempting to make contact.
The friends who had long since unfriended him started messaging me that they stopped talking to him because of how creepy he was being in private messages about me, always asking if they knew what I was doing, had I talked to them, was I seeing anyone, was I actually busy because he was convinced wasn't, etc.
In return, I told them how he'd been trying to convince me to stop being friends with them because according to him they were all sorts of horrible things and that they were incredibly jealous and hated how close he and I were, I assumed he was just butthurt because they stopped talking to him, so was just making up a bunch of nonsense about these people, who had always been perfectly nice to me.
One incredibly weird occurrence just before this all happened was me telling a mutual friend on FB that I was heading to the aquarium in London with my daughter for the day. That mutual friend was also in London that day with their daughter, so I said maybe we could grab a coffee and let the kids play in the park for a bit.
I checked my messages later that evening and D was incredibly upset because he'd waited at Farringdon station exit for two hours so he could come to the aquarium too, and I didn't show up. We did not get off at that station, but one that was two stops after and closer to where we were going. I haven't heard a peep in over a year, he has apparently deleted his Facebook and Instagram, and thankfully just disappeared.
78. The Old Double Cross
I had a best friend for a while, we'll call her Charlie. One summer, Charlie introduced me to my ex-boyfriend after begging me to go "save" her from this party she didn’t want to go to. Everything was going great, that boyfriend and I were super in love, always spending time together, as new couples do—but this drove Charlie crazy.
I didn't really notice anything was bothering her at first, until we agreed she move into my (dad's) place for summer so she could see how being "on her own" was. I'm never home because I'm with my boyfriend, she's constantly calling and texting and coming to hang out with us because she "has no one else." As all of this was happening, she's wearing my clothes, sleeping in my bed, calling my pets her pets, etc.
She moves out in August, things are great, she finds herself a little boyfriend, and I stop seeing her as much as I used to—think four or five times a week as opposed to every day. Charlie and her boyfriend break up sometime during that period, but frankly, I don't really remember because she was always crying about something or other.
Flash forward to June of the following year. Things go south with my boyfriend and we break up. I find myself someone new and move on. Charlie though, my best friend in the entire world at this point, takes it upon herself to start sleeping with my ex-boyfriend and casually forgets to tell me, until—and she darn well knew—I found out my new boyfriend was cheating on me.
She sends me a cute text saying "Oh. I slept with your ex-boyfriend on Friday. I forgot to tell you." So at first, I'm like you know what? Cool. Good for him. Glad he's found someone to be happy with again. But then the reality of it all set in and the more I thought about it, the more I remembered her always trying to be around, inviting herself over to his place all the time.
It did not sit well with me.
79. Singing the Blues
Had a once close friend put his hand down my girlfriend's pants and squeeze her butt. He also was doing the whole "grooming" thing trying to score young chicks via social media messages, yeah he's been doing it for a long time. After he tried to feel up my friend’s wife in her house that he wasn't supposed to be in while she was passed out drunk, I stopped being wishy-washy about being friends and told him and everyone that I did not want to be friends with him at all and exactly why I made that choice.
Scumbag. He's trying to be a musician now and has been pushing harder into the scene lately, so I hope he gets shut down sooner rather than later.
80. He Didn’t Guard Every Life Equally
I was a lifeguard at a water park when I was 20 and, being older, I didn't hang out with the high school kids. Most of the people I hung out with were supervisors as they had been there for several years. I was never a fan of one of them in particular though, he was a little odd and aggressive in every interaction as if he always felt like he had to prove something.
I know he was one of the weirder kids in high school until he started lifting weights, which apparently made him overly obsessed with himself. Every photo of him on his social media is of him flexing in the mirror. I always assumed he was just an idiot. Turns out the dude has crazy anger issues, and he flew off the handle with us over some girl not wanting to come over because she wasn't feeling good.
I stopped talking with him after that. I found out a few weeks ago that he was just arrested for the assault and murder of a 70-year-old homeless woman. You think you know a guy.
