1 HOUR Of Friendship BETRAYAL Stories (Compilation)

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Speaker 1: When did you realize your friends were actually fake friends?

This friend, I'll call her Mary, had kids the same

age as mine. We got together for playdates pretty often,

and our kids would sleep over at each other's houses

for weekends. I liked Mary. We would often visit and

talk while our kids were playing. One weekend, her kids

had stayed at my house. The older one called her

mom to see when she was coming to pick her up.

I was in the room, and the kid put the

phone on speaker for some reason. Mary told the kid

what time she would be there and added, You'd better

be waiting outside. If I have to go in and

spend the next hour talking to River Tam, I'm going

to be really mad. We didn't spend much time together

after that. Did I overreact? Was Mary just having a

bad day and not wanting to talk? And my personal favorite,

River Tam, maybe you're just insufferable? Here's what happened after

I overheard my friend say that to her child. I

simply stopped initiating contact and wasn't as available to do

stuff for her. When we dropped off or picked up

the kids, I smiled and waved. I let the kids

make the plans for playdates. I no longer had time

to help her with her garden or watch her kids

while she went out with another friend. They were into

long-distance running, which is not my cup of tea. She

never contacted me unless she wanted something. This had always

been true, but I had not realized it. The friendship

eventually fizzled out on its own, so I guess it

had never been much of a friendship to begin with.

I just didn't realize it until she opened my eyes.

Kudos to that kid for putting the phone on speaker.

That mom can't even raise her own kids to be

just as bad as her. Story two. Back in my

first year of college, I used to have a group

of friends, like seven dudes with me included. We always

hang out together and we're used to having this group

chat where we discuss anything from class subjects to random things.

After a year, I noticed that one of the guys,

let's just call him Randy, keeps getting excluded. Not invited

or informed to a group hangout while they're talking smack

behind his back. The unofficial leader of the group actually

made a whole new group chat, inviting everyone, myself included,

except Randy without his knowledge. I know what it feels

to be left out. I experienced that in middle school,

and it's really awful. I stopped hanging out with him,

and I started hanging out with Randy. He's quite eccentric,

but a very good person at heart. We've been friends

for more than six years, and he still got my back.

Story three. I flew out to support a friend going

through a messy divorce. While I was there, she left

me in the apartment to meet up with her boyfriend

that I didn't know about. It turned out to have

just been released from prison. When she told me that,

I told her I didn't want to spend time with him,

especially considering the circumstances of my visit. The next night,

I woke up in the middle of the night to

find him in the living room. She said that she

thought it wouldn't matter since I was asleep. The next day,

she invited her soon-to-be ex-husband over without telling me and

then asked me to meditate on their conversation once he

got there. That conversation turned ugly fast. She ended up

storming out. He broke down and asked if I thought

I was salvageable, and I told him that she had

already moved on. Maybe not the best idea on my part,

but at that point, she had shown me how vile

of a person she is. Honestly, she sounds like a mess.

She's far better off distancing herself. Story four. Like I

suspect for a lot of people, getting divorced was a

real eye-opener. We started with a core group of close

friends who had all met in our late teens or

early twenties, and one of them introduced me to the

woman who I would ultimately marry, Well into our 40s,

they were what I considered to be my family, but

when the divorce happened, things spiraled. My best friend stuck

with me, but his wife was the one who orchestrated

things in our group, and she was best friends with

my ex. I was expecting the two of them to

insulate for a while, and I knew it was painful

for my ex to be around me, so it was

no surprise when I stopped getting invitations to cookouts, etc.

But then I noticed that the other members of the

group were also avoiding or ignoring me. I'd see on

Facebook that one of them came into town to go

to a concert for a band that they knew I liked,

It hadn't so much as texted. Birthdays rolled around and

nobody would call. When my parents both passed away within

a few months of each other, not one of them

reached out. I knew where I stood. The best friend

needs to get credit, though. Alone from all of them,

he made a consistent effort to stay in touch and

see me regularly. It was there when my parents passed away,

and through everything else, even though his wife clearly disapproved.

I think finally after this nonsense had been going on

for several years, He told her how ridiculous it all seemed,

and that entire friend group tried to reconcile. I made

it clear right from the start that there was no

guarantee that I'd ever find space for them in my

life again. This is all very apropos right now, because

they're having their first big post-2020 party in a couple weeks,

and I'm invited. People are coming in from all over

the country, and the only one I care about seeing

is my buddy. Nothing shows true friends like a divorce.

Story five. When I realized, literally just being in the

same room as that person made me miserable. It's because

the person was extremely self-conscious, to the point that they

would overcompensate by putting others down every little chance they

had to make themselves feel above. They kept wondering why

they would keep throwing me under the bus for no reason.

They could have been friends for years. Why would they

treat me like this? It took me years to figure

out exactly how bad of a friend they were, no

matter how hard they pretend not to be. It took

me an entire year of ghosting to stop being friends

with that person. because they loved putting me down so much.

They wouldn't stop calling me, texting me, trying to contact

me for a year with no responses, because they could

not understand how someone could possibly want to stop hanging

out with them, because they're so perfect. Story six. Accidentally

doing too much substances and ending up in the hospital.

I reached out and messaged those friends that said, message

me if you need anything. And when I asked them

to do something like feed my cat, check the mail,

message my family who don't use the internet, or just

talk to me, the response was... Let me know if

you need anything. It was as though saying that I

somehow ignored what I was telling them I needed. I

learned people say this when they don't know what to

say or don't want to actually do something. Like, here

I am in a hospital bed asking you for that

help you said I could ask for. I know that

I've helped you, but now that I just need this

rudimentary help while I'm being treated at the hospital, no

one is there, not even family. I've gone out and

visited friends, hosted events for them, helped them in many ways,

and it can be for years. And yet if I

ask to be visited or for help, there's nothing. Sometimes

they won't even let me know they can't show up

for things like my birthday until hours into the party

starting time. Some people just want to piggyback you, dropping

figurative social coins into you so that you show up

for them, but they may never show up for you.

I've spent years talking to someone, wondering what it would

take for them to ever visit me. To have them

literally show up once in over five years of a friendship.

I feel like an idiot for having invested so much

of myself, time, money, and genuine love to realize they

do not want to invest even a fraction in reciprocation.

We're friends for life now, some have said to me.

We've shared deep things, but it's always in public chat

groups and we never converse in private. I've learned some

people know how to be empathetic and seem really caring,

but often it seems all they really care about is

a performative friendship. The sing and dance of a friendship.

But when you genuinely want to talk and open up

about a conflict, to really ask for help, to work

through something, it's not what they're there for. They're there

for the superficial and entertaining and positive only. And the negative,

whatever it may be, is not what they're there for.

I don't know anymore what a real friendship is. I'm

left really wondering if I'm the problem. The proverb, if

everyone is the problem, then it's you, rings in my head.

I must be the problem because every relationship has similar issues.

Lack of genuine connection. If I start to open up

and share genuine feelings, it's a burden. And most of

the time, I'm just asking to be heard. Nothing more.

And I really only do this when it feels like

it could be accepted. I'm not opening up about relationships

like this. You have to wait until rapport feels like

it's acceptable to be vulnerable and authentic. But even when

you do, there's the risk that you're not compatible. Or

maybe I'm completely wrong and I have a massive issue

I need to address that I'm just not seeing. I've

been in therapy for a while, and my consistent issue

is that I'm emotionally confused about my own self. Story seven.

I've had a couple of these, but the one that

stung the most was my best friend who kept me

around to feel good about herself. Things I didn't realize

until she ghosted me after nearly seven years of friendship.

She always had a guy, a job she loved, and

was constantly getting promoted, and a fancy apartment. I was

always single, had a job I hated, and while my

apartment was nice, it was nowhere near as nice as hers.

I'm not complaining about my life. I was fine being

single and was working on finding a good job. Fast

forward to me getting in a very solid, serious relationship.

We're now married. Renting a nice house instead of a

small apartment and having a really good and secure job.

Add on to that, being medicated for anxiety, so I'm

much happier now. The last time I spoke with her,

we had made plans for her to visit me. When

that day got closer, I texted her to see if

she still planned on coming, and she never responded. Reached

out to her a number of times over a couple

of months. Nothing. From her perception, I was no longer

the friend to feel sorry for. The friend you could

compare yourself to and feel better about your life. Therefore,

I was no longer needed. It broke my heart and

took me months to get over. If you're enjoying the video,

don't forget to hit that subscribe and like button for

more videos like this. Story 8 When I got blackmailed

to not hang out with my real friends, I was

in my early 20s when I got a role in

a local film. The film was never finished, thankfully, so

our names won't be on it together. of the actors

in the film owned a business that i later worked

for briefly that's called w when i worked for w

i met some awesome people who were also working for

us w paid all of us garbage even the highly

skilled employees that you don't find everywhere he also talked

down on us and would leave us the business to

take care of while he took vacations several times a

year my friends at work had dreamed of starting their

own business for a long time. We all were fired

or quit around the same time and got the ball

rolling of opening their own business, which would be direct

competition with W's. W is close with the creator of

the film we met on. Let's call the creator C.

C and I have become very close too. As a

young actress, C promised to introduce me to people and

help me build my career. Time after time, C refused

to get the work done needed to finish their own film.

They also used me for a bunch of manual labor

around their house. When my friends started making waves with

their new business, C made me promise not to associate

with them. Otherwise, C was going to tell their film friends, yes,

they actually had some, not to work with me. All

because C and W were close. I tried to tell

C that W was a terrible boss and my friends

have every right to start up and run a business.

but C still wouldn't let go. I decided to say,

who cares? Working on film sets is mostly creepy, and

everyone seems to think they own me. I had a

few good times, but I don't think it's worth it anymore.

After one final film day, I did my job and

left the set as quickly as I could. My ghost

did see after that. Blackmailing a core cast member of

your unfinished film is probably not a smart idea anyway,

so all the money C put into that film went

down the drain. Because don't threaten me or my friends. Also,

W's customer base liked me and my friends, so they

followed us to their new business. W was out of

business not long after. My friends and I are closer

than ever, and I work for them part-time for good pay.

Story nine. When a couple of my closest friends stopped

talking to me when I got divorced from my husband,

I finally stood up for myself in a loveless marriage

where I did all the work and handled all the

responsibilities around the house and kids, and later he even

admitted to avoiding the house because it was too stressful.

