The fine print and details can get us all from time to time. These people share when they were so glad they read the whole contract.
u/PapayaThief asks:
what was your "thank God I looked at the contract" moment?
50. When Reading The Contract Actually Works In Your Favor
GiphyBought a car and they offered bi-weekly payments if you signed up. Read the contract and there were no extra fees so it seemed like a no-brainer. After a few months, I compared my payments to the reduction of the principal and it looked like an entire payment and a half was missing. When I called to inquire about it, I was told that the $750 was an enrollment fee.
My jaw dropped. I never would have signed up for that fee for something I could do on my own for free. Went back, pulled out the paperwork and found that there was never an enrollment fee disclosed. The line for the amount was left blank. Sent the contact back to the company and they honored it.
49. Time Constraints
I was offered an opportunity to contract with the state where I live. They had a clause in the boilerplate that said if they paid me within 10 days of receiving my invoice they could cut the amount they paid me by 10%. I brought it up to the person contracting with me and she had no idea the term was in there.
Not only had she never had anyone complain about it, she had never read the boilerplate herself. I got her to remove it and the contract went well...though it did take far more than 10 days to get paid.
48. The Spy Clause
This was back in 2002-ish, when it wasn't entirely uncommon for people to not even have their own e-mail address, and it was basically unheard of for people to have work computers they took home or even the ability to work remotely at all.
So the company I worked for came out with a new computer use policy that was rather poorly written and became overly broad. What they meant to say "We can read your 1) business or 2) personal e-mails that use 1) our computers, 2) our physical network, 3) our digital network."
It was to cover themselves if you, say, got issued a laptop to go on a business trip (which my position would never be) and you signed into your personal e-mail from that laptop when you were off-site and IT sniffed the text then they wouldn't get in trouble.
What they actually said was "We can read your e-mails, personal or business, on our network or not, on our machines or not." Obviously they weren't going to hack into my personal e-mail that never saw a whiff of their machines or network to read my e-mails, but the policy they wanted me to agree to gave them the right to do it.
I refused to sign without striking out and re-writing the offending bits to say what they actually meant. They refused to accept that correction.
Eventually they decided that the original computer use policy I signed as a new hire was sufficient and I didn't have to sign the new policy. Apparently that was an easier sell to corporate than me fixing their oops.
47. No Thank U, Next
The AT&T next program is pretty trash. I sent both mine and my wife's phone in via UPS to trade in because we got new phones. I tried to trade them in via the store but was told I had to send them. I had tracking numbers saying they were delivered but AT&T insisted that the phones never arrived.
I paid close to $400 bucks after calling several times and trying to talk to a manager for hours. I paid it to make it go away and I had the money. I felt extremely ripped off and switched to Verizon shortly after.
46. Where There's Smoke
Almost got an apartment that I thought was non-smoking, but definitely wasn't non-smoking.
The website and the sales rep both said it was non-smoking, but...
- The lease clearly states that older tenants with legacy leases could still smoke.
- When confronted, the sales rep refused to tell me whether I would be near units with legacy leases or when the apartment complex switched over from legacy leases.
I don't react very well to being willfully mislead and that felt like a case of being willfully mislead.
Thank God I looked at the contract.
45. Sticking It To The Man
GiphyNothing like anyone else's story, as it's more funny than surprising. Our school hands out these handbooks with every little rule so that they can tell you to "check the handbook" when you disagreed. Everyone's least favorite section was on cell phones. Phones had to be off and in lockers during school hours.
Last year, the teachers decided to strike and were forced to come back, so they protested by not letting students into homerooms until 7:45, as that was when their shift technically started. This means that because homeroom started at 7:45, so from 7:30 until then, it technically wasn't "school hours". Pick up on it yet?
My friend's girlfriend got her phone taken at 7:43 and was going to get suspended until I let her in on the secret. She told the office and she got it back alongside an apology from the teacher. That was probably the most justifying thing I've ever seen in that school which can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it.
Just to see if I was right, I asked my history teacher who was studying school centered law. He said I was entirely right and that he, even as a teacher, has given teachers crap for that stuff from the beginning. It was kind of amazing to hear that I was right and had outsmarted a teacher and to have it confirmed.
(Side effects may include: teacher hating you for cheating the system and being a smart *ss)
44. Ain't Got No Money In My Pocket And I'm Already Here
I was buying a car and the woman kept trying to get me to buy the extended warranty and service plan. She kept acting like not getting them would be the biggest mistake of my life, and I was like, "Are you telling me my brand-new car is going to s*** the bed in three years?"
After some more trying to convince me she printed a contract and told me where to sign. I spent 15 minutes reading it in front of her despite her insistence that it was just standard legalize, and lo and behold it had me agreeing to an extra $5,000 getting the extended warranty and service plan. She feigned ignorance ("Oh, I thought you finally decided on those,") then made a sad show of ripping up the contract and printing a new one.
43. Recession Run-Around
So around 2009 I was working in a warehouse as a warehouseman / local delivery driver. Wasn't a bad job but it was salaried instead of by the hour which is unusual for that industry but when you had 30 min of overtime a month I was happy enough.
2008-9 with the economy and building trade gone to sh*t, we all had to sign to take a 10% pay cut or they'd have to pay more people off, I accepted my fate but I never signed the paperwork.
Few months later boss says at 5 minutes to close he needs me to go make a rush delivery. I said sure I want time and a half, he argued that I'm salaried, I argued that if he can change the terms of the contract then so can I and if he can show me where I agreed to the pay cut then I'd make the delivery.
After checking then the next day he gave me the paperwork to sign again, I added in writing that all overtime will be time and a half while wages are cut and asked him to sign and return a copy. Funnily enough I never did get a copy nor was I asked to do overtime again.
42. Sleazy Agency Extraordinaire
This was in China. I signed up to work as an English teacher. There was an agency that handled the contracts, so they sent me a contract, I read it, it was ok, so I signed it.
In the contract one clause said I could have any three days off with pay during each semester for whatever reason. So when late spring rolled around I checked out the summer schedule which had all kinds of holidays and irregular scheduling dispersed, and I realized that the way my schedule and the school's schedule lined up so that during two weeks, I had only three days of work, and they just happened to be my busiest days.
So I told the administrator I would be taking those three days off, as per the contract, which would give me two whole weeks off. She said OK. I reminded her every week for two months about this, she said ok every time.
So I planned a vacation, two weeks of sight seeing. I even went to Mongolia by the trans-siberian railway.
I come back two weeks later to the last week of work, and the administrator is fuming! "Where have you been the last two weeks!?" she asks. I tell her I have been off, as I had told her 8 times already and which she agreed to. "You can't do that!" she claims. So I calmly show her the clause in the contract that clearly state I can, and she is flabbergasted.
The contract the school had with the agency didn't have that clause at all. So the contract I signed and the one the school signed didn't match. The agency had added and removed clauses in both the Chinese and English version in order to get both parties to sign, so the contracts didn't match at all.
