freepik @rawpixel-com

At one time or another, most of us have found a person who we felt a strong connection with, someone who felt like a perfect match. However, regardless of how well two people get along or how long they’ve been close, sometimes individuals are left without any true friends. Here are some tales of the most audacious and ruthless “friends.”

1. The Couple Next to Us

freepik @freepik

Years ago, my husband and I visited his hometown and his friends from high school. One couple warned us that they had become such close friends with the next-door couple it almost wrecked their marriage. They didn’t get into many details, but it sounded like their neighbors were getting between the couple and amplifying their arguments by taking sides.

I took it as good advice and my husband and I stuck to ourselves when we moved to a new neighborhood. And it worked: he and I were true best friends until his death many years later.

2. Who’s Calling the Shots Now?

freepik @senivpetro

I was a bouncer in college but this particular night I was off work. I was enjoying my evening when another bouncer (who was also a good friend) texts me ordering me to come in to work. Basically, this dude claims he’s my boss and that he has authority over me, which he doesn’t.

I’d been friends with the guy for three years at that point, but when he pulled this stunt I had the sudden realization that he was an egocentric jerk who probably didn’t care at all for our friendship. Soon after, I drove to the bar and told the owner I couldn’t work with this guy and quit.

I liked that job, but sometimes the “friends” you work with can make it unbearable.

3. A Moment of Enlightenment

freepik @freepic-diller

Honestly…I learned my friends weren’t good ones during the lockdown. I had been spending so much time with them previous to that that I didn’t have the time to think about who they really were. Then once we were all shut up inside our homes, I was able to watch their social medias from afar and things started to rub me the wrong way.

Once we finally met up again after, I realized how much I had outgrown them and how lockdown seemed to put them all into a time machine. It seemed like they regressed as human beings, and were back to who they were in high school.

4. Gossip Chain

freepik @jcomp

Someone was spreading rumors around work about one group of my friends. I heard about it, and was even questioned by a few people who wanted to know if the rumors were true. I stuck up for the one friend who was really implicated by the rumors and I even went to my best pal to talk to her about how to best handle the situation.

I didn’t want to cause even more harm. But it backfired on me in the worst way. The friend who the rumors were about had decided in the meantime that I must have been the one to spread these nasty rumors. She also figured that because I was unable to attend our regular monthly brunch date (because I was sick by the way), that I must have been avoiding her.

The worst thing was that no one in the group had my back—not even the one close friend who I discussed the rumor issue with! They decided to fight fire with fire and spread their own rumors about me for weeks at work. It all felt absurd and slightly surreal. I’m talking about women in their 40s, not teenagers or young adults…

5. Left Out in the Cold

freepik @lifeforstock

Years ago, I was really close friends with two people. Until one day. We were all out and about enjoying our time off, and it started snowing and my friend’s truck broke down. Now, he was driving all three of u and was planning on taking us each to our respective homes before his truck started going on the fritz.

He called another friend to come look at the truck, and apparently, it wasn’t too complicated to fix. But in the meantime, it was super cold outside and everything had escalated into a snow storm. While the truck was getting fussed over, the friend who owned the truck turned to me and said, “You should probably just walk home. I’m not sure how much longer this will be.”

Nearly in the same breath, I heard him turn to my other friend and say “I’ll take you home as soon as it’s fixed.” What?! What sense would it make to take her home, but not me? Especially after it had been an agreed-upon plan, and we were stuck in the middle of a snowstorm! They both were willing to just let me walk home, alone in the dark and cold snow. Huh…

6. The Real Mean Girls

freepik @drobotdean

My friends were obsessed with The Real Housewives and I soon discovered that they must have been trying to enact their own version of the show when all they did was meet up to talk trash about people. The friendship would have no substance if they weren’t constantly just ripping into each other.

You never wanted to be away from a social event because if you weren’t there, you immediately became the target. Sure, everyone was nice to each other’s faces, but that never lasted long. Lots of “jokes” that weren’t funny, but incredibly cruel, and things shared in confidence or in a moment of vulnerability were just fuel for gossip.