The tipping point being when he stopped doing his duties

at work for six months and got a warning. Then

he still didn't shape up and got fired six more

months after that. I didn't know any of this was

going on until he was fired. Then proceeded to lie

to me for the next six months about working on

new certifications for his industry, and found out he was

just messing around online. I lost any remaining love and

respect for him after that. Oh, and I found out

he made out with a co-worker on an office trip

to Vegas, but stopped himself when she invited him into

her hotel room and they broke up each other in

the hallway. My one friend still isn't speaking to me

because she thinks I should have stayed for the kids

and to help my husband through his life crisis. The

other friend and I are barely friends now and she

still says stuff like, none of us knew how unhappy

you were. And, oh well, that's the difference about us.

I don't mind reminding my husband here and there. They

know everything now, but still act like I'm the crazy person.

I feel like all those years of supporting them when

I finally needed it in return, they completely let me down.

I didn't have my girlfriends to help me through my divorce.

I felt alone and betrayed. Finally in a better place

with my new fiancé, but that still hurts me to

my core, finding out my friends were really my friends.

I called them sisters. Story 10. I had the same

group of three friends since elementary school, but that was

because I was very introverted and didn't make any other friends,

so I stuck with them for 10 plus years. However,

I was considered the weirdo of the group. constantly belittled,

they would accidentally hit me or throw me down. Anyways,

even in high school, I was the joke of the group.

My life problems were brought up and laughed at, and

at this point, I started distancing myself from all of them.

Once we graduated high school, I told myself that I'll

never speak to them again, which I did. Truthfully, I

miss having a group of friends. I have no friends now,

but I'm so glad I'm now friends with fake people

who hurt me day in and out. Anyways, four years later...

They still talk bad about me leaving their friend group because, apparently,

I think I'm better than them. Lol, it's pretty ridiculous

that they think they're entitled to my friendship when all

they did was hurt me for years. Story 11. I

got an apartment off campus and invited all of my

friends to come visit. No one showed. That same apartment

burned down when I was in college and not one

single person let me crash their couch while I got situated.

I had to commute from my parents' home two hours

for each day I had class, and I had classes daily.

for over four months because apartments near the campus are

on rental leases and it's hard to find an apartment mid-semester.

The worst part about this is that I belong to

a Christian organization and I would put in a lot

of money, $ 40 to $ 50 for every time a friend

was in need. We would do actual collections to help

others in our circles. I put in $ 50 once for

a person whose mom had cancer. Meanwhile, for me, my

home burns down and I lose everything and no so-called Christians.

All of them would go up to me the next

day and say, I heard your apartment burned down. I

know follow-ups like, do you need anything or anything like that?

For God's sakes, I was wearing Friday Says Relax Tea

and raggedly sweats because I didn't have any clothes. Took

out an emergency student loan, one of the worst periods

of my life. One of my professors was kind. He

let me borrow the book for the semester when he

knew I had no money to buy extra items. I

was already on financial aid. Yep, that's how I found out.

Story 12. Hindsight is 20-20 with this situation, but I

was very naive at the time. I'd just been broken

up with and was feeling the lowest I'd felt in

my life. I started going out with who I thought

were my closest friends at the time, and we were

getting hammered. This evolved over time to just smoking all

the time at either my house or another one of

the guys' houses. One day, we decided to trip together

in my house. My house because my mom was out.

And they came over. After we had all taken it,

one of the guys started being really weird and was

hiding from us. We looked all over my house for him,

and he texted us to say he'd got his grant

to pick him up. Me and the other guys decided

to go for a walk, then when we were passing

my house, the guy that said he'd left hops over

my fence, and we're all like, what in the world?

I was getting in my head and feeling like I

wanted them all to go. I started to realize that

these guys were just using me for my house. I

said I'd like them to go because I'm going to

stay on my own. They were like, no, man, let's

go back to yours. It's fine. And I put my

foot down and said, no, I'm going back on my own.

The guy who was being weird walked past me and

was like, get stuffed, man. And I just went home.

I called one of my other friends, who's still my

friend to this day, and asked if he could come

up because I was having a bit of a hard

time on my own. He came up and I felt

so much better. Then I got a call from one

of the guys left and I said to my other friend,

I guarantee he's going to ask if I have some stuff.

I pick up the phone and he's like, hey man,

you alright? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, you got

any stuff left? I was like, nah, man. And it

had solidified in my head that these guys were just

using me. I stopped talking to those guys for a while.

Then I told one of them about how I felt.

And he was like, nah, man, you're my closest friend. Legit,

like two weeks later, he was shitting my ex behind

my back. I called him out on it and he

was waffling about how he felt terrible, etc. I didn't

speak to him for over a year. And he kept

messaging me trying to say sorry. I eventually gave in

because I was over it. Now that I've forgiven him,

he has no interest in talking to me. He's a

massive loser anyway, so it's worked out for the best.

Trust your instincts on people. Story 13. I got convinced

to go to homecoming without a date by my friends

in my sophomore year of high school after getting ditched

by my homecoming date freshman year. Everyone told me that

going with friends would be a lot better than going

with a date and that I would have way more

fun than last time. So I decided to take a

chance and go. The plan was to get dressed by

a specific time, wait until my friend's parents come pick

me up, go out for a nice dinner, then go

to the homecoming dance. I got dressed at the time

I was supposed to, let my friends know I was ready,

and waited. For hours. I texted and called every single

person that was a part of my homecoming group, letting

them know I was ready, and not a single person responded.

I remember sobbing about it in the backseat of my

dad's car, who took me to McDonald's 30 minutes before

the dance started because he felt bad and didn't want

me to go hungry. After I ate, he drove me

to the dance, and as I got out of the

car and started walking towards the line to get into

the building, still wiping tears from my eyes, I saw

the same group I was supposed to be with right

in front of me. I went up to them and

asked why no one bothered to respond to my messages,

and they pretty much responded with, oh, sorry, and split

off from me the second we got inside the building.

That was about five years ago, but I still remember

it like it was yesterday. People are trash. What is

the worst reason someone canceled their plans with you? There

was this girl who I had a crush on for years.

Long story short, lots happened in my life, but it

led to us becoming better friends than ever. Things were

growing great and my feelings were ever-growing. A meteor shower

was happening in a few days, so I asked her

if she wanted to hop in my convertible and find

a quiet place away from the city lights to sit

back in the car and watch it with me around midnight.

She said yes. Awesome. About an hour before, she texted

me saying that there was a problem at home and

she couldn't go. The plans were off. I later found

out what happened. Her mom freaked out because the girl

bought avocados. Apparently in the past, her mom associated recently

buying avocados with someone close to them passing away. Apparently

this avocado resulting to a horrible thing happened a couple

of times. So this girl who I like bought avocados

and her mom freaked out because that was going to

cause someone to pass away. Spoilers, it didn't. Which caused

her cancelled plans. Who knew avocados could be the ultimate

mood enders? Story 2. My mom is the worst for flaking.

When I lived with my mom, it was just me

and her. I had no friends where she lived. Nobody

to talk to. The internet was awful. Worst of it all,

she had a drinking problem. One night, my mom talks

with me about going out to eat with my brother

and grandparents. I perked up and was pretty excited. I

haven't seen my brother in months at that point. All week,

I was hyped. It's all I could possibly look forward to.

Every day, we're picking my brother up, right? We're going

to pick him up? My dad doesn't have to drop

him off, right? Her answer was, yeah, we're going to

get him. That day comes around. and we head to

my grandparents. I'm really excited. I use my mom's cell

to call and tell them to be ready. All right.

We get to my grandparents. We're talking. Grandma says, why

don't you two ride with us? There was my grandma,

my grandpa, and my cousin. Mom says, sure. I quickly said, hey,

what about brother? Mom says, I'll just see him another time.

I was livid. I quickly explained how I haven't seen

him in months. I haven't spent time with anyone I

could relate to. I had no friends at the school

I went to. I mean, what in the world? I

pointed out that she said all week that we'd get

to see my brother, and the tears began. Grandparents say

we'll pick him up. They saved the day. I was

just happy to see my brother. Story three. They just

completely flaked. Didn't pick me up or let me know

that they weren't going to pick me up. I was

15 and my friend had turned 16 and got his license.

We had planned to just go driving around doing whatever

on a Friday night because why not? We were kids

who now had access to a car. Well, I sat

and waited and ended up texting him, then calling him

with no answer all night. So I spent my Friday

night alone because my friend bailed on me. Later, he

said he left his phone in his car all night

and was hanging out with his girlfriend. Okay, whatever. But

I got completely left hanging. He did it again a

couple years later when we were planning a trip to

a theme park with another friend. He just didn't show

up the night before to spend the night. Wake up

early and go to the park. Called a couple times

and finally called his mom and he said he had

changed his mind. Thanks, schmuck. Stop bailing on plans at

the last minute because you just don't feel like it suddenly.

Story four. This will probably get buried, but hands down

the worst was in sixth grade. I had this friend

Aaron at the time. We met during karate and liked

to skateboard, so we naturally hit it off. We've been

friends for about a year and a half now and

would rotate every other Saturday sleeping over at either his

house or mine. This was always something we looked forward to.

Until I met his friends at this little summer bonfire

he has. Aside from being from another school, I thought

I made a decent impression. Turns out I was the

weird one. The next Saturday, Aaron was due over at

6pm as usual. 6.30 rolls around, he's a no-show. 7

comes and I'm sitting in my driveway watching the cars

go by. Seven, I got a call from Aaron saying

he had a dentist appointment he forgot about. Makes sense.

I remember being so disappointed and sad knowing he clearly

was lying. I think this went on a couple more

weeks before my mom talked to me into just letting

it be. He ended up hitting me up years later

after his graduation on Facebook, looking for some grass. I

agreed to meet up with him and that's when I

had to ask. Apparently I did something stupid at that

fire and his friends all thought I was a loser.

Ended up having that discussion and even years later it

still hurts. Haven't seen him since. From karate kicks to

social missteps. Talk about a friendship KO. Story five. My

ex and I split up on good terms. He didn't

want me to lose my friends. His friends, girlfriend, and wives.

As we all got along really, really well. So he

invited me to the yearly Easter party and insisted I come.

