A friend is someone you trust, someone who has your back through thick and thin, right?
These people couldn't believe it when someone close to them decided to stab in the back, throwing their whole friendship into jeopardy. How can you forgive someone or ever trust them again after they've done something like that?
(Content has been edited for clarity)
They Trusted Each Other For 20 Years
“This was seven years ago, and I’m still mad about it. I’m 30 now, and we were friends from the age of 4 to 23 — almost 20 years — during which time we had borrowed money from each other often and always paid it back.
So one day he asked to borrow a few grand for a car, and I was like, sure, no problem, he’ll pay me back next month like he always does (I borrowed the same amount from him before FYI).
I transferred the money and then didn’t hear from him for a few days, so I went round to his parents’ place. It turns out he used the money to move abroad and set up a new life with a random woman he met online. I almost wish I could say it didn’t work out, but they got married and had three kids and now lives in a nice big house.
I gave him all the money I had at the time, and it ruined me for quite a while. I got into debt and had other issues that just spiraled from that point. Meanwhile, he cut all ties. Deleted all social media, email address, phone number, etc. I know which city he lives in but not much more than that, and haven’t had what I would consider a best friend again since.
I wonder if he even knows what it did to my life.”
How Did She THINK It Would Work Out?
“Okay, so I was maybe 19 or 20 in college, and my best friend was also my roommate at the time. We had roomed together for our sophomore year, and I thought everything was great. We came back in our junior year, moved in together, and everything was fab.
One week later she hit me with, ‘We need to talk.’ Okay, we’ve only been back a week but yeah sure! This chick had a list, an ACTUAL WRITTEN OUT LIST, of all the reasons she didn’t like me. Not ‘doesn’t like rooming with me,’ doesn’t like ME, as a person. Not stuff like ‘your side of the room is always messy’ or ‘your music is too loud,’ but things like, ‘I just don’t trust you’ (yeah that was one). I consider myself a perfectly trustworthy person, and when I asked her why she didn’t trust me, she didn’t have a reason. When I asked her what I could do to help fix it, she didn’t have an answer.
I worked for months to stay out of her way. I got up at 6 a.m., went to bed at 2 a.m., just to avoid talking to her. For a semester and a half, I tried to make things better. All while the prep school princess changed nothing. We talked with RAs, with the dorm director, everything.
I ended up breaking down from the lack of sleep (four hours a night for six months will do that to you) and just being around her. This girl was my best friend and came at me with a list of personal attacks, knowing full well we were rooming together for an entire academic year. I ended up moving off campus halfway through the spring semester, and because she had been telling all our other friends how terrible I was for months, spent my senior year alone.”
He Made His Choice
“I’m not salty about it anymore; it was too long ago. But my best friend growing up stopped being friends with me because of a girl he had just met. We became friends when we were 4. He was three months older than me, so growing up we went to school together. Our parents were friends. We went to the same church. So we spent most of our time hanging out.
When we were 17, he met this girl, and after the first time she met me, she told him she didn’t want him hanging out with me. She said it right in front of me. Without hesitation, he told me to leave and never talked to me again. It’s been nearly 20 years now. I see him about once every couple of years. He’s married to her now. He’s not allowed to have friends outside of her family and is completely miserable. His parents can’t stand her because of how unbelievably rude she is to them and rarely lets them see their grandkids.
It’s been so long now that I could care less and barely know them, but it’s not something I would forgive.”
She Betrayed Me When I Needed Her The Most
“I was lonely in high school and got bullied a lot. When I was about 14 or 15, my only ‘best friend’ at the time teamed up with two girls who didn’t like me to Catfish me. I don’t know why because we weren’t fighting or anything.
Anyway, they pretended to be a guy romantically interested in me and e-mailed me out of the blue. They talked to me for months as this guy, before I trusted ‘him’ enough to give him answers to really personal questions.
I found out who ‘he’ was after they told everyone every scrap of personal information I’d told my online friend. And it was some personal stuff. I was already depressed, and this experience ended up making me start self-harming — a habit I only finally kicked about a year ago. I am pretty happy to say that although I still have depression, I can resist my self-harm thoughts and I hope I can continue to do so for many years to come.