Also while we compared contracts, the administrator grudgingly mentioned how much money she paid for me and for that price I better show up and yada yada. "Excuse me, how much did you say?" Turns out the agency charged the school 5 times more for my salary than what they actually paid me. They just pocketed 80%. So the school paid through the nose and I got a sh*tty salary and no one of us knew. No wonder the admin was so b*tchy.
But the admin let me be and went after the agency instead. They never renewed contracts with them after that. So I didn't get into trouble at least, but it would have been nice with a 500% raise, had I been able to read Chinese.
41. Ew Squared
Old day spa I worked at tried to get me to sign a new contract that basically said that if x amount of products (skin care) were found stolen/missing at any time, the amount total would be divided between the therapists and taken out of our wages until the amount was paid back.
Told the girls how f*cked this was and that this is what insurance and stock take is for. Got written up for telling the girls the problems with the contract and that I was being disobedient for not signing.
I told them to shove it and to f--- off.
They were already doing shady sh*t and I kept getting "written up" every time I brought up that "that's illegal".
This spa chain is owned by Thais and were operating this hotel and spa in Australia, but running on thai laws, not aussie laws. I was also the only qualified therapist there and the only aussie.
I was constantly butting heads with the manager, and also cutting a lot of corners to make sure she made her bonus.
The laundry bill had gone from 1000 p/m to 100 p/m. The common complaint from clients were "stains on sheets/towels/linen".
SO F*CKING GROSS. I made a point that if I was closing to strip the beds and change sheets.
40. Kitty Cornered
GiphyI had a pet service that would come and check on our cats when we were gone. We moved down the street, and they came over to get new keys, check out the new location and so on. They also wanted me to sign an "updated contract."
The new contract was almost exactly the same except listed a long section on "Non-disparagement" which essentially said they could sue me for however much they wanted if I left ANY bad review AND pay for their attorney's fees. (See here)
Obviously unenforceable, but definitely didn't sign it. After talking to the owner for like 20 minutes on the phone (yes, I mentioned the Streisand effect in passing), they agreed to just use the previous contract. As I was going away in a few days, I used them for that trip and then never used them again.
Turns out they later tried to sue a couple for $1 million. It got dismissed quickly (because duh), but having to deal with that wouldn't be my favorite thing. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2016/08/30/1m-lawsuit-plano-couple-one-star-yelp-review-dismissed
39. Ah, Capitalism
I work for a reasonably well known cellphone company that specializes in low cost service with no contract. That's all fine and dandy but people often don't want the low to mid tier phones we offer cheaply and gravitate towards the more expensive phones for quality. Naturally... the prices on apple products and upper tier droids are up there and that's where the bullsh*t comes into play.
We partner with progressive leasing (a separate company) and you only pay $49.99 that day to start the lease. Cool right? No....absolutely not. After applying in store they authorize you for a certain amount of money and blah blah, you get your phone (+accessories if you want) and AFTER the sale the customer reads the leasing terms.
Say someone gets an iPhone 8+ which we're currently selling for $799.99. You have a few options for leasing ranging from a 3 month buyout option to spreading it out over a year or two. Most opt for the year because it sounds reasonable but in reality the company ends up charging you over $2000USD thanks to their insane interest rates...even if you knock it out in 3 months with the buyout you still pay them an extra $250 or so. It's utterly insane and takes advantage of people in a terrible way.
TLDR Companies charge crazy interest rates but only show the nonsense after the sale is processed. Basically doubling the cost of phones.
38. A Piece Of Paper Ain't A Contract
Some woman rear ended me and wanted to pay for everything in cash to avoid going through insurance.
I was fine with that, but it ended up being like 3000 dollars in damage from a minor bump.
She paid for it, and then tried to get me to sign a sheet of paper that said she paid for it and she was no longer liable. One of the lines in the contract stated that I was accepting responsibility for the accident.
I never signed it, she was already pissing me off telling me she isn't going to pay for X and Y and we should go to her shoddy *ss family repair guy to fix it for a fraction of the cost.
37. Scare Tactics
Went to sign up at a martial arts school that had tae kwon do and brazilian jujitsu under the same roof.
I was handed a contract and told, "it's just like all the other 12 month contracts out there".
For those that don't know, usually you sign an agreement to pay in advance so that the owner of the school can budget month to month. There is also, usually, a discount for paying in advance. If you pay month to month, and break the contract, then you can be sure that you won't be getting hit by anything in court as not having to teach you is not an injury in most cases. You don't pay, they don't teach, nobody is out anything, especially when you're talking about less than 1 grand in tuition.
This contract, said that I was financing a year of lessons through another company. I noped out immediately. I assumed (and later found out I was right) that the owner of the school owned the financing company as well.
Since the finance company paid the martial arts school for the year in advance, the finance company was out of the money and did have an injury to claim in court if you broke the contract. I told the owner of the school that I wasn't interested, and he got belligerent with me and asked what I would do if I was attacked by somebody that knew martial arts. I told him, "I'll shoot them", and then I walked out.
I've had to break martial arts school contracts before because of moving or injury. This guy was just shady as f*ck all the way around.
36. Basic Unionizing
Not so much a "read the contract" but at an corporate induction training session for a cruise liner, someone from head office said that we, as performers, had specific privileges pertaining to being officers despite it being our first contract for that company. When we boarded, we received further training and were informed none of the information delivered on land was applicable to us, and that theres no chance it was even mentioned...
That is until one of our singers went to on board HR having recorded the session without anyone's say so. She broke a lot of bull sh*t data protection rules within the company and they threatened to fire her. But we all threatened to walk for their treatment of us. So we got some ridiculously petty telling off, and all our privileges reinstated. Glorious
35. Blind Faith
GiphyI previously worked for a managed services company for a total of 5 years, for my last 2 years there I utterly hated it. We knew they were going to make us all redudant, but they kept telling us our jobs were safe and we had nothing to worry about. They kind of made the dumb move of giving us the jobs to deploy the infrastructure in India where the jobs moved to. Fast forward to the day it happened, we were all locked out of the building and told we could collect personal items with an escort. When it came to getting our exit packages which is required by law here there was a retroactive NDA to sign, most people signed it blindly because they were so pissed off, one of the clauses in it basically read
'You may not disclose any information about the company', not exact wording but the clause was so vague that it literally covered anything and everything that happened in the company during our time there which would have stung me hard considering i'm quite a vocal person when it comes to unethical practices.
I refused to sign it unless they re-worded it, still got my package, never heard from them. To this day I have nothing nice to say about their final few years of business practice, and if anyone asks me, I tell them very bluntly about my experience and if it comes to professional dealings with them I avoid it and recommend using other companies. Very glad I read that one.
34. Interesting How We Could Just Not Hire You Instead
While preparing for our wedding, my fiance and I went super nitty-gritty, reading every word of every considered vendor's contract.