They’ll have to cast a new member of their crew, because I quit.

7. Betrayed by My Best Friend

freepik @freepik

While I was going through fertility treatments (including multiple rounds of IUI and IVF), my friend dealt me the most brutal betrayal. She tells me “Don’t talk to me about the baby stuff. I don’t ever want kids so I can’t relate.” It shocked the wits out of me!

We were friends for over 10 years and she was my Maid of Honor in my wedding, but she couldn’t be supportive of my desire to have children. How couldn’t she understand that I needed someone to talk to after the demanding nature of fertility treatments?

8. A Tale of a Toxic Friend and a Quitting Smoker

freepik @lookstudio

This one friend I had used to frequently come up to my room (in our college dorm) and borrow cigs. It was no biggie for the first few days, but then he literally used to walk in, saw nothing, and take my box of smokes out the door with him.

I suppose it was a good motivator for me because I stopped smoking just so that moocher wouldn’t visit my room anymore. And as if he hadn’t already demonstrated he was a jerk friend, after I quit he criticized me for the choice!

After I told him to get out, I should have said “put that in your pipe and smoke it!”

9. The Day My Childhood Friends Became Strangers

freepik @senivpetro

It was the start of sixth grade. I played with the same girls on my street practically every day through elementary school. There were three girls my age and one girl who was two years younger. We were inseparable! A dream team, even!

The first day of sixth grade, we met up to walk to the end of the street to catch the bus (which was a big deal). But something was off. They wouldn’t talk to me. It was almost as if they had had a meeting at the end of summer and decided they didn’t want to be friends with me anymore.

From then on, I had two choices each morning: walk with them and feel like a loser, or walk by myself and feel like a loser. Thankfully I had a (real) friend who lived at the end of the street where the bus stop was. So luckily when I got there, I could just hang out with her until the bus arrived.

I soon discovered that the initial group of girls who lived right by me had gotten themselves into the in-crowd, and they must have decided I was a social liability. As much as it hurt, it also baffled me because I couldn’t understand the logic. I didn’t want to be in the in-crowd, but I did want to understand how it worked, like from an ethnographic perspective.

The idea is still a mystery to me, all these years later…

10. Christmas Presents and Broken Friendships

freepik @pvproductions

It all started when my friends and I had a plan to trade Christmas gifts a couple of days after Christmas Day. However, we had to cancel because someone got sick. I had left the presents at my parents’ house because some of them were heavy.

My dad was even meant to give me a lift (with presents in tow) to one of my friend’s houses because of this. I had also wrapped them all while I was there, so that’s where they stayed while our friend recovered from illness.

On a day just after New Years, two friends showed up at my house unannounced to trade gifts. I was flustered and told them that I wasn’t expecting them. I proceeded to tell them exactly what had gone down with their presents—I even said I could get my dad to bring them over. They were completely livid and left.

My now ex-boyfriend backed me up and explained to them that A) it’s rude to turn up unannounced, and B) he could confirm that was indeed where the presents were, and I wasn’t lying about having them. Both friends took to social media and bagged me out to mutual friends. Luckily, the mutual friends believed me.

The worst part was that these two “friends” called me spoiled and leapt to conclusions because I had a “new” used 2007 Red Getz car in my garage. They claimed to everyone that I had gotten them nothing for Christmas because I had spent all of my money on a car. In reality, it was a second-hand car that my parents had pitched in to help me get because my previous trash-box had been totaled by a driver who had crashed into my parked car.

I still can’t believe that Christmas presents could break up friendships so easily. I can understand their disappointment when they arrived, but when you turn up unannounced, sometimes you don’t get the reaction that you’re expecting.

11. The Friend Who Used Me for a Job, Then Ghosted Me

freepik @drazenzigic

I had one friend who asked me to help him get a job. I wrote his entire resume, coached him through interviews, drafted thank you notes to employers, and finally got him an extremely high-paying job at one of the biggest companies in the world. Then he asked me to write his bio for the company website. His next move ticked me off.