That said, screw you, Melissa. It’s been 15 years, and I still think it was a horrible thing to do to me.”
If You’re So Much Better Than Us, Why Do You Want To Come To Our Wedding?
“I had recently gotten engaged, and my fiancé and I were starting to look at venues to hold the reception (the wedding would be in a church). My parents weren’t in a position to pay for the entire thing, so my fiancé and I were going to pay for most of it.
I told my best friend at the time about one of the places we were going to look at, and she said ‘don’t you think that looks kind of….cheap? I mean, I guess that if we tried, we could have a nice wedding there, but your parents won’t spring for something a little nicer? You can only put so much lipstick on a pig.’
When I told her that my fiancé and I were paying for it, she went on a tirade about how she couldn’t believe my parents weren’t paying for it and about how, when she was engaged (it broke off before anything was actually planned) her dad wrote her a blank check, and she spent 10 minutes berating my parents. I calmly hung up the phone and never spoke a word to her again.
We are getting married in April. The wedding is going to be beautiful, and she is NOT going to be there to see it.”
He’s Still Mad About It
“We were 14-15 years old at the time. I had some old issues of Mad Magazine, which I loaned to friend. By pure coincidence, I found some of them in a second-hand shop a couple of weeks later. The very same, with my name on the inside of the cover page and everything.
So I asked him for my magazines back, just to see if he would at least fess up, but he told me that he would get them for me the next day. Next day came, and he told me a heartbroken story about how sorry he was, but that his mother had thrown them in the garbage.
When I wanted to know how I had found them in the shop if his mother had thrown them out, he got all angry and wanted to know why I was making such a fuss about a few comic books. He needed pocket money, and he sold my magazines. That’s all there was to it. And that was the end of that friendship.”
He Must Have Known How Bad It Was, But He Did It Anyway
“He slept with my then-girlfriend. This was roughly four years ago. I’m still kind of upset.
Seriously though, screw him and screw her. That’s ridiculous. There are millions of other girls, and you just say ‘eh, we’re not friends anymore I guess.’
It does make me feel better that I’m married now to an amazing woman, and my ex-girlfriend is a washed-up loser, and my ex-friend is in his 30’s working at a bar until his music career ‘takes off.’
Also, I did end up screwing his sister, so there’s that. There’s a reason I’m the only KIND OF upset now.”
He Really Thought He Could Be Forgiven For THAT?
“When I was in my late teens, I was essentially homeless. One of my best friends was moving away for college and offered to let me stay in his apartment for the remainder of the lease if I would cover half the rent. I was working at a sandwich place at the time, not making more than $7.50 per hour, so it sounded like a great deal.
I paid him for the first month and was evicted less than month later by the apartment managers. It turns out my ‘bestie’ hadn’t been paying rent, took my money, and left me without a place to live.
Thankfully, one of my co-workers let me stay with him until I could get back on my feet.
A few years ago, my former friend saw me at a bar during the holidays and tried to talk to me. Without a word, I just gave him the blankest, vacant, uncaring stare I’ve ever given anyone in my life. He eventually left me alone.”
It’s Hard To Be Friends With A Cheater
“My friend at work decided she was going to have an affair and told me all about it.
She had a boyfriend, but this male coworker of ours kept hitting on her. He was married, with kids, and his wife was pregnant at the time. I told her he was bad news. Just leave him alone, I said.
She started sleeping with him. Having ‘mind-blowing’ nights with him, apparently. She confided in me a few times about it. Each time, I told her she needed to stop, immediately. To forget about him and either leave her boyfriend or tell her boyfriend and work through it.
She decided she was in love with him. She cried over him when he wouldn’t sleep with her anymore. She told all of our coworkers about the affair (which most likely made it back to the married guy, because he was higher up). The married guy was quickly moved to another shift, and she obsessed about him for weeks.
She and I had a great friendship, but I lost all respect for her after this. She was my best friend. The best friend I’d ever had.
Screw you, girl. We all make mistakes, but you gladly went deeper down the hole of trickery. I will always miss you, but screw you.”