So I agreed and marked that I'd attend. Right before

the party, the host contacted me and uninvited me because

my ex was there and she didn't want us at

the same party to prevent drama. Neither of us are

that type. Both very civil people. So I didn't show up.

And I was quite hurt. Because I even told her

that he was the one who invited me and convinced

me to even come. Nope. She said no as she

didn't want drama. Okay. My ex called me from the

party and said, what in the world? Where are you?

He said you'd come. He was trying really hard to

make sure I didn't lose my friends as I'm very

quiet and shy and was new to the city at

the time. I told him I was uninvited and whined.

He was angry and started a huge discussion on speaker

over the phone. I was so embarrassed that I hung

up and no one from that group has heard or

seen me since. I have no interest in causing drama

or any sort of issues with others. I'd rather just

go away and disappear into the shadows. He tried for

months to contact me to get me to come to

the next party as he talked sense into the others.

I never replied and he finally just stopped. I'm sure

if I had moved he would have shown up at

my door and dragged me to the party but he

had no idea where he had moved to. I'm pretty

much a hermit, but I'm okay with that. Story 6.

So this is the story of how everyone canceled plans

at the last minute for a first grader's birthday party.

The best thing about being in elementary school is all

the birthday parties. My class had birthday parties all the time.

My birthday is in February, so after months of going

to everyone else's birthday parties, I'm super excited. It was

at my house about 15 minutes outside of town. Not

that big of a deal of a drive around here

because everyone in town has to drive at least a

half hour to the nearest mall or to Walmart. It

was a tea party theme. My mom made these cool

cakes that looked exactly like teapots and teacups. We were

going to make our own hats too. Mom bought these

wide brimmed straw hats, silk flowers and ribbons and she

was going to guide us into hot gluing them to

make our tea party hats. Because it was a tea party,

mom had talked to the teacher and the teacher thought

it would be just fine if we only invited the

girls in my class. The boys were definitely not going

to be thrilled with silk flower hats. My mom had

also talked to the other parents at other birthday parties,

so they all knew what was up. All the girls'

parents had confirmed with my mom that, oh yes, we'll

be there. My daughter is so excited to go to

a tea party. Then comes the day of my party.

Out of 15 girls invited, only one showed up. My

mom did the best she could to make this work. Luckily,

I had two sisters, which brought our tea party to

four girls. But the pictures of the party were sad.

My mom had the dining room table set up to

accommodate 16 little girls. In the picture, you only see

four little girls at this huge table, obviously set for

way more people who all look unsure as to what's

going on. At the next birthday party, my mom, who's

totally a cool mom if you haven't noticed, asked all

the parents why they never showed. She kept getting answers like,

we weren't sure where you live because it's out of town.

And the grandparents decided they wanted the kids to spend

the day with him at the last minute. Or even,

my daughter's best friend decided not to go, so I

didn't want to make my daughter go by herself. Good news,

I became great friends with that one girl who did

come to the tea party. Bad news, she later totally

sabotaged my junior prom 11 years later. Story 7. I

had this girlfriend way back in the 90s. Yes, I'm

that old. So me and this girl, it was great.

It was our true first love. We made vows and

plans and then she got depressed. She quit eating, slept

20 hours a day, and got really mean when I

tried to help. So I contacted her family and got

her some help. For the sake of her treatment, she

broke up with me. I mourned the loss of what

might have been and realized it was for the best

and moved on. I couldn't keep in touch, long-term treatment

and all. Years go by, as they often do, and

one day I happened to run into her, totally by

accident and completely by surprise. Without even trying, we were

back where we'd left off, only without the depression and

other issues. So we made plans, and one night I

had to cancel. Work was going to keep me later

than I wanted, so I called her from payphone. These

were back in the days before cell phones and all. However,

I got done with work early. Yay. I go home

and clean up and then head straight over to her apartment,

only to find her and her ex-boyfriend from the treatment

doing substances on the couch. I was really disappointed. Story 8.

The best friends and I planned on going floating down

the river one day. We were super excited for it.

It was only a few of us, and all of

a sudden... We realized one of us wasn't texting back

the day of. Finally, after calls and calls, he said

he couldn't come because he had a flat tire in

his bike and had to change it. It didn't work

that day or the next and had plenty of time.

We showed up to his house and answered the door

in his drawers with a girl in his bed. This

is the friend that asks to hang out and as

soon as she shows up, he gets off the couch

and walks out the door the second a girl asks

to meet up. He pretends not to know why you're

upset about it. Another time with the same friend, I

said I'd have a birthday dinner for him. Cleaned my

whole house and bought groceries only for him to ignore

me all day. He finally texted me back saying he

wasn't feeling well after spending the day with a new girl.

Story 9. I was in hospital once. I wasn't allowed

to go out on my own and my friend was

meant to be visiting me so I could go out

and we'd arranged it a few days before. On the day,

she texts me saying she's on her way and she's

going to be a bit late. Keeps texting me saying

she's 10 minutes away. I'm literally sitting at the door

of the ward. I can't wait to get out. I'd

been stuck in there for over a week, and I

was really looking forward to seeing her. She never showed up.

Didn't text, didn't call. I was texting her and trying

to call her to see where she was, and there

was no reply at all. Eventually, she called me about

a week later, apologizing. I accept her apology. We make

new plans. Same thing happens again. We're still friends, but

I never make plans with her. I later found out

she went to go see her new boyfriend instead. Story 10.

This chick who I was friends with for six years

was complaining that no one ever did anything for her birthday,

which was a load of lies. As the planner and

a close friend, I decided to plan a getaway at

a mountain resort. I asked her what she wanted to

go with, made sure all these people were okay with going,

booked everything, bought her gluten-free food. She has severe celiac. Everything.

She blew up in a friend of ours because she

couldn't make it to her birthday and ended the friendship.

The girl had a trip down south for her own birthday,

which was two days after her. Four days before we leave,

I get a text message telling me that she would

rather do nothing and stay home, and that she never

really wanted to do anything anyway. Now this chick is

mad at me for being mad at her? What in

the world? Story 11. A former friend of mine moved

to a city some three hours away from my hometown.

I do occasionally go there to visit other friends, though

not super often, and one time when I had plans

to go over there, I thought I'd arrange for this

friend and I to grab lunch. She agreed. like three

days before I even left for her new hometown. Then

when I got to the city in question, two hours

before we were supposed to meet up, she texted me

to let me know she had a lot of homework

to do and couldn't make it. Since I don't travel

to her town at all that often, I suggested the

compromise of meeting up later than we had initially planned

for a drink and parting ways after an hour. She agreed. Then,

an hour later... She texted me again to tell me

she definitely couldn't make it because she had to help

her cousin clean up her house because she, the cousin,

was trying to sell her house and was having prospective

buyers over to visit it. That's when I knew she

wasn't worth the time and effort. Story 12. Facebook is

the biggest snitch ever. I invited one friend out to

dinner at a restaurant I had a coupon for, offered

to pay for her dinner and everything. 15 minutes before

I was going to go pick her up, I got, oh,

I got a migraine. I can't go. Since she has

a history of migraines, I totally understand. I went solo.

I actually had fun. The waiter was awesome. Got enough

food to last me days. Then pop on Facebook and

she's at the local bar getting hammered with a group

of local schmuck canoes. I wasn't hurt so much as annoyed. Seriously.

I'll drop anything and go galloping off to help my friends,

but pulling that stuff just makes me mad. We aren't

friends anymore. Looks like her migraine was just a headache

for making up excuses. Story 13. It's a tie between

two separate events. First one was to go to these

open-air festivities in our city. Concerts everywhere, food, drinks, other events, etc., etc.

I got asked to go and could bring friends if

I wanted. None of my friends were available, so he cancelled,

because it would be weird to go with only me.

Why would you ask me in the first place if

you don't want to go with me? We have been

going to the festival with just the two of us

since that year, and we're best friends now. Still don't

understand that twisted reasoning, though. Second occasion was a date.

I get asked to go on a date, but I

had other plans for that day already, so I asked

if it was the day after. He said yes. Yay.

Only to cancel several hours before the date because he

had other plans. Boo. He later told me he didn't

have any plans at all, but he canceled because he

didn't believe I had plans for the day he originally proposed,

so he wanted to make me feel how he felt.

Stubborn guy. There weren't many dates after that. Story 14.

Not cancel plans, but cancel for work. He was constantly

making excuses for when he messed up. I talked to

him about it, and then he said he was blanking

out and not remembering anything for hours at a time.

I called Lice. Then he proceeded to tell me he

has a brain aneurysm. I told him they're damn near

impossible to have symptoms for, and even if he did,

he'd probably be gone. The next day, he called and

said that the nurse told him over the phone he's

showing signs of a seizure and can't come in. I

told him he'll need a doctor's note then, because he

can't drive the forklift if that is the case. He

ended up going to the hospital and getting a CT

scan to get diagnosed with migraines. In the six months

he worked for me, he probably racked up over $ 5, 000

in medical bills just trying to get out of work,

which was a $ 14 job. Story 15. I had plans

with two girlfriends to go to a pain plus drink event.

We bought the tickets a month prior. Tiffany and I

drove over to Andrea's to pick her up in the

evening of the pain night. She didn't answer her phone.

We waited by her house for 10 minutes and even

called her roommate. Roommate says, I thought she went to

paint with you guys. Tiffany and I gave up eventually

and arrived at the event ten minutes late. The instructor

made fun of us for being late. An hour into

the event, Andrea texted us. Oh my god, I'm so sorry.

I forgot. No, you didn't. Even your roommate knew the

plans we had and I bet he doesn't keep track

of your girls' night out. He realized it was today,

sighed and decided you don't want to go and just

pretend you didn't see his calling. Thumbs up. Story 16.

She told me she was so totally down to go

see Caravan Palace. Another friend told me that if she

didn't get the tickets, she would love to go with me.

We hype everything until I finally buy both tickets. The

first friend is like, well, I don't really want to

go anymore. They're not my favorite. I don't have enough money.

I'm like, okay, whatever. I go to my other friend

and she's like, I don't know if I'll have money

on my next paycheck for this, but reserve them for me, please.