Not only did he never even say a single thank you, when he made his big public “announcement” on Facebook about the new job, he didn’t even mention me. Right after this, he straight up ghosted me. Never heard from him again.

12. Happy Ending

freepik @tirachardz

I happened to fall in love with someone in my friend group. She was dating someone she was unhappy with and so was I. Both of these people we were dating were also in the same friend group. Eventually, as fates would have it, both of us ended our unhappy relationships and took our time to come together. It turned into a straight-up mess.

None of the people in the friend group have spoken to us since. It hurts even more when it is really clear that we are now in a healthy, thriving relationship with the person we should have been with all along. You’d think your friends would support a decision that has visibly created so much happiness…

13. Backstabbed by My Closest Friend

freepik @jcomp

My ex-best friend started seeing someone who he had been interested in for years after I told him to stop being so shy and just ask the girl. A month before they got together, I had asked him to come with me on my road trip back home for a wedding. I didn’t want to travel alone and he was my best pal. He agreed to come along for the six-day trip.

So they get together, and then his new girlfriend found out about the trip. A week before we planned to leave and I had already paid for our accommodation, she said she no longer felt comfortable with him leaving. I asked why, and I couldn’t believe her reasoning. She said it was because I am a woman and he is a man.

Naturally, I laughed and said I had been friends with him for over four years. Nothing happened between us, nor would anything ever happen between us! I explained that I certainly did not see him in a romantic way and I honestly didn’t think she was being fair. What really shook me was when he sided with her and told me to go alone.

I had to cancel all of our plans and figure out another way because I didn’t want to road trip alone. Luckily, my aunt gave me some extra cash to get a plane ticket. When I got back from the trip, I told him that I didn’t think he was being a nice friend and that dropping me wasn’t cool. This is where he turned truly cruel.

He basically told me that he enjoyed that I was so easy to hurt and the fact that I would still stick around because I was nice. So, I haven’t spoken to him or his family (who I had been really close with) since. His dad came to my house and begged me to fix things. I really loved that family but I will not stay where I am being mistreated.

14. False Friends Unmasked

freepik @cookie-studio

I discovered my friends were jerks right after I had a huge mental breakdown and deleted all my social media accounts this year. People who I had spoken to daily on Snapchat—who I thought were truly great friends—were clearly only messaging me daily to maintain Snapchat streaks.

After I broke the streaks, they stopped reaching out. I haven’t heard from some of them for six months…

15. Be Straightforward

freepik @cookie-studio

A word of advice: hide your birthday on Facebook. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made. I don’t need Paul from Boise wishing me a happy birthday when I asked him to prom in 1987 and he said he’d “let me know” and I’m still waiting…

16. Goodbye and Good Riddance

freepik @drazenzigic

He would worm his way in to my relationships and then get my (now) exes to cheat on me with him. This happened three times.

17. Faithful Friend

freepik @drobotdean

My ex-best friend only ever talked about herself. I remember one time when I was with her, I was frantic because my dog had run away overnight. I had the fear of many pet owners: that he would be gone forever. After expressing my worries to her in hopes for consolation and support, her response was “Oh, yikes…Well, anyway, my weekend was kind of fun actually…”

She then proceeded to talk about how she made cookies with her sister. It’s true what they say, a dog really is a human’s best friend.

18. The Truth About My Breakup and Cheating Scandal

freepik @lookstudio

The guy I was dating for two years broke up for me for no reason. Or so I thought. I soon found out the real, horrible story. I found out later that it was because for the last year that we were together, he was cheating on me with one of my girlfriends. The real bummer was that all of my girlfriends lied to me about it.

One of my friends had actually hooked the two up, and then encouraged me to become friends with the girl. I became pretty close with her and had a feeling after my breakup that she and my ex were seeing each other. So, I confronted her about it but she claimed that my ex was “like a brother to her” and denied any connection…

When I did find out the truth that he had been cheating on me with this girl who had become my friend, I ended up making drastic life changes: I quit my job, moved houses and eventually cut all contact with all of those people. The whole experience messed me up for a while.