Molly Wanted To Help, Until Jack Had A Problem With It
“Two years ago I finally broke up with my ex of seven years. To introduce me back into dating, my friend Molly took me out on a double date with a guy she was seeing named Jack and his friend Sean.
He was Irish and charming, and we had chemistry. I didn’t want something serious, but I wanted to see Sean again because he was really fun and I was kinda down from my break up.
The day after the date Molly told me I’m ‘not allowed’ to see Sean anymore. Jack said he was worried that if (and a big ‘if’) Sean and I started dating, people would ask questions about how we met, which would point to Jack and Molly. This was a problem because Molly was a student in Jack’s seminar, as he was a teacher’s assistant at the university they went to.
One, I was upset that Jack would be so freaking weird about a situation that wasn’t gonna happen anyways. He was a jerk.
Two, I was upset that Molly — after seeing me go from miserable with my ex to finally having fun again — would want to please that irrational jerk so badly that she would bar me from seeing someone I liked.
Three, I was upset that even after a civil discussion with her about how I felt, she wouldn’t budge.
So, me being a good friend, I begrudgingly blew off Sean after a vague explanation of the situation. A week or so later, Jack ghosted Molly for no reason, and things ended between them. Even after that, she didn’t want me seeing Sean, in case Jerk von Jerkenstein wanted her back.
Molly and I are still friends, and I love her to death, but I’m still kinda salty.”
If You Can Afford A Manicure, You Can Afford To Pay Me Back
“A friend was leaving a crappy relationship, had a 1-year-old son, and was pretty down on her luck. She asked to borrow $2,000 for a damage deposit and first month’s rent and promised to pay me back after her next payday. I was naive and trusted her.
In hindsight, I should have known due to her situation that she wouldn’t be able to pay me back that quickly. Anyway, I gave her the money and haven’t seen a dime of it. What makes it unforgivable for me is that in the three years that have passed, she is doing well, bought a brand-new car, moved into a beautiful condo, always has her hair and nails done, etc.
I feel like if she can afford these things, she could have paid me $50 each pay period or whatever she could when she could. But obviously paying me back (and preserving our friendship) is not a priority for her In fact, whenever I have contacted her about it, she just ignores me.
Lesson learned. I don’t lend anyone money and will teach my children the same. I know not everyone is like my ‘friend,’ but it often seems that people who are generous or good-natured get taken advantage of in those situations.”
Yeah, Lying To A Teacher Is SO Hilarious
“I was having a misunderstanding with one of my professors in university about something stupid related to a group project when one of my friends decided to be ‘funny.’ He started asking me while I was arguing with the professor, ‘why I did what I did’ and ‘why I ruined the work’ and said that he’d ‘correct the mistake.’
Even after the issue cooled down, he kept bringing it up again and again, making things worse. And to this day, I don’t know if he was just stupid enough not to realize that what he was doing was not appropriate and that the matter was serious, or whether he wanted to undermine me in front of the professor.”
Sorry For Saving Your Life
“My friend drove over to my house for a small get together. Most people were getting hammered, but he said he was driving so we let him have one drink while the rest of us played drinking games. He saw how much fun we were having and decided he wanted to drink with us. I told him he was welcome to crash on my couch for the night if he wanted to join in the fun. So he agreed!
After we finished quite a few drinks, we headed outside to smoke some grass. While chilling in a circle, this guy almost passed out. He managed to catch himself before he hit the ground but we could tell he was just gone. We ended up putting him on the couch thinking that would be it for him for the night.
He randomly got up half an hour later while the rest of us were still drinking. He started putting on his shoes and heading for the door, and we asked him what he was doing. He said he was tired and was going to head home. We looked at him and asked how he was planning on getting home. He said he was going to drive, ‘duh.’ I told him he was way too messed up to drive.
He argued back and forth for a bit with everyone else at the house that he was ‘sober enough to drive.’ We offered to order him an Uber home, and we even offered to pay for it! He claimed that he didn’t want to have to come back in the morning to get his car. After a long discussion, he decided that against everything we said, he was just going to hop in his car and go! We chased after him and wrestled his keys away from him, but he kept fighting to get them back.