81. The Opposite of a Wing Man
This kid in high school I was friends with would belittle me constantly because he thought it was joke, as he got picked on a lot. Well, one day we were hanging out and I accidentally left my AOL messenger signed in. He then said horrible things to the girl I was really close to sealing the deal with. She never seemed to believe that it wasn't me and things weren't the same with her after that.
Screw you, Dan!
82. Sorority Sinister
I've had abusive friends, but I've only had one who was out-and-out crazy. Let's call her D. D seemed nice at first. She was a transfer at my college my sophomore year. We got along great, she was looking into joining my sorority. We signed up to live together in a suite the next year. And then things started to go downhill.
She started saying things that sounded awful that weren't really true. She saw some scrapbooks at the sorority house, and one had some pictures with naked guys in the background. Well, she decides to tell my friends that, "The sorority has scrapbooks filled with naked boys." Um. What? No. They weren't even the subject of the pictures!
Okay, whatever, maybe she just misspoke. Then one night she wakes me up and asks me where my roommate is. I'm just like "... I was asleep. How should I know? How did you get in here??" So later in the school year, I go to my sister's school and sleep over. D comes into the hallway and starts banging on my door in the middle of the night screaming, "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE LET ME IN."
My roommate at the time is like "...????" and opens the door. D is drunk. VERY drunk. My roomie says, "She’s not here, she's at her sister's college." "I KNOW SHE'S IN THERE" "No, seriously, look—" and points out my empty bed. D tries to sleep in the hallway. RA has to get her back to her room. Now alarm bells are going off, but it's too late to change the rooming assignment.
Fast forward to next semester, fall of my junior year. I have a single, she has a single, and the last room is my then-boyfriend and one of my best friends from college (let's call them E and R). R has a girlfriend I'm friends with, we'll call her L. L is over a lot, since she lives on top of a bar and the noise is ridiculous.
My boyfriend E is fine with this and basically just sleeps in my room the entire time. One day, we can't find the soap. We ask D if she knows where it is. She says she doesn't know. She later says that she felt we were taking advantage of her because she bought soap twice, and she saw it in a drawer. We explain that we had put it in a drawer because you can't have anything out when it's cleaned, so they just put in a drawer.
She felt we were "taking possession of the soap." Um. Okay? R bought a huge thing of soap that we used for the rest of the year. No big deal, right? This is the first of many meetings we need to have with her because she will have issues with us and instead of telling us, goes straight to the RA or the RD. This gets problematic.
A few meetings later, we find her cleaning everything in her room. She says she got fruit flies. We weren't that surprised. She'd left fruit sitting for days in the common room we had to throw out. She needed to clean everything. Okay, cool, no problem. RA comes when she's out of the suite and says, "Oh, so D told you she's moving out then?"
Uh, what??? No, she didn't. "Oh. Well." She comes back, admits to it. We're like okay, I guess? We're mostly blindsided by this. She goes to the RD and says we’re the reason for the fruit flies, because, as she says, "she saw crumbs in our room." Uh. The fruit flies were in HER backpack, and since when do fruit flies go for crumbs?!
So, she moves out. But she doesn't check out. The room is empty but for the basic furniture. Plus, some of her toiletries are still in the bathroom, and a mirror. After about two weeks, we figure she just abandoned the stuff. L takes the mirror and puts it in E and R's room, as she makes her own clothes and it helps her.
E and R have a posterboard with Magic cards laid out on them for organization on the desks in the empty room. One day out of the blue with no warning, when E, L and I are there, D comes to check out. She asks us to move the Magic cards. No problem, we move them. Then she starts grumbling about how it's actually her room.
Uh, you moved out two weeks ago. It's not your room anymore. Then the RA's going through the usual thing, and gets up to paying for damages in the main room. She starts going off about how she was never in that room and blah blah blah. We have to explain to her that he's saying that IF there are damages, and there aren't any.
"Oh, okay." Cool. Then she says, "Did I leave a mirror here?" L says, "Yeah, it's in E and R's room, I was using it. We didn't know you still wanted it." And D goes, "Oh I still want it," goes, grabs it, and leaves with it, shaking her head and saying, "Don't know why people are taking my stuff..." We figure this is the last of it. Right? Wrong.