Therapy helped a lot, but it took all of my 20s to deal with it before I was able to have healthy friendships and a healthy romantic relationship again. I’m sure those girls (and my ex) didn’t realize the way this kind of stuff just stays with you…

19. Excluded and Used

freepik @katemangostar

I had a core group of friends who, to be fair, knew each other before they knew me. I just thought I had become a part of their group over time…well, I was so wrong. One time, they went on a trip together when we were all in high school. Photos were taken and shared and stories circulated for what seemed like forever. I was not invited in the first place.

It seemed to go overboard when they decided to make matching shirts with personalized pictures of their trip. The thing is, even after I expressed my upset over their blatant gushing, they knew my artsy abilities and asked me to Photoshop the photos of them laughing and having a blast.

Perhaps it was a rookie mistake, because I did it in the end.

20. The Story of a Stolen Song

freepik @prostooleh

I once opened up and told my friend about my childhood trauma. He offered some comfort and told me he could never imagine going through that. Then the next day, his actions blew my mind. He wrote a song using my trauma as the subject, and claiming it as his own experience! He had the nerve to play it for me after he finished writing it.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, he has been using this song to hook up with several women. I wasn’t sure if I was more upset at his audacity to think I wouldn’t recognize my own experience in his song, or that he actually managed to trick a bunch of women into feeling sympathy for him.

21. Misguided Friends and Betrayed Trust

freepik @fxquadro

This one time, I had a crush on a girl and was about to ask her out, but my friends talked me out of doing so. I suppose my own nerves played a part too. Every time I was about to approach her, they would just offer reminders like that she is currently focusing on her career, or that she is religious and wouldn’t date anyone and will probably end up getting into an arranged marriage instead.

After two years of being kind of friend-zoned (because of the “reminders” of my friends), one day I just went for it and asked her out. It turns out that none of those reasons my friends gave me were true. Instead, she had a boyfriend. She just hadn’t made it public because she did not want her conservative parents finding out. But it got so much worse.

Because guess what: that boyfriend was one of my “friends.” Everyone not only knew about it, they also helped convince her to date him in the first place. She was initially hesitant because of her conservative upbringing. They had been dating for about two months, while everyone knew I had a crush on her for over two years then.

Why just not tell me? I felt absolutely ridiculous when I was the last to find out…

22. Betrayer’s Revenge

freepik @jcomp

I’m a vegan for health reasons, so I don’t eat any products that come from an animal. After a night out drinking with friends in university, we all did the usual run to the nearest pizza shop for some junk food that would hopefully soak up some of the booze in our bodies.

Since some folks in our group were quite out of it. A few of us started towards home, while the other half stayed to pick up the pizzas. When everyone finally returned, pizzas were sprawled across various tables and laps. I ate from the box with a great big “V” labeled on it, which was the usual veggie pizza.

When I was half through the pizza, a few of the dudes who were the pizza-deliverers that night started bursting out laughing. Turns out, they got a kick out of watching me eat a very non-vegan Hawaiian pizza that they had labeled with the “V.” Besides the awful churning of my gut, my insides also ached to learn what awful people these friends truly were.

And let me tell you, there is nothing funny about the retching that ensued in the hours afterwards…

23. Unsettling Revelations

freepik @freepik

A neighbor’s husband across the way got time behind bars for dealing. He ran a gardening company as a front. But it was my friends’ reactions that shocked me. I knew there was something off with them when they heard the news and started discussing about how they would let their husbands do 10 years if they could get a house like his one across the street. Seriously?

24. When Friends Prioritize Gardening Over Celebrating

freepik @jcomp

I invited a close friend to my birthday gathering. She said she could not come because the weather was going to be nice, so she wanted to do some gardening in her summerhouse. What I learned from this was that something seemingly insignificant for someone can be a big deal for someone else. She does not remember bailing on my birthday to spend the day weeding strawberries, but I do.

25. The Harsh Reality of Trusting the Wrong Friends

freepik @freepik

I worked with and rented a large house with my friend group after high school. It ended up being the biggest mistake of my life. Dumb and inexperienced, I didn’t know they were lying to me about bills and were making me pay more (or whatever they felt like) until a family member asked about it.