Eventually, we got him in the house and also managed to get ahold of his brother. We convinced him at 3 a.m. to get out of bed, hop in an Uber and drive his brother’s wobbly butt home. The brother got there in less than half an hour and thanked us for not letting him drive that night.
We never so much as heard a ‘thanks’ from the friend though. We possibly saved you from losing your license or killing someone or yourself, but yeah, we’re the jerks.
I haven’t heard from him since, and I couldn’t be happier.”
She Stole My Argument!
“It was the ninth grade, and selections for an inter-school debate contest were happening. It was to be an interactive session where we would be observed by teachers and short-listed, then final selections would be based on individual interviews.
I worked on the topics all weekend and took help from my debate-trophy-holding uncle. I made notes, highlights, added references, the works.
Come discussion time, my friend leans over and peeks at my notes, steals my best arguments, gets wowed by everyone at the table and is short-listed along with me and a couple of others. I give her a venomous look, and all she has to say for herself is, ‘I want to be in this, I may leave next year.’
In the second round, she was dropped because she couldn’t make it through the individual interview. I got in.
I’m not proud of it as an adult, but at the time I was happy to see tears in her eyes.”
They Waited Until The Last Possible Minute To Tell Them
“The day after my wedding, my wife’s sister and brother came up to us and said, ‘We don’t have money to pay for the hotel.’ It was a two-night stay, and they said this as everyone at our wedding was checking out of the hotel and wishing my wife and I a bon voyage on our honeymoon. In order to not make a scene in front of everyone, we paid the roughly $800 for their accommodations.
I was salty, but what made me salty was that we told them months in advance that if they were staying at the hotel, they needed to save money because we were not paying for it. They only lived 45 minutes from the hotel and did not need to stay.
The icing on this salty cake was that my sister-in-law ordered room service ($22 chicken strip platter and $35 steak dinner) plus two on-demand movies. What sort of weasel does that?! Walk across the street and get some cheap food somewhere else. You make minimum wage, and you spend money like that at a hotel?
I have come to find out that both of them are garbage people who beg for money constantly, and when we don’t comply they talk trash about us.”
The More You Give Us, The More Wii Take
“There was this girl I met at university and with whom became friends. We bonded over games and ended up moving into a student share house together with two other girls.
After a year, I was moving out of the share house to move in with my boyfriend, and we both had Nintendo Wii U’s (my boyfriend and me). This chick asked what we were going to do, as we obviously didn’t need two Wii’s. We said we’d probably trade it in at a game store, and she said she’d buy it but couldn’t pay it off all at once. We said sure, we’d sell it to her for $100 (an amazingly cheap deal by the way), and she could just pay us $20 or so every time we came back to town.
She said sure, and we gave her the Wii U plus a bunch of spare accessories. A year goes by, we’ve gotten barely anything, and I get cranky and go off at her. We finally get what we’re owed through a mutual friend. I haven’t spoken to her since.
Anyway, about a year and a half or so later I am talking to another friend (Chick 2 to make this easier) who I met through Chick 1. She’d been around through the first drama, had agreed that Chick 1 was being a lousy friend and had even been a big help in finally getting the money back from Chick 1.
I mention offhand that I’m going to upgrade to the new Nintendo 3DS XL, and Chick 2 asks about the old one.
‘I’ll probably sell it online. I think I could get about $200 for it,’ I say.
‘I wouldn’t mind buying it,’ she says.
‘Oh sure. Because you’re a friend, how about $180?’ I say.
‘Yeah, that’s good. I just can’t pay it off all at once,’ she says.
‘Oh that’s okay, I’ll give it to you now, and you can pay me when you have the money. I trust you. You’re not like [Chick 1] and won’t make me wait a year to give back what you owe.’
‘Haha, yeah, I’m not like that.’
Two years since that conversation, and not a single cent. I spoke to her a few times after that, but there was a separate incident where I got guilt-tripped into having to drive an hour away on crappy roads right after I’d been in a car accident.
I cut my losses, but I’m still upset. She took advantage of me, both of them did, and I was too much of an idiot to realize it. I now refuse to sell stuff to friends, period.”