She comes back a few minutes later and says, "L, R's not here, so you're not supposed to be here, and I told the RA so he can kick you out." I say, "D, she can be here, she's my friend too." She says, "Uh, no, not really." Someone else says, "No, she's my friend too." Then she turns to me and says, "Well, go screw yourself, witch." And she leaves. I'm in shock. I'm a nice person.
No one has ever called me that to my face before. And then I'm livid. My then-boyfriend gets me to calm down. We change the code on our door so she can't get in anymore, and throw out the rest of the stuff she left behind. We think that's the last of it, for real this time. Weeks later, after not talking about it at all, E and I are walking up one of the sidewalks from our dorm, and she comes up.
I don't remember what we were saying exactly, but from behind us we hear, "OH HEY GUYS." Guess who it is? D. Yup. Awkward. A few weeks later, one of my sorority sisters comes up to me and asks me about the whole fiasco. I tell her what happened and she says, "That's what I thought." "Why?" "I was at a party and D was saying all these awful things about you, and I was just like, 'That doesn't sound like the girl I know.'"
I have no idea how long she continued to badmouth me, but believe me, I was glad when I officially would never see her again.
83. Do NOT Mess With the Dog
My friend volunteered to house sit and watch our dog while we went overseas on vacation. What she actually did was leave him locked in the house for days because she was too busy "working" to bother letting him out or give him water. Our house was easily 30 minutes closer to her job than her place was. We no longer talk and still have the dog.
84. More Isn’t Always Merrier
My friends and I had this online friend who lived in a bordering state that we played games with all the time. He found out we were planning a big LAN party and asked if he could take the train down and come. We all thought it'd be cool, and I agreed to let him stay with me at my mom's place. The guy was 6' tall, 400+ pounds, and I don't think showered often.
In the four days he was there, didn't take a shower. Now, I'm not trying to rag on him, he was a nice guy and fun to play with, but it just goes with the story. He ended up falling asleep on my bed at one point, which was next to the window. We lived in basically the desert and it's about 100 every day during summer. The blinds happened to be open and he literally was roasting in the sun.
The sweat had completely soaked the mattress—I so wish I was kidding—and the smell wouldn't go away no matter how much we washed or scrubbed. Sadly, had to get rid of the mattress.
85. Confessions of a Serial Thief
My next-door neighbor in college. I wasn't really close friends with him, but he was an okay guy that I talked to a couple of times a week. Strange, but nice enough to have a conversation. Then towards the end of the year, he told a friend on our dorm floor that he secretly stole girls’ panties from the laundry room downstairs.
Not just anyone's, but specific girls’. He even showed him the collection. This friend told the RA and after about two weeks he was kicked out of the dorm. It took them two weeks because they didn't have proof, but all of the girls this guy said he'd stolen from mentioned they were missing panties. He came to me and asked if I'd put in a good word—no dude, we're not cool anymore.
86. Daddy’s Little Monster
The one who takes the cake is probably Snowflake. A little background: Snowflake is the daughter of a high-middle class family with little to nothing to be worried about in the world, yet seems to have her brain badly wired because she would pretend to like you, then talk about you behind your back, then finally blame it on another person or some stupid excuse like, "the doctor changed my meds."
She would never tell you directly that she didn't like you, you could only know if the people she talked to had the decency of letting you know she had been rambling about how you were Satan incarnated and ate babies for dinner. The worst part about Snowflake is how she played the part of daddy's sweet little girl, but only found a sense of purpose when hating someone.
Hence, not a month passes without her finding a new target. I know at least three other friends who have been through this with her, yet I was the only one with enough common sense to tell her to stay away from me when she gave me a classical half-hearted apology.
87. Traded in For an Older Model
I had a group of online friends for a bit. I am really close with my older brother, like best buds. One day, while we were playing league, I asked my brother to join after a while. I guess because my brother was better at the game than me, they stopped inviting me to any games, so I eventually was separated from the group.
One of them came to my state for an event and asked my brother if he wanted to go. He said yeah, and then asked me. I was a bit hesitant but after my brother insisted, I went. I did have fun, but they were moments that made me remember that I am really not in that group anymore.