I'm like, no, I can't. It's going to be first one,

first serve. And And she never answers me back. I

go to a third friend and she's like, oh my god,

this is so awesome. I love them. Please let me

get back to you. I'm 100% taking it. I'll go

with my BF. This one actually ignores me for the

rest of the month. A week before the concert, I

finally sold these tickets and I feel like trash because

a lot of my friends went in the end and

I just didn't know. Anyway, lol. Story 17. My girlfriend

has a friend who bails all the time and it's

always last minute. Like the day of last minute. Never

really an excuse, she just changes her mind and stays home.

My girlfriend doesn't seem to mind and often makes excuses

for her friend, but this latest, biggest flake is just

so delusional. It was not last minute, but it's totally absurd. So,

my girlfriend is planning a trip to Mexico in February.

My girlfriend and the flaker have been talking about this

trip for almost six months. This whole trip was an

idea hashed by my girlfriend and flaker. They, along with

a few other friends, have settled on a date, location, hotel,

and all systems are gone. Ticket prices are soaring, so

my girlfriend and some other friends just booked. Yesterday, Flaker

told my girlfriend that she's really excited about going, but

does not want to go unless she loses some weight.

Flaker has been wanting to lose weight ever since I

met her and gets stuck in stupid fad diets that

she tries to convince my girlfriend to do with her,

but that's another story. My girlfriend understands, wanting to slim

down before hitting the beach, and asks Flaker how much

weight she plans on losing before the big trip. Fifty pounds.

So this girl wants to lose 50 pounds in seven

months or else she's not going on the trip. I've

known her for years and despite always complaining about her

diet or her new workout routine, she's never visibly lost

any weight. If you don't want to go, just don't go.

Stop lying to yourself. Story 18. That her best friend

called her right before we were supposed to go out

and needed her to come over. Some emotional drama, whatever.

Not a big deal. Until I look at Twitter. Her

best friend was the first thing I saw at a concert.

So basically, she just made the thing up. This was

the third or fourth time she canceled on me in

a row, so I just stopped talking to her. In

another story, so this is the summer after graduating high school,

and a girl I had been friends with, basically since birth,

was about four years older than me, was currently holding

this certain internship with a county. Well, she's about to graduate,

so she can't do the internship anymore, and recommends me.

Everything was cool. I'd been interviewed multiple times, and things

were looking good. However, I had heard from some people

that the lady in charge was a serious schmuck. Well,

one morning at around 8, she specifically texts me asking

if I want to meet for lunch at a certain

restaurant to discuss when I'd start. I agree and show

up a few minutes early. Two hours later, I'm still

sitting there by myself. So I called her. No response.

Text her and eventually she said she thought I was

coming by the office to meet when she specifically asked

if I wanted to go to this restaurant. Well, fast

forward a few days and she and her associate won't

answer any of my calls and texts. I go by there.

She tries to play it like it was a misunderstanding

and keeps ignoring my calls or texts. I realize that

they were schmucks and decided to get a job somewhere else.

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19 When I was 15 and returned home to the

US after spending the summer working at a manufacturing plant

in Asia, it was a rough experience and I had

been terribly homesick. Being alone and on the other side

of the world from everything you know is stressful at 15. Honestly,

I don't know why my parents let me go, except

to say that they've always been whatever the opposite of

a helicopter parent is. When I got back, my friends

decided to throw me a big welcome home party at

my place, so I wouldn't have to go anywhere with

jet lag. Planning this party over my shaky internet was

the spark of hope that got me through the summer.

A close-knit group of friends were all there, except one

friend who ended up skipping out after her World of

Warcraft guild offered her an alternate spot in a raid.

She didn't even get to play in the raid. She

was just there as backup. As her World of Warcraft

habit grew, she used the same excuse to get out

of all sorts of other things. But this was the

first time I recall it happening. I have nothing against

World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs. I even had a

level 95 lock with tier 10 armor at one point.

But at the point where you start sacrificing real-life relationships

for the game, it is a real problem. This friend

ended up flunking out of college her first semester and

moving in with a guildmate almost twice her age. Last

I heard, there were still a couple. Although she made

him kick out his kids from a previous marriage because

they hogged the bandwidth, they seem pretty unhappy with each other.

And well, more than a decade after high school, she

doesn't have any real-world skills. In a way, her virtual

habits made her cancel plans with life. She really had

a lot going for her before World of Warcraft. I

feel like I should hop on and send her a

message to see how she's doing. Story 20 My best

friend was supposed to come to Bonnaroo 2015 with me,

but he refused to take the time off or buy

a ticket because the Rangers were in the playoffs, as

he would have to be in New York while they

were playing. No, not even attending in person, just be

in the same state. They didn't even want to ask

for the time off and the chance that he did

make it to the finals, because the simple act of

him requesting the days off might have jinxed the Rangers' chances. Yep,

no matter how hard I pleaded with him to just

put in a request, he couldn't just leave the team

high and dry like that. Wouldn't you know it, the

Rangers got knocked out a week or so before Bonnaroo,

so he finally goes to ask off for the days.

His boss laughed at him, told him if it was

so important he should have asked off ahead of time.

I wasted zero time about his superstitions and sending him

dozens of pictures the entire festival with all the fun

he was missing. I still haven't let him live it down.

Story 21. Recently I went out with a girl twice,

but there were about three or four reschedules in total

for both dates. All legitimate seeming reasons, and I liked her,

so why not? she seemed great and things come up

she apologized every time so she must be sincere said

in the second day that she was sorry for rescheduling

all those times and being late as well but that

she wanted to see me again i thought it was

great and we planned for next sunday because that was

the only day she was free during the day to

do something a few days later i got a text

saying she can't go because she took a shift that

she didn't need to I thought she was overworking herself

for the money, so I said to take care of

herself because that's also important. She laughed and said she

wasn't working all those hours for the money. She just

wants to be productive and helpful. It's her life, but

I don't see how anything can build from seeing each

other every few weeks. Barely texting and then canceling on

me to take a shift you don't need to. I

just don't understand why she made it a big deal

to apologize for everything and say she was interested when

all she was showing was the opposite. There was no

need to ever bring any of that up if she

wasn't interested. Story 22. I once had a friend who

had moved to another town farther away and told me

he wanted to meet up at the station in the

town next to the village I lived in. I had

not seen him for a few weeks at this point,

so we communicated via telephone. In my memory, we agreed

to spend the day in this town. On the destined day,

my mother took me to the station. I waited for

the train, which arrived shortly after. I waited for him

to get out. Except he didn't. The train took off

and I was still alone. I phone him and he

says he was surprised I did not enter the train,

as we allegedly had agreed to take the train together

to another town over, where another friend lived. The result

was me being alone and the two of them spending

the day at the other friend's home. I met his

sister the same day, but I also decided to meet

friends she hadn't seen in a while. She laughed in

my face and didn't answer my questions as to why

the meeting could have failed. I haven't talked to him

since this incident, because I have to assume he stood

me up on purpose. Story 23 I invited my friend

over for the night, and halfway to her house, she

said she wasn't coming. Same friend a few years later,

I invited her over again. She was about to leave

her week-long church camp and said she was doing laundry.

Let's say she said this around 1pm. Well, come 8pm,

she still hasn't finished her laundry. I knew this was

a lie, but had no proof, so I just told

her it was fine. She eventually came over when I

met up with her, planned, at a school event. What

was not planned was her being prepared to spend the night,

but I let her anyways. For some reason, we let

each other go through our phones, and I read through

her texts with a mutual friend of ours telling her

she was going to pretend she was doing laundry to

avoid coming to my house because she didn't like my

friend that I was hanging out with at the time.

Never said a word to her about it, even on

the fourth day trip to Tennessee that she joined us

on that broke her and her boyfriend up. That's another story, though. Also,

we were hanging out at my house once when her

parents called her saying her aunt and uncle from up

north were visiting. We get to her house, spend time

with her family, and when they go to leave, She

jokingly says she wants to go with him. Her parents weren't.

They said she could go. I sat alone for over

an hour trapped in her parents' bedroom that doubled as

the living room with the door or windows closed while

they smoked like a chimney. Good times. Story 24. I'm

in the Navy and there's a girl who I've had

a mutual romantic interest with for years. Whenever I come

home on leave, I make it a point to see

her and spend time together, usually putting in a lot

of time and effort to plan a special day. Probably

the second time I came home after not seeing her

for over a year, we planned to go to Disneyland

the next day. We planned the event over multiple conversations

and would be leaving promptly at 9 a.m. since the

park is about two hours away and we wanted to

have a full day there. I got up early the

next day, get ready and text her to see if

she's ready to go. 9.30 comes around and still no word,

so I give her a call. No answer. I sit

around all morning, turning down any offers to hang out

with friends because I had my plans with her and

I'm going to stick to them. Finally, around 1.30pm, I

give her one last call and she actually answers. She

sounds groggy as hell and I can tell I just

woke her up by calling. Hey, what's up? Uh, we

were supposed to go to Disneyland today. Did you forget? Ugh, yeah,

I'm just really hungover and didn't feel up to going. Wow, okay. Well,

did you still want to hang out? I have work

in half an hour, so I can't hang out. She's

notorious for this kind of stuff. I don't know why

I waste my time. Story 25. Oh boy. So, my friend, sister, cousin,

and I all planned this big event for spring break.

Had all the details worked out months in advance. Time

comes and my friend and I drive across her state

and none of their states pick up my sister. Then

drive across that state again and into the state where

my cousin lived. 23 total hours of driving. Got into

town late, went to bed. Next night was the big event.

We're texting and calling the cousin all day. She's local

to the area and was supposed to be our guide

for partying. We figure maybe she's at work and she'll

call when she's off. We get ready for a night.

Dressing nice, having some drinks. Night progresses and no word

from the cousin. It's now after 8pm. We should be

half hammered at the bar already, getting our dance on.

We load into the car and start heading to her house.

We're almost there when she finally calls us back. She

informs us that she's not coming out with us because

it's her 6 month anniversary with her boyfriend. Blue is

underage and so can't come out with us, and she

wants to just stay home and watch movies with him.

So sorry, she's not coming out with us. So we're

three states away in an unknown city with no plan.

This was several years ago before you could really Google

and find good stuff. Luckily, a different cousin who had

just moved into the area called up a friend who

took us all into her house to drink and get

more warmed up for the bars, and then took us

to a great dance club, where there happened to be

a monthly ball with a theme that month being S

& M. It was an awesome spring break trip. She

let us intoxicated girls crash at her house that night

too and make coffee in the morning. So it ended

up awesome, but I didn't speak to that cousin that

bailed for several years. She's never apologized to this day.