Eventually my “friends” all looked at moving into a new place without telling me. One friend felt guilty and confessed that they would basically take my money so they could shop around. They planned on moving out while I was visiting family, so I came back to an empty place, responsible for everything.

26. Alone in Sobriety

freepik @freepik

I had a whole group of “friends” who would all get together at restaurants, go floating down rivers, go bowling and all sorts of other fun activities. But there was a catch. The common denominator was that we always drank at every event. Which, okay that’s their lifestyle. Except when I got sober, I stopped getting invited.

27. The Secret Chat and Unexpected Ally

freepik @halayalex

I had three friends: two I liked, and one I didn’t really like at all. It turns out they had a secret chat where they just called me names and talked about me behind my back. Then came the twist. The funny part is that the guy I didn’t like sent me screenshots of what was happening. He and I have been friends for three years now.

28. Friends Excluded Me from Dinner Plans

freepik @freepik

I was part of a small group that regularly went out to dinner on most Wednesdays after work. One week I was told “Oh, we aren’t doing anything this week.” This was no big deal, sometimes we didn’t go. It happened. I stopped to get gas on my way home, and as I was filling at the pump across the street from the restaurant we usually went to, there they were.

I wasn’t feeling so hungry after that punch in the gut.

29. The Night He Forgot to Invite Me to His Own Party

freepik @pressfoto

My oldest and best friend who I’ve known since we were five years old started travelling around Europe in a camper with his girlfriend, so we rarely saw each other. However, we work together on the side making websites and talk every week by text or video.

One night, he calls me around midnight saying he’s back in town and invites me over for drinks. When I arrived, I was instantly annoyed at what I saw. I find 10 other people there already because the party actually started hours ago and he forgot to invite me. On top of that, it turns out he had already been home for weeks.

We even talked during the time he was back, and not once did he tell me he was literally 10 minutes down the road. Naturally, I told him to buzz off. He only tried to apologize when he worked out the fact that I wouldn’t help him with his websites anymore. After that failed apology, he refused to pay me for the websites I had already built for him.

Luckily, I had already been screwed over in the past so I installed a backdoor to sites I made. He ended up sending the money once I added a giant banner calling him awfully vulgar names on a couple of his sites…

30. How One Party Exposed My Friends as Jerks

freepik @freepik

I realized my friends were jerks the last time I tried throwing a birthday party for myself. It always seemed like the ratio of people who said they’d come to people who actually showed up was hugely disparate. But this was my final attempt. I had 20+ people say they’d show. Exactly one actually came. I’ve never had a birthday party since.

But I’m still good friends with the one guy who showed up.

31. My Friends Ruined My Little Cousin’s Birthday Party

freepik @freepik

I once went to a birthday party with three of my “friends.” The party was for my little cousin’s birthday. We played the games and the day went smoothly until we were all gathered around the table, ready to sing and eat cake. Everyone began singing “Happy Birthday”…except my friends, who just wanted to get it all over with.

I thought it was strange, but their behavior afterwards is what truly blew me away. Once the song ended, my cousin took in a breath, ready to blow out the candles of the cake and all of a sudden, the opportunity was taken away as my friends blew out the candles on my little cousin’s birthday cake. I was flabbergasted, to say the least.

32. From Best Friends to Enemies

freepik @pvproductions

My former bestie bought me a PlayStation 3 for Christmas one year. Naturally, I was super excited. A little while later, we had a fight because I refused to come pick him up from a bar at 2:30 in the morning after he spent his cab fare on shots. I had to work in the morning, and didn’t think much of it.

I definitely didn’t imagine he would take back the PlayStation out of spite, or that this would be the end of a friendship with someone I figured was my best bud…

33. The Painful Realization

freepik @freepik

We were friends since we were kids. We moved together (along with another friend) from our hometown to a city a few hundred miles away in our early 20s. We met new people…and that’s when I started to realize. About 95% of the people we met eventually (or immediately) requested that the bad friend not hang out next time.