88. Bussing Right out of This Friendship
I had this friend in elementary school, I think his name was Dillan or something along those lines. I became friends with him because he liked a lot of old shooter arcade games such as Galaga and the like, and I did as well. I wanted him to sit next to me on the bus one day, and he refused. He wanted to sit next to his other friends.
I insisted that he just at least sit next to me for one day, and then he got real salty and said something that broke my heart. He told me: "We are not friends." I just kinda sat there for a bit and felt pretty upset. In fourth grade, he took out his pencil and started drawing on the classroom floor like an idiot, and would later start chucking pieces of rubber on the playground at other kids, mostly first graders.
Pretty glad I wasn't friends with him for long.
89. Maid of Dishonor
I was standing in a store checking out an item in a glass case. I could hear a familiar voice in the store, and while I was thinking of turning around to say hello, I caught the reflection of my two friends in the glass case. I could hear one of them whispering "is that_____?" and something struck me as odd. So instead of turning around, I pretended to keep looking at the item in the case.
That way, I could watch their reflection behind me without being obvious. I then saw my other friend make the "shush" motion and they both hid their faces and turned and left. I was so choked. The worst part was that one of the friends was my maid of honor only two months prior. I thought we had a great friendship. We’d been friends for nine years.
All that made me re-evaluate that friendship. Luckily, a week later, she let me know she was moving 700 km away. I blocked her out of my online life after that.
90. The Weight of Friendship
These “friends” constantly made fun of my weight up until I burst into tears. They also never apologized for it. All I could think was, "Maybe you’re being too sensitive.” Still, those hurtful comments are embedded in my memory. But now I’m 135 lbs., screw those people.
91. The Death of a Friendship
I was heartbroken when my father died, but soon after, I experienced another crushing blow. NONE of my friends showed up to the funeral. It was an hour and a half away, so when they made up excuses not to come I said I understood. I didn't. Surprisingly, two of my neighbors who I barely knew at the time showed up. I'm friends with them now.
92. Spreading Himself Thin
I invited him over to my house and he pooped all over my toilet. It was all over the seat and a bit of it landed on the floor.
93. The Saddest Day of Your Life
My wife and I had a small wedding. I didn’t invite a ton of people, but I invited 15 or so friends. That day, my worst nightmare came true. Besides my best man, only one showed up. What’s worse is that all these people said they were coming. I no longer put effort into those friendships. In fact, I’ve struggled with social anxiety my whole life.
These “friends” were all the people that I had met at work. I work at a big company and this was the first time I actually had friends. Or I thought I did. I wouldn’t call any of them super-close, but I thought they were at least close enough to come to my wedding. They always talked about coming and would comment saying that I better invite them.
I worked on several different teams at work back then, and most of them didn’t know each other. I don’t think it was intentional. I just think I misinterpreted what true friends are. I was more of a casual friend to them than they were to me. I did wonder if I did something wrong, and it made me feel pretty awful for a while.
As someone who didn’t have much experience with friendships, I think I just invited people who didn’t really value me as much as I valued them. Still, I definitely looked back at my behavior and wondered for the longest time if I had done something wrong, if it was my fault.
94. Unwanted Attention
At a friend’s party, me and two friends were sharing a room and one threw up, so we told him to go to the bathroom. Once he left, the other friend started coming onto me real strong. As in stroking my face and arms and commenting on how nice a guy I am, etc. Even when I had turned around and had pretended to start sleeping he kept on stroking my back and getting pretty close which was making me pretty uncomfortable, but I was drunk.
I was going to let it go that one time for the sake of the friend group, but after him doing something similar when I was driving him home I distanced him as much as possible.
95. Rubbernecking to the Extreme
It sounds hard to believe someone could be this horrible, but she loved misery. I was driving her to work (she lived on my couch) and she was sobbing hysterically in the passenger seat, she really hated her job and was an unbalanced person. We come across a horrible wreck, her tears dry up instantly and she gets this huge smile, I’ve never seen her so happy.