Story 26. I was 17 and started dating a new guy.

He went to a boarding school an hour away and

was only home once a month or so. My dad

invited him to have dinner and watched a movie at

our house one Saturday when he was home. My dad

was so excited and really went all out. prepared an

awesome meat and cheese platter with his homemade smoked cheeses

and summer sausage, cooked our favorite pasta recipe, and even

picked up a nice cheesecake. Like 30 minutes before my

boyfriend was supposed to come over, he called to say

he couldn't make it. He said his uncle had just

gone out of prison and the family had to Skype him.

That seemed way too bizarre to be a lie. So

I let it go and me and dad ate without him,

with my dad being totally defeated about it. I came

to find out over the next few months that his

mom had a huge problem with where I lived. I

was in a solidly middle-class neighborhood, but still nice, but

a goddamn POA. And his family was wealthy. His mom

would come up with reasons why he couldn't come to

my house because the area was sketchy. I assumed she

was referring to the black family across the street. I

also later met his uncle, and it was abundantly clear

the man had never seen prison a day in his life,

let alone been locked up for years and years. If

you see this, Nick, you're the worst for making my

dad cry. Story 27 My wife and I had planned

a nice dinner at her house and invited four people,

two colleagues and their significant other, a month in advance.

Two days before the dinner, one colleague just told us

they couldn't come because Ronnie's mother is celebrating her 60th birthday.

Sounds like a good enough reason, right? The 60th birthday

of your partner's mother is more important than an evening

with a few colleagues. Except Ronnie isn't her partner, but

rather her partner's best friend. She basically told us that

she'd rather go to the birthday party of the mother

of her SO's best friend than to us. People that

care so much about them that they just remembered two

days before a, I guess, long-planned party that they forgot

to invite them. And now they don't get why we

don't want to have anything to do with them. Get stuffed, Julia.

Story 28. Five of us at uni made arrangements to

go to the south of France on holiday over the

summer for two weeks. A rich Belgian friend had a

villa there. Morning of the trip came. Only three of four,

one was already in Belgium, turned up. Very confused. We

called and called. No answer. He was the only one

who lived in London, literally walking distance to the Eurostar. Eventually,

20 minutes from the train leaving, he calls us and

is like, what? What do you want? Dude, the train

is leaving in 20 minutes. Where are you? I'm at

McDonald's eating. I was hungry, innit? Are you coming to

France or what? I don't know what you're talking about, man.

I'm just eating some nuggets. He called us like four

days later and said he was ready to go to

France now. We were just like, What are you talking about?

The train was four days ago and we already drove

to France. There's no one to bring you here. Are

you insane? I don't think he understood how life worked.

Story 29. Back in high school, I walked home for

lunch every day because it wasn't a long walk. I

didn't have to make lunch in the mornings before school

and could chill at home. One day I walked home

from lunch, got back and found out everyone in my

core friend group, including my girlfriend, went out to McDonald's

for lunch and no one invited me. These were the

same people I hang out with every weekend and many

times after school. It was just lunch, so I wasn't

too mad, but still upset. Next period, I sat beside

one of those friends and confronted him about it. His

excuse was, Oh, I didn't want to invite you to

other people's plans because they weren't mine. Like, what? I

literally hang out with that exact group every week. Don't

use that as an excuse when you're too much of

a wuss to say that you forgot about me or

didn't invite me. I'm not friends with most of the

people in that group anymore, but for various other reasons.

Story 30 This may get swallowed by the rest of

all the other terrible stories, but when the first Avengers

movie came out, I really flipped out of excitement and

told all my bros that we had to go see

it opening night. So we all bought tickets. For the

same theater. At the same time. Three months later. I arrived.

45 minutes till showtime. Save seats. Go get popcorn. 10

minutes till showtime. Attacks the guys. Where are you guys? Showtime.

Buzz buzz. Hey, sorry, I thought you got my text.

We all decided to switch our tickets and go tomorrow instead.

How didn't you know? Oh, I didn't know. Maybe you're

just stupid. We're still friends to this day. it was

the most lonely movie ever. I just had the companionship

of sweaty neckbeards to warm me. Story 31. Best friend

at the time was supposed to come over and hang

out with me the day my boyfriend moved away. We

were young, but really serious about one another. Had to

move away because his mother was crazy and he was

going to live with his father half the country away.

I didn't know if I was ever going to see

him again. I was really emotionally distraught. Take him to

the airport that morning and head home. Text friend that

the door is open and she can come over whenever.

I'm going to take a shower. Don't hear from her.

Hours passed by and I texted her again, asking when

she was coming over. No answer. Two more hours passed. Finally,

I called her. Where was she? She was going to

see her grandmother that weekend and had decided to leave

a few days early for no other reason than she

had felt like it. Hung up the phone and nearly

had a panic attack. Called another friend who was going

to her one-year anniversary dinner that night. Her and her

boyfriend came over and hung out with me instead. Guess

which friend I still talk to? Story 32. When I

was younger, I had one of those friends that was

only friends with you when it benefited them. I was

very unpopular, so I took any friend I could get. Anyway,

we would usually chat on AIM. I know, I know,

I'm a dinosaur. After school and if our homework was done,

we could hang out and play games or watch movies

or something. Well, her popular friends got wind that we

were hanging out, and I got that walk-to-remember treatment. That

scene where Jamie walks up to Landon and says, See

you after school, and he trashes her in front of

his friends to avoid embarrassment. I said to her in

passing I would talk to her later, and she started

calling me names. She told me she'd never talk to

me or hang out with me because I was a moron,

and she'd never be caught with the likes of me.

That hurt. A lot. Story 33. Five of us had

plans to go on a big road trip. It was

my girlfriend and I, my best friend, and another couple.

We had been planning on it for months and had

everything ready to go. We all double checked that we

had the week off from work so I wasn't worried

that anyone would bail. Two days before we were supposed

to leave, the girl from the other couple complained about

the cost of the hotel and it turned into a

huge argument. The next day she texted my girlfriend saying

that she and her boyfriend both all of a sudden

had to work the exact days we would be gone

and there was nothing they could do. I ran into

her boss at the gas station as we were filling

up the car to leave and said how awful it

was that she had to work and couldn't come. Her

boss said that to his knowledge, she still had the

week booked off. I would imagine her boyfriend didn't have

to work either. Story 34. Best friend was supposed to

come over for my birthday. She was supposed to drop

her kids off and spend the day just hanging out,

eating pizza, and enjoying with me. My husband was working

all day, and my kids were at school or daycare,

so I was alone. I wait for her to show up.

She doesn't. Call an hour after she's supposed to be there.

She's still home in pajamas, playing with her kids and

dogs in the yard. Having a good old time. Ask

if she's coming. She claims her grandpa's in the hospital

and they're on the way to see him. Oh, and

nothing will be posted on Facebook about it because they

don't want to worry people. Yeah, that's why you're in

the car ready to go, right? Anyways, it turns out

her gramps wasn't in the hospital. Apparently she didn't feel

like making the trip and lied about it. I would

have appreciated and understood honesty. The incident was just another

in a long line of her drama queen lines. Haven't

spoken to her since. My stress levels have gone down significantly.

Wonder why. Story 35. Not sure if the worst reason,

but it stuck with me over the years. Years back,

we had begun with high school and around two weeks

before the new years, best friend from elementary school had

called me up to ask if I'd be up to

go with him during new years. I said yes, and

we both agreed to call each other in the following

days to pinpoint the exact time and location we'd be meeting.

Six days left. Call him up. He doesn't call. Five

days left. Still doesn't. This went on until one day

before new years when he decided to call me I

wasn't mad or anything, I was just confused as to

what the heck is going on. So I asked him

where he had been, why no calls, etc. So he

forgot his phone at his grandma's house. That's why he

hadn't called me until then. Alright, that's BS, but I

believe it. Then he tells me that he's going to

go out with his girlfriend, which he has known for

less than two months, and that we didn't agree to

go out, only that we would discuss the possibility of

going out. So I spent New Year's constructing Lego and

making roller coasters out of card boxes for said Lego vehicles.

Sad thing is, he was supposed to be a best friend.

I'd known for almost eight years at the time. Was

one that day. What was your screw it, done helping

others moment? I had a friend years ago who was

a bit self-centered and prone to stretching the truth, but

he was a nice enough guy with a rough backstory

and my friend group liked him, so I cut him

a lot of slack. I like to host and have

friends staying over pretty regularly. Back then, I usually had

one or two people spending the night on any given day. Anyhow,

over the span of a couple of years, this guy

starts misusing that. Staying over for days or even weeks

at a time, eating my food and drinking my liquor

without contributing, that sort of thing, while constantly talking about

his grand plans and daydreams as if they'd already happened.

A little sad, but also pretty annoying after a while. Anyhow,

I sat him down one day and let him know

he's gotta head home. That he's free to come over

and hang out, but I'm not comfortable with him staying

over for the time being. He leaves. I think it

went remarkably well and heads out to work. It turns

out that he broke in while I was away at

work and stole a bunch of my sister's things because

his birthday was coming up and neither of us even

thought to get him a gift. It takes a special

person to rationalize how burglarizing someone is really their fault. Anyway,

all slack and sympathy went out the window immediately. Called

the cops and he's doomed to me. From nice enough

guy to textbook definition of a freeloader. That's quite the

character arc. Story two. A guy I used to be

friends with couldn't afford to pay his bills. It was

the middle of winter as he was shut off in

his house so I told him he could crash in

my place until I figured it out. Three days in

and I'm coming home to my sink stacked with dishes.

Garbage everywhere. All my food gone. I told him he

can't stay if he's not going to contribute or help

out around the house. Couple days later, I told him

he had to go. Dude runs off to the west

coast to essentially pass away and comes back as a

very mentally unhinged user. I still talk to him online

now and again, but I can't be his friend anymore.

Story three. When a good friend of mine that I

worked under had cancer and wasn't able to pay some bills,

I loaned her $ 200 just to help. I was only

18 at the time and felt bad because she had kids.

It was right around the holidays and I just wanted

to help however I could and be a good person

in life. She promised to pay me back when she could.

Turns out she lied about having cancer, was stealing from

the company it worked at, scammed by other co-workers and

would come in after calling out of work for her

chemo to make fraudulent returns while I was overseeing the

store by myself because of her calling out. Got that

witch fired and got promoted to her position after. Story four.