One of the bands we considered came highly recommended, but had some pushy contractual demands. Have to hire their whole 8-piece band when we'd been looking for a 3- or 4-piece. Minimum of six hours' performance charge. Then we found the "unlimited booze" clause. Literally, their contract called for them to be entitled to unlimited food AND LIQUOR throughout the period of the reception - not even limited to the period of their performance, so they could pregame.
When called on it, they doubled down and tried to put it back on us, saying they'd never before had anyone try to force them to perform for hours on end with no food or water.
We quite liked the DJ we ended up with.
33. Get Off My Lawn
This happened about 10 years ago during the housing crisis. My parents were in some deep sh*t with the payments. Some day out of nowhere a person shows up at our door and talks to my parents about a lowering our payments through their program. My parents call me to help them translate (they can understand English but can't read it). I was only 12 at the time and hated reading legalize papers but something struck me odd about the situation. I read through it a few times and understood it to be something like this.
You will sell us your house for free and you will pay us rent. I was twelve, I thought, "no way we would ever do this".
Sure I was young reading legalese to translate it to Spanish, but I told my parents let's take this paper to someone that can understand it because what I'm understanding doesn't seem right. So we ask the person if we can keep the paper and sign it later. He says that they can't do that. I ask why. He says they just can't. I say we won't sign it now until we know for sure what signing this means.
He says that's the only one he has. I ask if we can make a copy and he still says no. So he takes the paper back and gives me a paper that is a copy of a copy of a copy and says we can have that and says he will come back (this paper was something completely different with the same logo of the company).
So we take that paper and take it to our bank where our house loan is from and ask what this was about. The banker takes one look at it and tells us that whatever it is this was, not to sign anything as it seemed like a scam.
Thinking back to it what it appeared to be was some scammers trying to get people to sign up for a loan under the name of a real bank or financing company. I guess keeping the paper would allow someone to trace the scam back to them. The next time someone showed up was a lady asking the same exact thing and showed us the same papers. We told her no and to stop coming back. They kept sending agents over but we never answered the door and eventually they stopped coming.
32. Eat My Shorts, Man
I have a few but the biggest one was when I was looking for housing in a city I was about to move to after landing a new job. I decided to go through craigslist since I had a specific budget in mind. One guy called me with a place that was a duplex, I would be in the upper floor with 4 other people. I asked about the room and he said it had total privacy and my own bathroom. I said sweet and asked for the lease.
What I got back was a generic contract with an appendix about 5 pages long of rules and what I would actually get. The room was the entire second half of the duplex and it was divided by curtains. The bathroom was a shared bathroom. The rules included no guests, loud music, video gaming, or watching movies at night. I called the guy back up and told him no. He threatened to sue for backing out. I laughed and told him to pound dirt.
31. Taking Advantage Of You Skimmers
We get a lot of "electricity suppliers" here and I'll admit that I don't fully understand the concept. Representatives for the suppliers go door-to-door and these ones seemed nice and affordable. I was paying more for electric since the supplier thing happened so it made sense to sign up. My husband agreed we should make the switch so I was on the phone with the electric company and beginning to give the information as I began to scan the sheet.
The suppliers yelled "nooooo" and "you don't have to do that" out loud as I got to the part that says there is a cancellation fee of $200. I knew we'd likely be moving soon and have to cancel. I apologized the woman on the phone, hung up, handed back the paper unsigned, and learned a good lesson about reading contracts. Who knows what else it even said but they were clearly banking on me not reading it. Too many of us don't and we should!
30. We Got Each Others' Backs
GiphyOur advertising agency bought another and merged the companies. The new employee contract had sneakily included a non-compete clause. Which meant we wouldn't be allowed to get another job in our field with anyone in a 100 mile radius for at least a year after separation - regardless of whether it was termination or by choice.
My original agency didn't have non-compete clauses and was a huge reason why people stayed with the company for so long. The moment we all saw it, about 15 people (including myself) threatened to leave if it wasn't changed. The CEO immediately said they'd omit it.
Granted, any new hires were required to sign non-competes after that day. But talk about a CEO and CFO who almost sh*t themselves.
29. Tearin' Up My Funds When I'm With You
I was recently in California for 10 days...
I love lifting, and didn't want to go that long without working out, so I wanted to see if my gym had a location near where I was. I didn't have a car and was staying with my cousin, who lived downtown. There was a different gym where he was a member a few blocks away, so I figured I'd get a trial pass. That was 20 bucks. A little pricey for one day. I asked how much for a month, and the guy told me 45. He told me he'd sign me up for a membership, but waive all the fees, and cancel the membership on the day I leave. I figured it was worth it if I go 3-4 times, considering how much I was already spending on food etc.
I signed up, and spent 3 hours there my first day. I got home, and looked at the contract. It said I paid 45 dollars, but it also said there was a balance of 120 or something in fees etc.
He didn't actually waive them, just pushed them back.
Since I was in CA, I had 3 or 5 days to cancel (the language was unclear) and get a full refund... On the third day, I went in, got a nice 2 hour workout in, and walked up to the guy and told him I wanted to cancel. I got 2 really good workouts in, and didn't even have to get a guest pass. It totally wasn't my intent to be kind of a scumbag, but f*ck that guy for trying to screw me over...had I not read the contract, I would have been out another 120 bucks.
28.Threats
Dad is a contractor, he always reads the contract, which always boggles the people he works with. One day he was reading one for a new job and there was a clause that... If I remember correctly, it went that if something went south in some way, he was financially responsible? I don't remember exactly what it was, just that if it went badly he'd be liable.
Dad basically told them to change it or he'd decline the job.
They were really confused by this ultimatum. "But everyone else signed it!"
Dad stood his ground, said he'd nope out.
They caved and changed it.
Advice for people who sign contracts regularly:
- READ THE CONTRACT. You know that, right? But what about:
- After you've requested a change? READ THE WHOLE THING AGAIN. People can and will sneak clauses you asked to be removed into other parts of the contract. I had a teacher who told me about a time he was signing on for work and it took four attempts and a threat to walk before they finally removed the part he didn't like.
27. House Of Woes
I was looking to book a holiday house for a week with some mates. When I asked about the bond they said that they will take my credit card details and that there was no upper limit on how much they could charge.
Not only that, if we were to cancel at anytime after we booked, the deposit (50%) would not be refunded unless someone else booked the house for the same period.
I backpedalled very fast.
26. Know The Game AND The Player
I worked for a company that owed me money, so I sued them to get it. They settled, but wrote a nondisclosure clause into the agreement, which I was assured was pretty typical by my lawyer. However, they worded this clause to be retroactive, so anything I had said about them prior to the signing of the contract would also be a violation of the contract, meaning they would be able to sue me into the ground the second I signed.
I'm contractually prohibited from saying that this entire company is run by inept *ssholes, so I won't say that, but I had said it beforehand, and I think they knew that. They played it off as an error, but I am 100% positive it was an attempt to trip me up. My lawyer didn't catch it. I did and saved myself a bunch of money and a huge headache. I'm getting a different lawyer if I ever need any legal work in the future. Read everything you sign, kids. And don't just read it, understand it.