I ask what caused the sudden change and she starts laughing like a lunatic—side-splitting giggles. She says that it looks like there were some fatalities due to the wreck and seeing it just made her day. I was pretty disgusted/creeped out. She was absolutely chipper for the next two days.
96. Is He the Doctor or the Patient?
I'm pretty sure a friend of mine is dating a sociopath for various reasons I can't go into. He is the kind of guy that seems like he read a book about how to manipulate people. Creepy as can be. He was flirting with me right in front of her, but not in an obvious way where I could call him on it. My husband wanted to kick his butt. No one in our group likes him. We just feel bad for our friend.
Like anytime he would walk to go somewhere in the house we were hanging at, he would make effort to place his hand on my lower back, or shoulder. Even though there was plenty of room to not do that. He did that with everyone. Even the guys. At the end of the night when we were leaving, he touched my husband’s cheek. My husband told him to never touch him again, and he just laughed...He wants to work with mentally ill patients.
97. The Least Dangerous Game: Man
I knew a girl who would befriend American gamers to the point where they would buy her free plane tickets that she'd end up using as a free holiday. She said she loved walking right past them at the airport while they looked for some chick who wasn't her. She never gave her real photo, so they never knew. She did it at least twice.
98. Obsessive Father
One summer, when I was about 13, a friend of mine had a girl from her school who invited us over to go swimming in her pool. We go to her place and are shown to her room to change. As I'm changing my friend suddenly whispers "What the heck?" I turn around and see a bunch of used sanitary pads lined up on this girl's desk. She comes to join us in her room and my friend flat out asks her what the pads are all about.
She says, very plainly, "They're for my dad so he can check that I'm not pregnant."
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99. Well, You Did Throw the Bouquet…
She flew in town to be a bridesmaid in my wedding. And she decided to cheat on her husband with one of the groomsmen and blame me for that. Because it was my wedding, so that clearly makes it my fault that she was unfaithful.
100. It’ll Take a Lot to Kill This Pain
I had a friend in college who I thought was just a friend. Always thought she was so cool because she’d do anything for anyone. Turns out it was just me and most of the stories were lies. She was prescribed painkillers for something and had no problems sharing them as we hung out and smoked often.
We’d drive outside of campus through the cornfields and get high, listening to music and talking. One day she picks me up at my dorm and offers me a drink. Cool, but it’s already open. At first, I really thought nothing of it but then I take a sip and think something is definitely off. I taste the painkillers. Oooookay, maybe I’m paranoid?
I ask her to take me home and she asks if we can stop by her place first. Ok, but I think it’s a bit strange. We walk in and it’s literally trashed, dishes piled up, a few bags of trash lying around. She starts GOING OFF about how much she cleans and her roommates just trash the place, how she just “did the dishes yesterday and took out the trash” I’m seeing food dried to plates, trying hard to understand how four girls can make three bags of trash in 24 hours, no freaking way she was telling the truth.
Then I realized how she was cleaning—dropping it low, thong showing, flirtatious talking—and now I realize I’m starting to feel the effects of the painkillers; with every new bout of blurred vision and itchy skin I realize need to get the hell out of there NOW. Texted my brother to meet me in the middle of campus and to keep heading towards her place if I didn’t show up.
The last thing that I remember is hugging my brother and then waking up the next day. She never tried to speak to me again but made sure to ask everyone we knew why I was mad at her to see if I told anyone. You’re lucky I didn’t, JESSICA! If a girl is obsessed with horses, run far, run fast and don’t look back.
101. Good Thing You Stayed Away
A dude a year younger than me in my sophomore gym class came out as gay and was basically ostracised. He was quirky and didn't have the best hygiene, of course, he was to be avoided. I decided to be nice to him and offered to be his gym partner because I have also been bullied for being different. After a few weeks, he turns into a nice guy and starts hitting on me hard.
Gave off really intense vibes. It was very weird and he admitted he lied about being gay to get sympathy. I avoided him like the plague. Next year, I'm in a trade school for my junior year. The whole school goes into lockdown because dude stole a gun, shot his mom six times, and was making his way to the high school with a hit list.
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