My mother and her new husband had moved into a

new place and invited all their kids over for Christmas.

In previous years, we would buy a whole turkey dinner

from somewhere so no one, me, had to cook. So

imagine my surprise when my husband and I walked in,

my mother walks out of the kitchen, hands me a

spoon and says, good, you're finally here, and goes to

sit down in the living room. After a quick and

awkward conversation, it was determined that my job was to

make sure everything currently in progress, or not even started,

got to the table on time. while everyone else socialized. Basically,

I was the help and should have realized that, so

any feelings I had about that were my fault. I

was a good cook, and my mother taught me everything. Not.

So I owed her. So I did, and not knowing

the family dynamics, my new step-siblings were very thankful and

appreciative of all my efforts, which caused a meltdown from

my mother about how we all should be thanking her.

That was the first time I used a phrase that

has come in handy for these situations. I'm so sorry.

It will never happen again. They never did. They weren't

happy when they finally realized what that meant. Story five.

I've also experienced something sort of like this. Anytime my

ex had his family over for holidays, I'm talking five

or six people, all from the other side of the country. Ironically,

you never seem to know ahead of time that they

were all coming over until like the day before or whatever.

Every single time. So I would prepare the house, because

he always had to work until the very minute they

needed to be picked up from the airport. Then it

was expected that I would cook dinner. This is my fault, really,

because I did it the first time, giving him the

idea that I would do it every time. So I

ended up always doing it because he didn't have time

or I'm better at it. So family would show up,

I'd be cooking and cleaning, everyone else would be playing

games and socializing, and hours later my ex would be

falling asleep on the floor intoxicated. I finally said no

the last time he told me everyone was coming over.

I said no. I'm sick of being taken advantage of.

His response? I did it for you. I thought it

would make you happy. Didn't you have fun all the

other times? To which I replied, I thought you didn't

know until today. When did you decide this would make

me happy? Well, I got a hotel room and stayed

the heck away until they all left. Came home to

an empty, trashed house. Story six. One day I found

a puppy. Dirty, hungry, and just scared and lost. I

gave him a good meal and some love and went

to drop him off at the address on his collar.

The dude thanked me, then proceeded to hurt the dog,

telling me to mind my own business when I tried

to get him to stop. Carried him in a muddy

patch of the crappy broken three-wall doghouse where I'm guessing

the dog spent 100% of its time. I called the cops,

but they did nothing. The dog technically had shelter, which

qualifies because three walls and a roof, even if it

was filled with holes and it gets 20 degrees a

night here. P.S. I stole the dog three weeks later.

Story 7 We have helped out my sister-in-law a few

times with money and bills. Never a lot. $ 50 here,

$ 100 there. Usually for some bill to avoid services being

cut off. I'm usually the more heartfelt one in my marriage,

but I ended up being the one to put my

foot down. Went over to her apartment once. She had

two big flat screen TVs, a new couch, new fridge,

kids on PlayStation or whatever console she got them. It

was all rent-a-center stuff. But that was the end for me.

I didn't have any of those things myself, not to

mention the incredibly bad financial decision those things were with

a high interest rate. Part of me felt like I

was taking food out of her kids' mouth, but realizing no,

her poor decisions were doing that. Story 8. I used

to frequently stay late at work for clients who showed

up to the veterinary clinic last minute with a non-emergency

problem and no appointment. Then, three times in a row,

three different people were told up front about the after-hours fee,

agreed to pay it instead of scheduling an appointment for

the next day, and all of them called back the

next day fussing that they shouldn't have been charged extra

for keeping us 30 to 60 minutes past our scheduled hours,

that we were terrible and trying to scam them by

charging for our time. Even though we told them up

front and they had another option, it was exhausting and demoralizing.

We did more than we had to for them after

already working a full day because a desire to help

is why we're all here in the first place. They

responded by saying our time was worth nothing and we suck.

The entire staff said, screw that. Now, unless it's a

literal life in doom situation, if we can't fit someone

in before closing and they didn't have an appointment, it's

a firm no. I'm in this profession to help others

and I still work late for real emergencies when they

happen or if an appointment runs longer than expected. But

I'm done sacrificing my personal time for entitled people who

don't actually need it. Story 9. When I dropped my

rates significantly to help a struggling family with childcare, blended

family needing to find childcare for their emotionally damaged children

who had been hospitalized by mom's boyfriend, both parents worked

and my wages were paid through a charity scheme. It

was hell. They were utterly useless as people, let alone parents.

They took the whiz and ended up basically doing nothing

with the house or children and ended up owing me

nearly $ 2, 000 due to them committing benefit fraud and pocketing

what they should have been passing on to me. The

final straw was when they asked me to babysit that

night as they needed to go out on the lash.

It's been stressful. Whilst telling me they couldn't afford food,

let alone pay me. Never again will I fall for

a sob story. Story 10. This is more specific to

the teeny weeny town I used to live in. I

used to believe I was valued by the community. I

used to actually believe in that community spirit, that soul,

if you will. I had seen it and participated in it.

When I left my marriage of almost 13 years, there

had been about 10 years of domestic violence. I well

and truly thought the community would help me out if

I needed it and reached out, as I had seen

so many other times in the 15 years I'd lived there. Nope,

got quite the opposite. Nobody believed me. People who I

thought were friends disappeared. People who I thought were friends

played the, it wasn't really that bad, was it, card.

People that I thought I could trust to help keep

me safe by not telling anyone where I was living

went straight to my oppressor with that info. Hardly anyone

would even speak to me, even just to say hi

when I needed acknowledgement most. Screw all of those schmucks. Ah,

the community spirit. Turns out it only applies to bake

sales and rescuing cats from trees, not, you know, actual

human suffering. Story 11. Worked in Baton Rouge for a decade,

1999 to 2009, and would regularly give the homeless I

saw around town, generously, if I can say that without

being a schmuck, In 2008, I was on a run

for work, and a guy caught me near the Target

on Segan Lane. He had nothing. He was homeless, and

on top of it, had been robbed an hour ago.

No worries. I emptied my wallet for the man. We

all need help. Coming out of the shopping complex, I

see him hiding in the bushes, opening a pack of

smokes in the laptop along his iPhone. Then a month later,

I saw a man I regularly donated to on Government Street.

I would catch him on weekends, but this weekend my

drop-off started early, so I saw him as he arrived

in downtown B.R. I sat behind the TV station, waiting

for a pickup. And this cat gets out of a

new car, changes into dirty clothes and grabs his sign

from the trunk and heads off to his corner. I've

given food and connected people with charities, but I have

not given a penny to a beggar since then. Story 12.

I was 17 and still in school. The corridors were

empty as my teacher sent me out to go do

her a job. So I was just walking down the

corridor when this girl carrying a bunch of books bumped

into me and she dropped the books, like you see

in a movie. So I apologized because I wasn't really

paying attention and I bent down and get the books

for her and hand them to her expecting at least

a small thanks. But no, instead this chick had to say,

I have a boyfriend, so never ever purposely bump into

me just so I can talk to you. You should

have walked away. She begins to turn away, grab her shoulder,

which makes her turn around and then knock the books

out of her hand and say, now that was on purpose.

And I walk away while she's standing there speechless. Some

of you may think that was messed up, but I

don't really regret a single bit of it as she

got what she deserved. Story 13. Last two times I've

helped push someone out of mud or snow in the winter,

they've slammed the gas pedal down, coated me in mud,

and as soon as they were free of the mud,

just kept driving without so much as a thank you.

I've stopped helping people stuck in the mud or snow.

Story 14. I had a new manager come into my

former place of employment. Immediately, this new manager starts firing

people for BS reasons and hiring people from her old

job to replace them. The walls in that place docked

and few noticed the janitor. So when I heard rumors

of the next heads in the chopping block, one of

which was mine, I decided to be nice and help

out the other two. I considered them good friends and

it was the least I could do, right? I warn

one and he takes it seriously and begins looking for

another job so when the pink slip arrived, he landed

on his feet running. The other probably goes squealing to

the manager in question, who uses that as an excuse

to fire me, and then fires the person that has squealed.

All three jobs were quickly filled by her old friends

from her previous job. I refuse to lift a finger

to help a co-worker out since. I've had advanced warnings

of firing and disciplinary hearings and various other juicy gossip.

People for some reason think I hear with my eyes

and assume that they can talk in front of me

and I won't notice. I'm going blind, people. Not deaf.

I've kept it all to myself. Screw them. Story 15.

Met a guy who had hit a rough patch. He

had great chemistry and he made me laugh. The bar

was so low. He gave me a sob story of

why he was getting kicked out of his communal house

and I offered to let him stay with me because

I live alone and I have my own place. Huge mistake.

He hadn't hit a rough patch. He was the rough patch.

Barely paid for anything and would get wasted while I

was at work and be a total schmuck when I

got home. Got fired from his job. Ate all the

food I'd bought and made excuses as to why he

hadn't found another job yet. The absolute kicker was when

I went home from my nana's funeral. He treated it

like a mini vacation in my place. Invited friends over,

played music so loud the cops got called, and when

he was supposed to pick me up from the airport,

it was wasted at someone's house at 8am. Never felt

better than the day it kicked him out. No more

financial and emotional cruelty. Finally, it felt like my place

was mine again. I've learned an expensive lesson. Don't help

people that won't help themselves. When nothing is their fault,

there's a serious issue. Run fast and far. Story 16.

In freshman year of college, my friend of about two

years got kicked out of his parents' house. He said

he needed somewhere to stay for the night till his

parents cooled off. He said you can stay a week

if you want, but more than that and you'll need

to pay me rent. He made pretty good money, more

than me even. I was kind of hoping to find

someone to split the bills with anyway. A week rolls by,

and he hasn't even looked for another place. His parents

aren't letting him come back. I ask him if he's

going to stay. He says, if it's alright with you.

I say, sure, just pay me half the cost for

the apartment every month. He said he can't. I know

damn well he can. I say, well, then you gotta go.

He asked if he could stay another week. I said, no.

He got angry at me for that. I then got

angry at him for getting angry at me. I gave

you a place to stay and you're mad at me?

Totally ended the friendship. Never let anyone into your place

unless you have a signed contract. Story 17. I was

working at a fast food place when I was a student.