25. When Legalese Becomes Self Defense
GiphyI was trying to rent a simple duplex in San Diego and everything looked pretty good. I was looking the contract over before signing and began to see a few red flags.
The apartment was strictly no smoking (no problem I don't smoke and never have) but the language was very specific. I'm going from memory here but it said something like:
"IF at the landlords sole discretion, it has been determined that the apartment has been smoked in, the renting parties will be liable for all repairs (new carpet installation, repainting, deodorizing) AND will pay prorated daily rent until such time said repairs are able to be completed."
There were multiple other similar red flags that basically would have put me on the line for unlimited liability. I requested that with some reasonable changes to the contract I would be more than happy to sign, but the response was very defensive and curt and implied I was just trying to screw the landlord over. I can understand trying to protect your asset, but I'm not going to sign up for unlimited liability at the sole discretion of somebody that seems reasonably unhinged.
24. They'd Tricked Us All
I was starting work at a major chain restaurant and was going through my on board papers signing what I needed to. One clause that we were supposed to sign under basically said that we wave our right to a break even on a double shift that could last 12 hours. I didn't sign that.
After I was done reading through the paper work and signing what I agreed to I gave it to my hiring manager. He went through my packet then said, " You missed this one. I need you to sign here."
I replied, "No, I didn't miss that. I'm not waiving my break."
He didn't push the issue. After that I would take my break when I needed one. Eventually one of my coworkers noticed that whenever I asked for a break I got one and asked me what was up. I let her know, and then she let everyone else know. People were pissed, but they learned to read before they sign.
23. Mmmm, Meat Pie
New owner took over our apartment building, and wanted everybody on new leases (not necessary, but cleaner) . The accompanying cover letter stated the new least was "substantially similar" to the prior lease, just subbing in the new names of the new entities.
On my line by line comparison, I discovered it converted all month-to-month tenancies to year-long leases. No, that's a pretty substantial change, my friend.
My favorite part was that in addition to prohibiting illegal activities on the premises, this new lease wanted the tenants to covenant they would not commit "immoral acts" of the premises. record needle scratch
Uh, huh. No
Tooodles. I've got debauchery to plan and morals to corrupt, and tiny children to bake into a meat pie.
22. I Love Getting Paid In Exposure
-was commissioned to paint a legal mural for a client.
-gets an email a few weeks later from a random ad agency who did a photoshoot for their billion dollar fashion client and forgot to get a release signed by me so they can run my ip as their cool factor backdrop.
-I'm in the middle of school midterms so I need this drama to disappear, so I tell them i'll settle for x amount and they can only use it for x and y.
-first contract sent was way below discussed amount +worded to prevent me from suing them if they broke contract. called them out got a revision sent.
-2nd contract was correct amount but worded to allow them to run the work as billboards, bus benches, the full nine yards. Nowhere near what we discussed as usage.
-called their bluff one last time and told them I'm out, no thanks this low pay and exposure bucks is not worth my time.
-(billion dollar client loved the photos with my work in them and wants them)
-next day my phone blew up and I got to quadruple my payout while cutting their usage down to just social media.
Lived happily ever after, got a crash course in negotiation. Put some money away and had a chill summer so far.
21. The Yikes Olympics Here
Worked at a part time job, like 20 hours a week when I was 16. After a year, they tried to force me to sign a piece of paper that said I agreed to work over 40 hours a week. I said I can't work those hours, they said it's ok they won't schedule me for them but I have to sign it anyway..
Being young and dumb, but still having enough sense to say "um can I bring it home and read it first?"
They were really pushy and kept saying they needed it now. It was in a kitchen in mid rush mode.
After a while of "ummm I really don't have a chance to read it, I would feel more comfortable reading something before I sign it.."
The manager finally did a huge eye roll and I went home the night and googled it. Yup. Illegal. You can't force me to sign a piece of paper that says I will work more than 40-48 hours a week if I don't want to.
I brought it back without a signature and politely explained I did not want to.
After getting injured by their faulty deep fryer for putting down the 188364 order of fries that day, they tried to write me up saying I was burned by the grease because I wasn't wearing proper equipment? What? Where in the world does a kitchen staff in a fast food place ever put on welders gloves before dropping a small basket of fries? It would have happened to anyone. I refused to sign "injured due to unsafe handling". Uh what?
Then an employee was having serious signs of a stroke (with recent history of a stroke, and just lost custody of his kid) and I asked to call an ambulance. They kept saying no, it's illegal to call and ambulance because he doesn't want one. I explained that a lot of choking victims will go in to the washroom alone because of embarrassment and choke to death. Recognize the signs of stroke early.
I'm in Canada, and if the ambulance comes and checks you out, and doesn't bring you to the hospital it's FREE. If they do bring you to the hospital, it's $50. But it's a STROKE.
Well, whatever happened to him ended up fading away, I think? He went on with his shift. Even though he said his face felt numb, his arm was numb, is vision and speech was being effected, and he was an extreme hot head, he got angry so quickly during busy hours.
Next day I was fired after 2 years of never being written up ever. No lates. No missed days. Just because I:
- Didn't want to sign illegal paper.
- Was injured because their equipment is garbage.
- Argued that we should call an ambulance for our fellow coworker having every sign of a stroke.
Ahhh. The memories.
20. Why Wouldn't You Pay For Overtime? Idk Brenda
GiphyNew job opportunity. Had a rough interview session but eventually they wanted me. So I went to the HR and they presented me the contract, which I started to read. The HR lady was confused, because I was "the only one who reads the whole contract" . I said "Yeah, but I've experience in contract law (which I haven't) and I always check any contract I'm going to sign (which I also don't)". I said this stuff to sound... more professional.
Then I read a term that says that "wages include overtime". I asked the lady if this means that, if I work 60 or 80 hrs the week I won't get more money. She said yes.
Then I said that this is an immoral contract (in the sense of german laws) and that I'm unable to sign the contract. The HR-Lady got super nervous. I continued reading and found a non competition/exclusive clause, which means that I was not allowed to start working at a competitor for 2 years after the end of contract.
I told the lady I also won't sign the contract because the contract was limited for 2 years and I would get trouble by the german employment bureau because I signed something that doesn't allow me to apply everywhere.
HR lady called her boss, boss came over and asked if there is any problem. I told him why I won't sign the contract. He just nodded.. and finally said "Ok", gave the HR lady the order to delete all passages I dislike and went back to his office. 2 days later I started the job and as far as I know I was the only one who got paid for overtime.
19. Predatory Practice
Funeral Service Contract. A few years ago my buddy's brother passed away. While my buddy was at the funeral home to organize the burial, they asked if his brother had any life insurance.
He said yes and they went into a sales pitch about how they assist bereaved families with life insurance claims. "You just leave it to us, we take care of everything for a small fee. Just sign this agreement...."
When my buddy read the terms and conditions on the agreement it turns out the "small fee" is 18% of the total life insurance claim!
180 000 for filling out the forms on 1 million claim!
They prey on bereaved families.