Some even specifically stated that the bad friend was not invited. At first, I was like “that’s just how they are.” I was used to it because some friends of mine in our hometown didn’t ever want to hang out with the bad friend either. They were hurtful, abrasive, inconsiderate. It wasn’t a single moment, more like three-four months of very similar moments.

34. Friendship Over

freepik @nakaridore

My friend who I have known for over 10 years would get mad at me if I said no to hanging out with him. Incredibly juvenile, considering we are proper adults now. The last time this happened, he invited me to go out with him and his former school crush who I haven’t seen in 10 years.

I shouldn’t have needed to provide a reason. And he should have respected my honesty and vulnerability when I admitted that I couldn’t go because I had no money, let alone the awkwardness of the whole third-wheel situation. Instead of treating it like the small event that it was, he looked at me like I rejected to give him a kidney.

Needless to say, if he hadn’t cut ties, I definitely would have.

35. When The Pressure Is On

freepik @tonodiaz

There was a time in my life when I was severely depressed, so I called someone I thought was my friend for support. When he realized that I wanted to talk about really deep stuff, he made up an excuse to hang up the phone. After that, he kept ignoring my calls…but here’s where it gets truly infuriating.

What’s crazy is that I was there for that dude when his wife left him for another guy. There were times when I wanted to escape his depressing stories, but I sat there and listened because he was my friend. You learn who your real friends are when the going gets tough…

36. When a Compliment Turned into a Humiliation

freepik @gpointstudio

I was in eighth grade and had been friends with this girl, I’ll call her Karen, since kindergarten. We had a routine of riding our bikes around all summer even though we went to different schools. On one ride, we ran into this boy she knew from her classes.

After we left him, she told me that he said I was pretty. Of course, this made me happy—giddy even! A few hours later we ran into another friend, and Karen started recounting our earlier rendezvous with the boy and how he said I was pretty. Then she added, “but he said she has fat legs”,

Now, if she had said that to me privately, or even said that to our other close girlfriend privately, perhaps it wouldn’t have felt so bad. But dropping that in front of this friend was beyond embarrassing. I could have sunk into the floor for eternity! And let me tell you, I did not have fat legs back then—but that’s not the point.

I rode my bike home feeling foolish and never hung out with Karen again.

37. Teenage Drinking Adventure

freepik @senivpetro

I grew up in Nashville and the floods in 2010 mandated a curfew. A buddy of mine who was two years older was attending college. He came back from school at the onset of the flood and asked me to be the designated driver for him and some other friends who wanted to go out drinking.

They got consequently rambunctious. They then asked me to drive them to a church nearby. It was behind a movie theater that had a roof we could climb up onto. By now, it is well past the government’s curfew but off we go—I didn’t want to be the party pooper. I quickly regretted my actions.

Of course, as I’m driving my friend’s car with the load of these wild partiers in the back, we get pulled over and detained. Well since my friend was the legal drinking age, he only got a citation. However, me and the others my age all had to spend a night in the clinker downtown because we were minors who were out past curfew.

On top of all that, I was driving a car that was not in my name. After my mother picked me up at 6 am, I met with that friend one last time and then never saw the rest of them ever again. The whole event seemed like a gigantic red flag.

38. Too Late For Apologies

freepik @freepic-diller

My friend texted the day-of to “apologize” for not being able to attend my wedding because “he couldn’t get the day off work.” He was invited six months out. His workplace was not short-staffed—I was social with his boss and co-workers, and knew for a fact that his boss had cleared him for that day.

And even if he hadn’t done that ahead of time, the boss was the sort of employer who—upon being told about the wedding short notice—would have said, “go home, get dressed, and go party” before stepping up to take on the extra work himself.