I usually did overtime to help everyone clean up and

close the restaurant until about 1am because we were so understaffed.

I guess people got used to me staying late because

one night when I was supposed to finish at 11,

I overheard some of my colleagues, the stereotypical mean girls,

say how bad the clients had cluttered everything tonight and

how it was going to be a mess to clean up.

Then they say, But hey, me, he's gotta stay late

tonight again. Let's leave it to her. She always does

the cleaning anyways. Fallabay laughing and some witching about me.

That night, I clocked out at 11 after doing all

of my tasks at the counter and left. The girls

stared at me in shock and when I was outside,

I saw one of them standing in the middle of

the restaurant with her hand on her forehead, looking at

the mess she would have to clean before going home. Weirdly,

after that day, they started cleaning earlier without waiting for

me to do everything. Story 18. I'm a nice person.

I look after people. Colleague is sick. I go out

and buy cough medicine or paracetamol for them. Got no food?

I'll get you a takeaway. I've never expected anything in return,

but one day I was asked for money. I did.

Not a lot. It was like 20 pounds. They eventually

gave it back. Then they asked again. And again. Never

wanted food or a train ticket, just money. And the

last time I lent him money, he walked straight into

a betting shop and put money in a football game.

That was it. He asked me for more money sometime later,

and I said no. Guy literally throws a tantrum. I'd

always help you out. I give it back. I thought

we were mates. I don't fund gambling habits. And haven't

given him or anyone else help again. Just looking after

me now. Story 19. I was pretty down on my luck.

Quit my job and started touring in a band, just

getting started so money wasn't great. One night, a 50-ish

year old dude stops me at the entrance to the

grocery store. I had enough for a cheap six-pack, toilet paper,

and cat food. He gives me a story about how

he stranded overnight and just needed some food before he

could get back on the road. I go in and

figure out how to get the guy some dinner. Some

chicken fingers, macaroni salad, and some dinner rolls. Get my beer,

get cat food, and TP. Take the guy's food. Go

to my van and start digging for change. If I

can't get beer, I'll at least get a candy bar.

Go back in and the schmuck is buying a 12

of Keystone. I raised hell at him. Just screamed the

guy out the door, making sure everyone knew why. Screw you, man.

Story 20. Yeah. donate to causes I feel strongly about

and still do to this day. Now, typically, it may

not be a ton of money. $ 20 a month is

an example, but my rule is if they contact you

for more money, you're likely going to have to discontinue.

One group called me and basically belittled the amount of

money I was giving, saying they really need people who

are contributing $ 100 a month or more or large one-time donations.

I immediately told them to stop any further payments from

autopay and to stop contacting me. It makes me reconsider

charitable giving altogether. Story 21. I was in college. I

was the only one in the group with a car,

so everyone hit me up for rides. I get a

bit annoying since I was the only one also with

a job, so sometimes I get asked if I could

give them a ride to the airport or bus. One time,

a friend called me up at like 12 p.m. or

so and asked if I could give her a ride

to the bus terminal at like 1 a.m. I was like, uh, sure.

So on the way, she told me that she was

going to stay the weekend, but got annoyed with her sister,

so she was leaving for her hometown. Then asked her

sister for a ride to the bus terminal, even though

her sister had been drinking at home. Her sister was

intoxicated and she still took her. It made it halfway

when she got pulled over and arrested for DUI. Well,

my friend called a buddy to help her drive the

car home and then she hit me up for a

ride to the bus station. She told me all of

this on the way there and all I could think

of was, so you asked your intoxicated sister for a

ride when she was already home? She got arrested and

now you're leaving her here without even lifting a finger

to take her out. Long story short, I bailed out

the sister. I told myself after that no one would

have done that for me. They would have left me there,

so I stopped giving people rides, and slowly but surely,

my number of friends decreased drastically. Did she at least

offer to pay for gas, or was the emotional trauma

of her sister's DUI payment enough? Story 22. I posted

a futon in the marketplace, and the first person that

hit me up gave me a sob story about needing

something for the kid to sleep on. I was only

asking for $ 20 for it, but they asked if they

could get it for free. My wife and I agreed

to give it away, so I took it to our

meeting spot at Home Depot. Two days later, this guy

had the futon posted in the marketplace asking $ 50. My

wife and I Facebook-stocked him and his wife, and every

time they posted it, we would hijack the listing, letting

everyone know the story of how they got the futon.

I don't give crap away anymore, no matter the story

they give me. If you're enjoying the video, don't forget

to hit that subscribe and like button for more videos

like this. Story 23 My youngest sister used to steal

my stuff all the time growing up. Once in high school,

I thought I lost my iPod. Turns out she had

been hiding it around the house for six months. She

would steal my money, clothes, laptop, and toiletries. Later, she

would steal my things and sell them for substance money.

She once tied her elderly family dog to a post

overnight in near-freezing weather because she wanted to get home

but couldn't be bothered to walk four blocks back home

to drop off her dog. Less than three months later,

I had to put our dog down because of health

issues from that night. The last straw was my first break.

First year of university. I bought a pair of sweatpants,

branded with my school's logo on my suitcase, but couldn't

find them the morning after my arrival. Later that day,

I got in the car and that little witch was

wearing my freaking sweatpants and tried telling my parents we

happened to have the same pair. My university is pretty

small and over 2,000 miles from my parents' home, so

everyone immediately knew she was lying. I know it's a

small thing to be the last straw, but after that day,

she was gone to me. I would be cordial the

few times I saw her after that, but I never

tried to contact her and have made it clear that

I don't love her anymore, because I know she doesn't

give two craps about anyone else in her family. We

haven't spoken in three years and I could not be

more grateful for it. Story 24. I once had to

make an HTML website for a school project in high school.

Since I sucked with computers and our teacher didn't actually

teach us anything, I asked a friend who was good

with computers to make the webpage for me. My friend

did an awesome job, so... I thought I'd be a

sport and help the rest of the class who were

as clueless as I was and share my project with

them so they can copy the structure and just change

the topic in pictures or whatever. Only to find out

a week later that one guy submitted the exact thing

I shared without changing anything. Say it was the one

that copied him. I was called into a very serious

meeting about stealing his project. I told the teachers to

ask the rest of the class about who the webpage

really belongs to and they backed me up, but I

never helped anyone else all throughout high school. Story 25.

I have a sister. She must be a klepto or

something because she's told my clothes that were two sizes

too small for her. I had this pink dress that

was my absolute favorite and one day went missing. I

confronted her about it and she was dismissive, like, why

would I do that? Fast forward months later, she's packing

up her room to finally move out of my mom's

house and lo and behold, my pink dress was in

her pile of clothes. She'd also do stupid crap like

break things or ruin things around the house and tell

my mom I did it. She would also get spiked

and abandon her baby at her house while she was

God knows where. She knew my work schedule, so even

when she moved out of the house, she would wait

in the driveway for me to come home from work

so she could pawn her baby off on me while

she did whatever the heck she wanted. I just stopped

going home after work. I was 18. She was in

her 30s. Ridiculous. Some people, man. Story 26. I was

walking home on the way back from the bank the

day before Thanksgiving. I passed a homeless man with a

sign saying something along the lines of, hungry, anything else?

I walked over to him and asked if he was hungry.

He said yes, and I offered to take him to

the subway up the road. He declined and said asking

for money. I told him I don't carry cash anymore,

but I would gladly buy him a footlong meal. He

scoffed and ignored me. Okay. I continued along my route

home and encountered another homeless person with a sign along

the same lines. I asked her if she wanted food.

She declined. once again asking for money instead. I told

her as well that I don't carry cash, but I

would be happy to take her inside the Burger King

she was posted outside of and buy her whatever she wanted.

This woman actually had the audacity to ask me to

go to an ATM and withdraw money to give to her.

I politely told her that I wasn't going to do that,

and she became visibly upset, to which I just walked away.

I'm not going to stop helping when and where I can,

but it really puts a damper on my optimism. Story

27 I was an intern at a radio station in 01.

Helped one of the morning show DJs at the bar

night at the Mall of America one Saturday night. She

was notoriously hated by everyone at the station, but seemed

appreciative of my help when we got along that night.

As we were cleaning up after close, 1 a.m. or so,

she asked me if I would walk her back to

her car for safety. I declined as I had parked

in the opposite parking ramp and had to carry all

the equipment in one trip. She pushed and pressured and

confided that she was nervous walking back to her car

this late, and after she offered to drive me and

the equipment back to the van, I agreed. We walked

out to her car and continued talking like friends, but

as she got to her front door, her entire demeanor changed.

I actually don't know you that well, and I don't

feel safe driving someone I don't know in my car.

And she got in her car and left without a

thank you or goodbye. And my way had closed, so

I had to carry the equipment down the ramp, around

the mall, and back up the other ramp to the

station's van. Didn't do crap for her at any other

events again. though she was fired a few months after

my internship ended. Story 28. I used to be the

organizer of my friendship group. It was often like herding cats.

One day we went to a convention, for which I

had made all the arrangements and distributed all the info.

We split to go to two different panels, me on

my own to one and everyone else to another. We

arranged a time and a place to meet afterwards. The

panel ended and I went to the meeting spot and waited,

and waited, and waited, over 45 minutes. No one responded

to calls or texts. Finally, one of the group rocked up,

a full hour after we'd agreed. Turns out that they

decided to stay on and watch the next panel and

it hadn't even occurred to them to let me know.

To say I verbally ripped them up one side and

down the other was an understatement. I was furious. Never

arranged another outing again. Now when I go somewhere or

tell the ones I'm still friends with, show up or don't.

Story 29. Roommate's friend from college came crying with a

I have nowhere to go or just need to get

on my feet, sob story. I was very hesitant to

let him stay in our house, but my roommate insisted

it would be fine. The guy was the laziest, whiniest,

useless freaking bum I've ever met. Constantly complained about the

way we did things. In the house he was living

rent-free in, did nothing but smoke, drink, and watch YouTube

on his phone all day and never contributed so much

as a dime to the house. It's pretty obvious the

guy's life consisted of freeloading until he got kicked out

and then started this sob story all over again. Roommate

and I gave him the boot and he had an

epic temper tantrum and threatened us. So I called the

cops and told them I was filing a restraining order

and he better get the heck out of here. He

left in his crappy beater truck and we never saw

him again. Anytime I've heard, I just need somewhere to

get on my feet, I'm extremely hesitant and this loser

did nothing to dissuade that. Story 30 I volunteered one

summer at the local Boys and Girls Club. They were

always understaffed, and my girlfriend worked late, so I would

help out a few hours each night. I would get

asked all the time which kid was mine. I don't

have kids. To which the reaction was always suspicion, why

a man without kids was helping out if I wasn't

a creep. And at the end of each day, they

would ask if I had core mandated community service papers

they needed to sign off before I left. Takes altruism

out of volunteering. Story 31. This homeless guy in LA

was asking me for money to buy food so I

took him down to a subway and paid for his meal.