18. Once Again, Capitalism Messes With Us All
A few years ago, my Verizon Wireless contract expired and it was time to renew. This was during their whole 'no one needs unlimited data' scam. As I went to "renew" my contract, I get to the very end and the guy says "just click accept." No, I read that because Verizon has been trying to take away my Unlimited for years.
Reading the contract carefully, it effectively stated I'd be relinquishing my unlimited data and going to a 2 gig plan. The price was the same - 400/5 lines, but the data went from unlimited to 2 gigs on every line. I brought that up to the VZW rep and his answer was basically "Yeah, take it or leave it." I left it. I bought a phone at retail on their payment program thing and ended up keeping my unlimited data. It's been 12 years of unlimited, and I'll continue to use as much as I want.
Before anyone goes off on how "I'm the problem with unlimited... etc" It doesn't actually cost Verizon any significant profit if I use more data than the average user. (Maybe a penny for a few gigs, but it's negligible when you consider my bill is 400/month). The real problem is one of two things... either A) Verizon doesn't want to admit they can't support unlimited on their network, or B) Verizon wants to line shareholder's pockets.
17. Exploring The Borders Of The Contract
My last restaurant job had a non competition clause in the new handbook. I pointed it out to coworkers, few signed, and it was revised in a week.
16. When The Gym Tries To Scam You
I signed up for a gym membership on a whim and got sketched out when they initially charged me 250 instead of only the 90 for the month. I went home and legit didn't sleep because I was so mad I went through with it. I called and asked the next day to see if I could cancel and almost everyone I spoke to said either no it was impossible or only if I moved to an area that didn't have the gym. I checked the contract and you could cancel within the first 2 weeks and I was only 3 days into the contract. You bet your a** I cancelled so fast.
15. All They Want Is Your Money
When I bought my car new 3 years ago, the finance department processed and had me sign paperwork at a certain price. Then they called me 3 days later and told me that their lender fell through and I would actually have to pay an additional $100 a month. I brought in the paperwork with the price I signed for and the keys. Told them they would stick to the contract or they could have their car back with the additional mileage. Apparently this is a fairly common practice at car dealerships. Beware.
14. When The Interest Is More
I had taken some helicopter flying lessons and was considering switching careers to that. So I found a flight school and applied for a student loan. Sally Mae was the only one that would cover it. And when I got the final paperwork, the interest rate was higher than they told me over the phone and the total payment to them was going to be well over $200,000. So I cancelled and didn't go to flight school.
13. When The Terms Are Sketchy
I was looking at a job 350 miles from home, family and friends. Everything looked great. Interview was awesome. I even knew one person there from working with them a few years ago (major coincidence).
I liked it so much, I signed on for a great apartment minutes away from work before signing all the paperwork on my job, because they formally offered the job, but were awaiting my signature.
The day before it was due in, I gave it a passing glance. There were a few giant red flags. I'll paraphrase as I don't recall the exact wording.
The job you are signing up for is the only job you'll have with the company. Though you may periodically get raises, you'll never be promoted, or allowed to make a lateral move. We need people for this position who are committed to it.
12. When You Almost Gave Everything Away
At my high school, they set up wifi for us to use. However, in the terms of service, it said that by signing in to the network, the school had permission to search the phone and look at its contents. I did not sign in, and have not to this day.
11. When You Don't Lend Info
Went to pick up my car from the dealership and it said by signing the paperwork it gave them permission to 'lend' my information to third parties. Nope.
10. When You Almost Lose Your Car
We were in the process of selling our business. My wife's car was registered under business. We sat down with our lawyer to discuss what is included in the sale (equipment, supplies etc..) and we clearly told him the car is not included in the sale. Well guess what we receive the typed up contract from our lawyer and he had added the car along with other things. Thank God we read it and had it removed before signing it and sending to buyer's lawyer.
9. Mysterious Changes
Went to buy a new phone for $200, the employee told me they were closing soon and asked if I could come back the next day to sign the paper work.
The $200 mysteriously changed to $300 while the document was sitting in a desk overnight. Called them out on it and got it from somewhere else.
8. Interest rates are key points...
Buying my house. Husband signed the paperwork and I went in later that day to sign. I started to read through the loan application. Mortgage lender said " What are you doing? You don't have to read it! Your husband already signed it!" I was like, no I want to make sure it is what I want. Loan was a 250,000$ at 25% . Yeah right! Didn't sign it and got out of there. Mortgage guy said he was going to take me to court, I said go ahead it would be cheaper then what he wanted me to sign. Took over all the mortgage stuff from than on!
7. When global domination was involved
My employers tried to get all of us to sign a non compete that geographically encompassed the entire globe as well as any profession even closely related.
6. One of those details that could cost you
Negotiated a house rental contract to keep rent fixed for 3 years with no increase. While reading the fine print found out that they snuck in a penalty clause of 9 months rent if I decide to leave before the 3 years were up.
5. When they try to gouge you
Not sure if this counts, but Spectrum (like most big telecom) sent me an email saying that they are increasing by bill by $10/mo. When I called in they tried to convince me I was on a promotional period, which I was not since I was already a customer of three years and read to them my bill and customer agreement with dates. After explaining to them that they are, indeed, lying to me and being transferred around to three people within Cancellations they miraculously found a way to reduce my bill by $15 going forward. Even though they backed down it makes me sad to think about those who aren't apt enough, like my grandparents, to notice these moneygrabs and how much money these companies make by pulling this.
4. Get that money
My HR told me that I did not get paid for jury duty. I talked to my dad and took his advice to review my contract. I replied to HR with a screenshot of my contracting saying I get paid.
3. When you almost jeopardize your drinking plans
Once got an offer to live close to campus but not too close right after turning 21. Was about to sign and noticed the clause that said "no alcoholic drinks on the premise". So I could get hammered down the street but not drink there... no thanks.
2. When they may have costed you your acting career
I'm a professional actor. Last summer, I auditioned for the local ren faire, not realizing that it wasn't a paid gig. Found out a week into the rehearsal process. "Oh well," I thought to myself, "I agreed to this, I should've done better research."
So, about a month and a half later, the contracts come out. They're standard stuff for the most part: we won't hold the faire accountable if we get injured, we acknowledge we represent the company and thus won't do x, y, and z unprofessional things during faire hours, etc. etc. But buried in the middle of the contract is a non-compete clause, which basically forbade the signer from working for any other ren faire or Halloween event within 100 miles for a full year.
The other folks at the faire were a lot less concerned about it, but I was absolutely not okay with that. They weren't paying me, and I wasn't going to sign off to not make money in a part of the industry for a solid year. I bailed basically as soon as the contracts were given to us.
1. When you owned and changed the fine print
Had a non-compete in a radio contract that said I would have to sit out 90 days if I left for any reason. Wouldn't sign it until it was revised to be non compete only if I quit. When they asked why, I told them if I sucked so bad that they fired me, Wouldn't it be to their advantage to have me work for their competition? They had no answer for that.