Shortly after the wedding and this guy’s “apology,” which I did not forgive, the man spread a bunch of insanely ugly lies and rumors about me, and got me dropped from the larger social circle for years on end as a result. Everyone shows their true colors eventually… And to think I invited him to my wedding…

39. A TikTok Tale

freepik @freepik

My friend didn’t delete a TikTok video with me in it even though she posted it without my consent. I really do not like my face being put out in public. When I asked her to delete it, I couldn’t believe her response. She then proceeded to say that 21 likes were worth more than our friendship. Yikes…

Immediately, I blocked her, which somehow made her come to her senses. She deleted the video, but I have not talked to her since.

40. Standing Up to Childhood Bullying

freepik @jcomp

My friend was a little stronger and faster than me when we were kids. He liked to rough house and would always take it a bit too far—and then pick on me verbally if I leveled up how much force I was using. The name-calling was never too horrible—just a few words and then on to the next thing. But I got tired of it all.

One time we hung out, his mom had to run out of the house, leaving us two alone. Instead of dealing with the antics from my friend, I hid in his mom’s closet until she got back. I hadn’t realized until that very moment (alone in the dark closet) how strange my friendship really was.

The next time he called to invite me over it was convenient that I had another friend over. I told him I wasn’t interested and I had to go entertain my other pal. When he replied, “you don’t have other friends” my other friend grabbed the phone and chewed him out. Haven’t seen or heard from that guy in a long time.

41. When Rudeness Ruins a Double Date

freepik @drobotdean

I used to hang out with this guy in college. We would go hiking, paint-balling and other outdoorsy stuff. One time we met these girls on campus that we liked and they agreed to go on a double date with us, so we took them out to dinner at a pretty nice steakhouse.

It started out great. We ordered food and started off having good conversations. But then it took a dark turn. When the food arrived my friend completely changed. He was shockingly rude to the server. He not only made a big stink about his steak being overcooked, he also made the whole rest of the dinner about his overcooked steak.

He went on and on, ranting that “when you pay a bunch for a steak it better be cooked how you ordered it” and complaining to the server’s face about how they should have known better—as if the server was the one cooking the darn thing! Anyway, the date went as well as you could imagine.

I stopped talking to him after that night. People that are rude to service people? A big no-no for me.

42. How I Learned My Friends Only Wanted Me for My Car

freepik @wirestock

I realized my friends were jerks when they only ever wanted to include me in social events because I had a car. Then, they would volunteer me to drive all over town picking everyone up. Any offers to help pay for gas? Are you kidding?

I decided one day I had had enough and just stopped picking up the phone. I guess they got the message after a few weeks. I don’t know if they found some other schmuck to taxi them around, or maybe they all just got their own cars finally. I don’t know and I don’t care—especially after discovering how much money I’ve saved in gas.

43. Stuck in the Past

freepik @pvproductions

A couple of nights ago, I had a sudden realization. It was that each person in my core group of friends legitimately has not aged since high school, which was almost 20 years ago. The only exception is my oldest and best friend, who is married and owns a home. The rest of the crew is a different story.

Each one wears the exact same variation of outfits they used to wear with pride in high school. Imagine: baggy jeans, oversized video game hoodies, generic Walmart sneakers…You get the picture. They have the same haircuts, hang out at the same old spots around town, and participate in the same immature activities.

I deleted social media years ago, but last I saw a bunch of them still revolve their entire lives around playing Pokémon and trying to pick up women at the local Dairy Queen. Most of them still complain about the “jocks” or the “popular kids” and have a bone to pick with someone else in town over some argument that occurred circa 2005.

My entire friend group was stuck in time.

44. A One-Way Friendship

freepik @yanalya

One time, 30 minutes before class was to begin, my friend asked me to type out her essay for her because she did not have a laptop. Of course, I was happy to help! After I finished typing up the first page, I noticed there wasn’t much more left to do. She hadn’t even finished writing her essay. Because she was my friend, I wanted to help her out.

So, I typed out whatever ideas I could remember from my own essay until hers was finished. When the grades were handed back, I couldn’t believe that she got an A and I got a B+. That wasn’t the only punch in the gut: I never even got a thanks from her. Instead, she gloated in front of me about her grade…

And this wasn’t any small elementary or high school paper. We were in college…

45. Laughing at my Bullies

freepik @jcomp

Danny and I have been friends since eighth grade. We were always by each other’s side, cracking jokes. To say we had a tight bond would be an understatement. Anyway, it was the first day of junior year and I made a beeline for the seat next to Danny. We gabbed away until the assembly started. And that’s when Alex got between us.