It was like his first time there so I had

trouble ordering. He added some other stuff like three bags

of chips which was annoying but I paid for them anyway.

No thank you or anything. He took his food and

quickly left. Found him later trying to sell the food

for beer at a supermarket down the street. This wasn't

a single occurrence. There were many situations like this. Worst

was a woman standing outside a supermarket asking for money

for her starving baby. They offered to buy baby food

for her inside the market and she declined. In closer inspection,

it was a fake baby and this Hispanic dude she

was with was sitting in his car nearby watching these interactions.

Screw LA and the homeless population there. Story 32. There

was a guy in Brooklyn. Maybe he still does this,

but I don't live there anymore. Lou would try to

hustle people by claiming he'd locked his keys and wallet

in his truck, along with his daughter's diaper bag, which

had her special formula. Could you help him out to

buy some? First time I ran into him, it happened

to be less than a block from a pharmacy. I

told him, sure, I'd go in and get it. What kind?

He said they didn't have the right kind at that

particular store i told him i'd walk with him up

the avenue there was another pharmacy less than 10 blocks

away he walked for like three blocks as i tried

to make small talk before he said oh man i

feel bad making you walk all the way there you

don't have to come could you just give me the

money i made up a lie that i was a

country boy who just moved to the city I don't

carry cash in case I get robbed in the mean

city streets. He apparently gave up when he couldn't think

of another lie to keep this going, so in about

another block, he said, Oh, I just remembered. That other

pharmacy doesn't have the kind she needs either. I offered

to walk to a different pharmacy, but he declined, thanked me,

and walked off. About a year later, he walked up

to me in the same neighborhood, and I immediately recognized him.

He started into his spiel, and I said, Oh right,

she's still on formula? Special kind, right? Locked in your

truck again? You know, if you're going to try to

hit the same neighborhood more than once, you really should

get better at remembering faces. He looked scared and just

walked away quickly. Story 33. I'm a giver by nature

and had a good friend during my college days. He

was not able to get an internship even after sitting

for 10 to 15 companies. Whenever he was rejected, I

offered him kind advice and fed him. This is hostile

and talking about. I don't have that much spare money

to begin with. But I always made sure he felt positive.

I gave him a treat when I got an internship.

But the day he finally succeeded, I playfully asked him,

where's the party, dude? He said, and I quote, where

the heck will I give you a party? I took

some other friends of his out for drinks. Might sound

like a cheap shot to the story, but I was hurt.

I had no spare cash left, but I made sure

he was well-fed and motivated. I said the same exact line.

Screw this crap. I don't deserve it. Story 34. Okay,

this is going to be a venting session for me.

When I was in high school, I had this friend.

We'll call her Sunny. Sunny was being relentlessly pursued by

this boy who we'll call Michael. If I went into

detail about all the terrible and manipulative things Michael did

to Sunny, I would be here for days. But my

frustration came in when I tried to help Sunny. I

couldn't stand to see her getting treated this terribly, so

I sacrificed study hall after study hall to help her

and comfort her. So did her other friends. And then

she admitted she had an intense crush on him, despite

how much of a schmuck he was. I really mean

it when I say he was a cold-hearted, manipulative schmuck.

But we didn't give up. We kept telling her to

stay away from him, but she just wouldn't listen. It

got to a point where one day she would be

on his lap on a couch, but literally the very

next day she'd hate him with a passion. All we

ever talked about during lunch was Michael. Eventually, I realized

I didn't care about my help. All those study halls, lunches,

and tender talks meant nothing to her because she didn't

value anything I was saying. I decided to completely ditch

her and whenever another friend starts talking about relationships, I

give a disclaimer and set boundaries for how much I'm

willing to help. Lesson learned, if people don't value your help,

don't give it. And make sure to set boundaries in

your help so you know when to stop. Story 35.

I was walking to a concert in downtown Chicago in

late November. This happened in North Dearborn, right in the loop.

If you've never been to Chicago, it's one of the

nicer parts of downtown. It was a cold night so

I was walking with both hands in my pockets and

a cig in my mouth. I was approached by a

younger dude who didn't appear to be homeless immediately as

he was dressed semi-decently and didn't reek or anything. He

asked me if he could bum a cig. I was

in a good mood, going to the concert, so I said, sure,

and gave him one. Along with my lighter. He handed

me my lighter back and I expected he would keep

walking on, but he matched pace with me and asked

how I was doing. I told him fine and asked

how he was doing. He said he's just trying to

make it out here. I thought, here we go. He

asked me for money because he said he hadn't eaten

all day. Now I had about $ 200 in cash on me,

mostly in my 20s. I had maybe a couple of

smaller bills, so it's not like I couldn't give him money.

I didn't want to pull out a wad of any

size in front of a guy I don't know on

the street and people can judge me or whatever, but

I'm not in the habit of giving money to homeless people.

But I always try to treat them with respect and dignity.

I politely told him, sorry man, I don't have any cash.

He got kind of angry at that point and launched

into a guilt-trippy tirade for the next half block or

so about how nobody has any compassion anymore and sometimes...

People just need a little help. They didn't say anything

in response. Truth be told, I started to feel kind

of bad for him. What he said is pretty true.

A lot of people aren't willing to help other people,

and sometimes, people really just start down on their luck.

I was second-guessing my decision to turn him down until

we reached the next intersection. I was going straight, and

he cut to the right. I had to stop for

the crosswalk, and I watched him get not five steps

away from me before he took the cigarette I gave him,

that he'd barely sucked on because he was too busy

yelling at me, out of his mouth and threw it

on the ground. He then proceeded to walk right up

to another dude and start talking to him. Maybe I

didn't help him much, per se, but if he was

as down and as luck as he wanted me to believe,

he would have been burning the filter on that thing

before giving it up. I instantly felt vindicated. Story 36.

I will always help people no matter what, but I

remember this one time I saw this guy broken down

in his car on the side of a busy road.

Turns out I knew him. I pull up and he

says that his tire is flat and doesn't know what

to do. I said I'll help. In his mind, that

was a cue to just stand on one side and

watch me whilst he talked on his phone with his wife.

Didn't lift a finger, not even to get the tire

out of the boot. After we were done, he just

said a perfunctory thank you and went. Weeks later, I

saw the same guy at the supermarket, and upon seeing me,

he came over. I thought it was to thank me. Nope,

the b * * * * wanted some donations for

a charity he had gotten involved in. Screw off, I

said to him, in my mind. Story 37 I work

at a grocery store. I get a lot of problematic customers,

but I can think of one in particular that made

me decide, eh, screw you. I'm not helping. We had

just installed self-checkout in the middle of the pandemic. Smart move.

Our store is not tiny, but very compact. We set

up a line for when people are ready to check out.

We have a person on that line directing customers to SEO, self-checkout,

or to whichever register is ready. And that day, one

of my supervisors was doing the line and I was

attending SEO. One dude comes over with his chin diaper

and is having trouble. He's a regular, a rude one.

He calls me over to help with some produce. I

tell him to pull his mask up. He looks at

me oddly. and then yells at me to stop bothering him.

So I comply. I don't help him. I later found

out from that supervisor that the rude customer had called

him a weirdo for asking to put his mask on properly.

But the supervisor sent him to SEO to deal with

an employee who was best at handling rude customers. Me.

Supervisor knew I wouldn't take his crap and I didn't. Dan,

if you're reading this, that was one of the most

rewarding interactions with a schmuck I've ever had at that store.

Story 38. I spent most of the first lockdown in

the UK trying to help a friend get out of

a toxic relationship. Toward the end of it, she just

wasn't listening. She was in that point saying, oh, he

loves me and he's kind. Then she started saying that

me and my friends were trying to manipulate her. This

angered me and snapped something inside me. I'm not an

angry person. Anger me and I'll tell you how things

are and I'm not afraid to tell someone what I think.

So I unloaded everything I had to say. I also

found out yesterday that he cheated on her, which made

me laugh a little. I think we're friends again since

she told me herself and apologized. Story 39. Both happened

one right after the other. First to have a friend

in the UK who has another friend whose relative was

seriously ill. The sick person had always wanted to visit

New York, but due to her treatments, wouldn't be likely

to do so. He asked if I could go around

the city and pick up souvenirs, take some pictures, etc.

and send them to him, so he could pass it

along to her to lift her spirits. Well, I did.

I went around in the evenings for the next two

weeks and bought souvenirs, got a playbill from a Broadway show,

got subway maps, took pictures and printed them, the whole nine,

and then mailed it to the UK from New York,

all out of my own pocket. It was over $ 100 altogether.

Never got reimbursed by either of them, despite repeated assurances

that the money would come. Second, I got asked by

an acquaintance of a friend about advice for photography and

art shows and how to approach submissions, etc. I've been

in the arts for many years, so I wrote him

a nice, introductory email with some good initial resources, tips

on submitting and shipping artwork, etc. Never even a thank

you email back. When I wrote to ask if he

received my first email, he wrote back with a quick,

Oh yeah, thanks. Then asked me to do a review

and critique of his new photos. Yeah. Nah. So yeah,

unless your family are very close friends of mine, I'm

not going out of my way anymore. Story 40. My

wife and I, for our first Christmas together, adopted a

family in need of Christmas gifts. We were so excited

to shop for the kids and deliver. We got to

the house the week before Christmas and met the mother

at her door. She unenthusiastically told us to set the

gifts next to her tree, which had already been loaded

with other gifts, and we left with barely a thank you.

I can't confirm, but I'm pretty sure this family made

it a habit to sign up with multiple family adoption organizations.

just to collect as many gifts as they can. Well,

if you like these stories, here's more. YouTube thinks you're

gonna love this. Catch you in that video.