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Curious about what constituted low points, Reddit user beesechugersports asked:
"What was the worst year of your life?"
Childhood Trauma
"1987. I was 13."
My dad was killed when he was hit by a car. Total accident."
"I think about the driver sometimes. I hope he forgave himself."
"I honestly don't recall ever feeling anything toward that guy. I think I was more upset with the neighbor who came to our door to tell us he thought my dad was in an accident."
"My mom piled us in the car and we drove down the street to the scene. My dad's body was under a sheet.
"That night I was numb until my mom hugged me and I bawled in her arms. After that I pretty much shut down emotionally for a couple decades."
"Took me a long time to get help for my own PTSD."
~ surfingonmars
Losses
"2011 - Lost my job, girlfriend, friends, had to move back in with my folks where I fell into a deep depression."
"That went on on until 2014 when I was able to turn the ship around."
~ max-peck
"People underestimate how horrible those 2-3 yrs of depression feel."
"I was in rock bottom depression for 2 yrs and it felt like a decade passing by."
~ secondhand_bra
Future Derailed
"2012. The year started out great. I met and befriended an adult film actress on my birthday and had an active sex life for the first time ever."
"I was finally off the night shift at my job. I applied for grad school. I was accepted into a program for veterans at the Writer's Guild of America."
"I had finally arrived."
"But by September it was all over. My relationship with 'Nadia' had turned toxic and ended in a huge fight."
"I was rejected from grad school. The WGA program didn't pan out for me."
"Worst of all, I was fired from my good job. I nearly became homeless and had to go back to working the night shift guarding a gated community in Beverly Hills."
"By the year's end, I was alone and broke (I would declare bankruptcy early the next year) with no hope for the future."
~ SgtSharki
Economic Downturn
"2014. My business suffered a 4 million dollar loss."
"Then my fiancée who I was with for 6 years left me for her boss just 3 months before our wedding."
"I wasn't able to find another partner but I did recover from the absolute shambles I was in."
"Just the fact that I'm able to function normally and interact with people again without breaking down is a big win for me."
~ S_MZ
Post College Struggles
"2014—the year I graduated college and was looking for work and had bad acne and unrelenting pressure from my parents and a poor social life and I worked Uber while studying for the Chartered Financial Analyst exam that I ended up failing."
~ Damerman
Friends Lost
"2017. I lost my best friend that year.. we met during our first year of university and immediately hit it off and became close."
"We were inseparable for 7 years. I’ve never been the same since then.. I died with him."
"I wish I could’ve helped him.. I wish I could just take one last drive and smoke one last cigarette with him ,and tell him how much I love him and how much he means to me."
"Please tell your friends that you love them whenever you get the chance.. you never know when will be the last time you hang out together."
~ Syouf
Seeing the Light
"2018. Realized I was part of a cult."
"It was called the Great Commission Churches when I attended though they’ve changed their name multiple times over the years when they’ve been accused of abusive practices."
~ Consistent-Way-2018
Long Road to Recovery
"2019. Last straw at my job, where the management team turned on me, resulting in me putting in my 2 weeks after my complaint against a lying supervisor was dismissed."
"Had no more income, so I couldn't pay rent, and thus had to move out of the shared house I had with a friend and his fiancée (wasn't on lease, had no obligation to stay, and the fiancée even told me "you know, you don't have to live here" during an argument)."
"Said fiancée convinced him to turn on me and drop me as a friend, which resulted in him going off and convincing the only other friend I had to do the same."
"Covid hit."
"My cat developed a genetic illness that paralyzed her and my step-father put her down behind my back. My childhood dog developed cancer and was suffering so she was also put down, but I was able to hold her while she passed."
"Great aunt died of cancer, great uncle (other side of family) died of cancer."
"That was the lowest I've ever been, and I haven't even recovered 20% yet."
~ Whatsa-Throwaway
Pandemic Pandemonium
"2021 was the year when my mental health was worse than ever."
"Looking back I'm proud of myself that I just survived."
~ Master-Mood1816
"Well done on that and also, same."
"2021 can go straight in the bin."
~ sicklything
GiphyAftermath
"On the flip side 2021 was probably one of the best years of mine as an adult."
"My girlfriend and I were able to spend so much time together because she was only working maybe 1 day a week and I worked at an empty warehouse from 7 to 3 Monday to Friday."
"When everything went back to normal we both were working so much we ended up splitting up, so I guess 2022 sucked pretty bad."
~ ofTHEbattle
"2023. By far the worst year of my life.
"Got laid off, took forever to find a new job, fiancée got pregnant then lost it then she got cancer, hated my new job, went heavily into debt to survive, fiancée beats cancer, she gets a life insurance payout from her father's passing, she gets pregnant again."
"Then I find out after she up and vanishes suddenly that every single thing was a lie. She faked it all from top to bottom for two years and pulled the rug out from under me, suddenly running off with our dogs."
"Since then I guess she needs some sick gratification that she’s not getting from just all that and continues to stalk me on social media/Reddit as well as spoof her phone number to text me sh*t with purely the intent of trying to hurt me."
"Losing the dogs hurt and still hurts, won’t lie, but being rid of her has been nothing short of a blessing."
~ Ok_Outside_4650
"This year—2023."
"My dog died in June."
"My wife died in July."
"My cat died in August."
"I have 5 kids."
~ MichaelHoncho
Dear whatever doesn't kill me, I'm strong enough now.
"Every year seems to beat the previous."
~ BenChodABQ
Oof, that's a lot to take.
While some are still going through it, many have already come out on the other side.
Here's hoping better days are ahead soon for everyone.
Giphy
BFFs don’t always last forever, and even the best of friendships can end in the worst ways. From unpaid debts to spreading gossip, these people took to Reddit to share the most memorable and infuriating reasons why they broke off a friendship.
1. Wild Support Payments
I lost close to $5,000 to a friend. He was going through a bad breakup and needed to pay child support. He told me that the first child support payment had gone out of his account without him expecting it and he had nothing to cover his expenses and rent for the month. I loaned him a total of $5,000 over about three weeks, and this was also when my wife and I were planning our wedding so we had a heap of expenses, but a bro needs help and that was a priority. Later, I found out the dark truth about him.
Some mutual friends confessed to me that he’d used the money on living large and a few big weekends out with girls. I confronted him, he told me he couldn’t pay, then started ducking me. I moved away after I got married and he ended up no longer speaking to our group of friends once they all found out about it. Ten years of friendship, gone.
2. Son Of A…
I went on a mini-vacation, which was supposed to be four days, with my best friend in 2021 to New Jersey. She brought her then-eight-year-old son, and I brought my then-four-year-old daughter. Her son was so disrespectful, dropped curse words, had a nasty attitude, and was so mean to my daughter the entire trip.
The last straw was on the morning of the third day when he ripped a box of cereal out of my daughter's hand. She started crying and he slapped her across her head. I tried disciplining him and my friend blew up at me and proceeded to DEFEND her son, as she called my daughter a "whiny baby".