Alex, one of my classmates, started bullying me in the middle of the assembly. He called me names, tapped my neck incessantly, and pulled at my hair. And finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I whipped around and told him to please cut it out. I felt like I was living in a television sitcom when he replied “Make me.”

I was a naturally shy kid who avoided conflict so even though I imagined throwing a punch at Alex, I never acted on the impulse. I did what any other kid in a “zero tolerance” public school did and dealt with the bullying by ignoring it (which clearly hadn’t worked thus far). But Danny’s reaction was horrible. He not only sat and watched. He… laughed!

You see, Danny was the typical big-football-playing type, so you’d think he might have stepped in just to intimidate Alex and get him off my back, right? Apparently not. I felt our fun previous experiences flash across my eyes and turn sour. I ended up running out of school as soon as the bell rang to the town square, where I proceeded to cry my eyes out at the realization of broken trust.

And just like that, Best Friend Danny and I were no more. That moment really solidified the fact that trust is hard to come by.

46. When Friends Are the Real Monsters

freepik @freepik

We had a movie night and this time, we were watching a scary movie together. I was pretty young (like 11 or so), but they were a bit older. During the most tense, quiet moments, my friend would shout at the top of their lungs to scare me—they knew I was easily startled. After I asked them to stop, they kept freaking me out as if I was the main entertainment and not the movie.

Here’s the kicker: after I threatened to leave mid-way through the film, their response was: “Go ahead.” Maybe they truly did want to scare me away.

47. You Win Some, You Lose Some

freepik @freepik

We had to be around 11 or 12 years old. I was finally about to beat my friend in NBA 2K after listening to consistent trash task from him over the years. There was less than a minute in the game, and things were heated to say the least. Right before the buzzer was about to sound and my win was to be solidified, he said “Wait, let’s play something else now.”

Looking back now, it was a real lopsided Bart Simpson and Milhouse dynamic of a friendship.

48. The Ultimate Betrayal

freepik @8photo

I knew my friend was a jerk when he did not invite me to his wedding, despite talking to me about it on phone a week before. It doesn’t stop there. He had the audacity to call me again on the wedding day to invite me to come (in less than two hours). And here’s the kicker…it wasn’t because he truly wanted me in attendance.

He called to ask for a $1,000 loan because he found himself in a tight spot. A fantastic way to burn a bridge, if you ask me.

49. Left Out and Hated

freepik @freepik

I’ve got a classic example of awful friends. Once in high school, my friends all made a secret group on Facebook. When I asked about it, they all became coy, and it later came to light that it was an “I Hate [My Name]” group. Literally every single one of my friends joined it and no one told me or stuck up for me. If this is what it means to be one of the cool kids, I want no part of it.

Anyway, it’s no wonder I couldn’t join their secret group…

50. The Game Plan

freepik @viarprodesign

Back in high school, I used to love going to football games. Nobody in my friend group ever liked going. But one day, I finally convinced one of my friends and his cousin to go with me. After school, they told me to wait for them where we usually hung out. So, I did.

Half an hour passed and they still didn’t show up. So, I texted him asking him where they were and he said that they both went to a restaurant that was right next to our school. He asked me to wait since his cousin was hungry and they should finish up soon. I must have waited 30 minutes more.

By this time the marching band had come out and the game had started. Fed up, I finally called my friend and he said, “Haha! Dude just come to the bleachers. We’ve been here the entire time.” At that point, I just called my mom to pick me up. I was done.

I never spoke to this friend again. On Monday after the football game, he had the audacity to tell me I was overreacting instead of owning up to his really uncool behavior. And besides, he had the whole weekend to apologize and never even sent me a text. Even worse, he didn’t even text or call me on the day of the game to ask me where I was when I didn’t show up…