We started arguing, I packed our bags and said we were leaving. I drove 4 hours home without saying a single word to her or her son. Got to her house, threw her bags on her front lawn, and peeled out of her driveway.
3. Jurassic Snark
Jurassic World | A New Vision on Vimeovimeo.comI cut ties with my friend due to lots of little things that eventually became too much. For example, 7-8 years ago, he bought 15 tickets for a midnight premiere of Jurassic World for our entire friends group to attend.
The day of the show, he texted me to tell me that he forgot to buy "my" ticket, so I couldn't go. Of the 15 he bought, how did he decide it was "my" ticket that he didn't buy? Well, it turns out, he gave my ticket to a girl he met the week prior so he could take her instead.
That was just one of many things.
It's all truly minor stuff like that, but when you have 100 minor things, it becomes clear that they aren't actually your friend anymore.
4. Two In One
My mom’s friend had a son that was 3-4 years younger than me so we became friends by default. Honestly, I just tolerated him because was a foul-mouthed little instigator whose mom let him get away with everything and never disciplined him—but then he went too far.
One summer day we had all just gotten back from going somewhere, I had gotten myself in trouble with Mom and was given a time out on the front porch while our moms went inside.
He proceeded to get my toy cars out, and while I’m sitting there he starts throwing them at me and calling me names with every throw. I’d had enough of being pelted and threw one back. And he screamed his head off and started bawling. But I wasn’t the only one who lost a friend that day.
His mom came out of the house, scooped him up, yelled at me, and took off in her car. My mom asked me what happened and I told her. She didn’t blame me for not taking it, and called up his mom to explain everything. She wouldn’t hear it, hung up on my mom and that was it.
5. A Friendly B&E
It was my last year in a country I previously lived in and at the time it was during summer vacation which we normally spend in our home country. We had to cut our vacation short because we got a phone call telling us that our house had gotten broken into and robbed. We came back on that day and my friend was talking to me, telling me he saw the authorities by our house and he hopes everything is OK.
It was horrible. There was stuff stolen, furniture destroyed, closets torn down, and fully emptied. My family decided to accelerate the move from that country and that was that. A year later, he sent me a long email explaining how sorry he was and that he was responsible for it, that his friends were the perpetrators, and that he knew who did it but didn’t want to expose them.
When we showed the email to the authorities and they questioned him, it turned out he was part of that group as well.
6. DU Why?
man holding steering wheelPhoto by Luke Ellis-Craven on UnsplashMy friend got a D.U.I. while driving my car and then lied about it and lied about why my car was towed—but he didn’t stop there. He lied about losing his license. Suddenly, he just wanted to walk everywhere for the exercise. He lied to my friends and told them it was my fault because my registration had lapsed. And when I finally confronted him about it…he kept lying.
7. Neutralize The Threat
My friend’s girlfriend got mad at him for being at my birthday party. He was my best buddy ever since second grade, my parents and even my grandparents adored him. The day after my birthday, I got a call from him. I could hear her voice in the background, he was so loud telling me to delete all the photos we took on my birthday and cut ties with him.
She made him block me everywhere and I was sad for some weeks. I'm still tearing up typing this. I was the first one he opened up about his relationship with. I used to ask how she is every time I saw or called him. I tried to be friends with her but she didn't care. The thing is that he has other female best friends too—but she has a problem with me. And we don't even see each other often after graduating because of the distance, and don't text or call often because of our studies. It was after months I got to see him on my birthday. I miss him but I have to respect their relationship.
8. Ultimate Betrayal
My friend was telling my girlfriend at the time she should break up with me—but that’s not the most twisted part. This was happening a few weeks after my mother’s death and I was still dealing with the trauma. He successfully managed to talk her into dumping me, only for me to find out they'd been sleeping with each other a week beforehand. To add to this, he didn't even have the balls to tell me to my face, I had to find out from a mutual friend. I'm glad I haven't seen that jerk again.
9. She Wanted A Maid, Not A Bridesmaid
woman in white dress holding bouquet of flowersPhoto by Jonathan Borba on UnsplashMy friend told me I was her best friend, but didn’t put me in her wedding party. But then she continued to ask me for wedding styling advice for her bridesmaids. It all stung but I got over it. She then told me she needed me at her bachelorette and I was helping her brainstorm ideas.
We talked daily. One morning we talked like normal and that evening I saw posts of her on her bachelorette. We’d been best friends since high school, but she had a girl she’d only known for six months on the trip with her. Her response when I asked about it? “Oh someone surprised me with it, sorry you’re upset”.
I blocked her and haven’t looked back—and I’ve been a bridesmaid for better friends multiple times since.
10. Escaping The Friendzone
This one friend I had in particular seemed to be giving me real signals. She was being really flirty, saying things verbally that were almost flat-out saying she wanted it, and touching me on more than one occasion. But then later, she would go on about how we are just friends.
All this happens, then I hear her talking about one of her other friends one night—a guy I also know. What she said made my blood run cold. She told the other girl: "Yeah he would love to get a piece of me but I'll never let him, I always make him think he has a chance though. When we go out to a club I will grind up against him and turn him on", and she was also encouraging the other girl to try and turn this dude on/tease him too.
Forget that. That guy isn't your toy, and neither am I. Being flirty is one thing, but purposely turning guys on just for your own ego trip is another. I haven't been friends with her since, and I don't regret it one bit.
11. Office Space
My best friend since high school chose her Microsoft coworkers from five years ago to be her bridesmaids over her actual best friends. We had always talked about how I would be in her wedding party, and of course, she had been in mine. I was hurt and confused. I messaged her on Insta asking what I did wrong a few months before the wedding, and then promptly unsent it. The aftermath was brutal.
She saw the message pre-delete and then proceeded to ignore me and be totally rude to me at the wedding. She pretended I didn’t exist. She didn’t invite me to the pre-wedding hike. Her other best friends didn’t know who the heck her bridesmaids were either & came up to me & said they were shocked I wasn’t in the wedding party.
She came up to me crying at the after-party, buried her head in my shoulders, and told me how sorry she was and that she loves me. She thought I didn't like her fiancée. I never expressed such a thing. Apparently, that’s why none of her best friends were included. And these random Microsoft people? She thought they “worked well as a team”.
Somebody who can be that cold to their closest friends is not somebody worth keeping around. I still talk to her a ton because we have a lot in common and there’s obviously a lot that I like about her. But I’ll never come to her with real things again, and our actual deep friendship is over.
12. Best Man To Worst Man
selective focus photography of Pinocchio puppetPhoto by Jametlene Reskp on UnsplashMy friend was seeing a woman and moved in with her. We'd hang out when we went there to visit and everything was fine, but he would come to our city and visit and would cheat on her. He kept claiming everything was on the up and the girl he was in a relationship with was fine with that.
Well, at some point my wife friended her on Facebook and my friend lost his mind over it. He was saying my wife was meddling in their relationship, etc. But here's the thing, if everything was on the up, why would that have bothered him? Clearly, he had been lying to us. And a shame because the girl he was seeing was so sweet.
We had to cut ties because it was just so hard to watch him mistreat someone. We were the best men in each other's weddings and all, but he changed after his divorce. He treated people around him terribly. Our friendship of about 20 years ended just like that.
13. Just Own Up
I loaned my friend $250,000 to pursue his real estate dream and six months later he ghosted me. He ignored about 50 emails/texts/calls/postcards and two certified letters. Infuriating!! He also stopped paying real estate taxes on it without telling me. I lived across the country so it was extremely hard to manage the resolution. I eventually got all the money back but no help from him.
I think we could have still been fine if he had kept communicating, and acknowledged the errors. We finally talked—but what he said on the call broke my heart.
We were trying to patch things up, but he admitted only to the taxes part, not to all the other stuff. I had known him since college, like 30 years. Sheesh
14. Friendus Disappearus
My 16-year-old sister got me tickets to the Harry Potter exhibit in New York City when I was 13. She spent her own money on it for two tickets. Me and her. My best friend found out and threw a fit at her mother that “She should be going because she is a bigger fan” and the mother massaged my sister to tell her to give her ticket to her daughter because “It’s the right thing to do”.
My sister told her to get lost.
15. Not-So-Sober Companions
people gathering on street during daytimePhoto by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on UnsplashI cut off my friends when I realized that all we had in common was binge drinking. They offered no support when it came to my attempts to cut back. Instead, they got irritated when I didn’t want to go to the bars. I kept saying no and explaining I wanted to avoid situations with drinking—but one guy was so much worse than the others.
He told me that I couldn’t be part of “our” friend group if you don’t like going out drinking as some sort of intimidation tactic.
16. No More Free Therapy
I didn't realize that slowly, over 20 years, my friend had basically turned me into her own personal therapist. Every single day, almost 24/7, she'd be calling and texting, expecting me to sort out every single one of her problems, and validate her hurtful behavior.
Then one day at the end of last year, I got into an accident that left me hospitalized. Whilst I was mostly fine functionally, I had a lot of scarring and was told that I might need skin graft surgery later down the line, depending on how it healed.
My best friend since we were 11 didn't even ask how I was. Not once, not for two whole months. The only time she acknowledged that I was even injured was when she said, "That's a bad way to start the morning" when I told her that I was in emergency.
She just...didn't care.
And once I realized that, walking away was easy. I haven't missed her at all, the best decision I ever made.
17. Dear John…
I had a friend that was with me since we were three years old. Let’s call him “John”. About ten years after we met, we were going to this youth camp together. I’m so excited that John’s coming with me. But he seems…different. There’s another friend coming along with him, and now John is constantly avoiding me. This went on for about a day at the camp…before the avoidance turned into being nasty. He was constantly insulting me.
At some point, I had a panic attack at the camp—not related to John being a jerk and all—and here’s how our conversation went, with a few other friends watching:
John: “So where even were you last night?? You weren’t at the dorm”.
Me: “I had a panic attack, so I was told to sleep somewhere else. I dunno why”..
John: “Oh, so you have mental issues. Haha”.
Later, as I was playing with another friend that I had met at the camp, John came over to me with his other friend. The new friend that I was playing with said: “Oh, are you one of his friends too, John”? John’s answer was devastating.
He said: “Nah, he thinks we’re friends but I’m just forced to watch him all the time”.
That was the last straw. I was done talking to him from that point on.
But then, weeks later, I received a call from John. I picked up, and he was just talking to me as if he had never been mean to me. Ever. He was just talking about some random stuff about Minecraft. I just mumbled some “okay”s and went on with my day, confused.
I decided to call him later, and I confronted him about what happened at the camp. He said he never said any of those things. I said I’m pretty sure he did. He said: “I was just kidding about the mental issues thing”. He denied that he ever said the stuff about not being my friend though.
Throughout the entire call, he never apologized. And the worst part is, I almost believed him. I almost thought that I was just imagining it, and that maybe John was a good friend after all. Keep in mind I wasn’t very mature yet, despite my age. So I just…sort of…continued thinking of him as a friend. But as I did mature, I just started cutting contact with him, and we never spoke again.
18. Kissing Cousins
silhouette of man and woman about to kiss on beach during sunsetPhoto by Annette Sousa on UnsplashMy BFF’s cousin made a pass at me while I was visiting her. The cousin was in a long-term, committed relationship at the time. I never saw or spoke to the cousin before or after the pass he made at me. He kissed me out of nowhere that one night.
My BFF called me a week later because the cousin dumped his girlfriend and asked my BFF if she could call me and connect us. She blamed me for ruining her cousin’s relationship and life. She was angry at me. We never spoke again.
19. Brunch Is On You
There was a lot that led up to it, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was a trip where I went out and visited her after a year of her guilting me for not coming. I was a classroom teacher, so paid time off during the school year was hard. I was also working on my MA thesis.
When I arrived, she left me at the airport for five hours because she decided it was a good time to break up with her boyfriend. Nothing big had happened, she just wasn’t feeling it and wanted to do it when I would be there for support. That was the first red flag—but there were more.
The next morning she took me out for an EXPENSIVE brunch where she drank a whole bunch. When it came time to pay she’d forgotten her wallet.
The next day was a Monday. She was also a classroom teacher and wanted me to visit her school. I told her I could, but asked if she could take me to a coffee shop on my lunch break because I needed to work on my thesis. She did but told me not to go anywhere cause it wasn’t a good area. She said she’d pick me up at 3:00. At 3:30 I tried calling and she didn’t answer. She ended up finally coming at 5:00, saying she’d had a phone interview for a new job.
She asked me to take a cab (this was before Uber) that evening to get to the airport because my flight (which left at 9:00) was too late and she’d be tired for work. I also had to work the next day.
I didn’t hear from her for six months until she came back to town and texted “Hey! This is your estranged best friend. Maybe we could reunite and you could pick me up from the airport and we could get lunch”? This airport was an hour away, in the middle of the school day. I told her no.
20. Wake Up, Sheeple
My friend went DEEP down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. I’m talking flat earth, Columbine false flags, Lizard People, and 2012. Obviously today, he’s on the “the jab is going to kill us all”.
If it was just an interest of his he liked to talk about, I’d be fine with it. But it was a thing where he couldn’t stop talking about it and berated anyone who disagreed with him. He turned into a complete weirdo.
21. Food Fight
person in white shirt standing in front of foodPhoto by CDC on UnsplashMy best friend in high school started hanging out with the wrong crowd. I distanced myself from her and she started trying to spread false rumors about me because she was mad.
One day at lunch in the cafeteria, she came up behind me, picked up my tray—that had fries, nuggets, and two big puddles of ketchup and BBQ sauce—and smacked me across the face with it. Well, I wasn’t about to let her get away with it.
I immediately got up and set up in a fighting stance. She tried to lunge at me, so I did what any normal petite girl would have done…I side-kicked her so hard in her abdomen that she fell back and got laid out on a lunch table.
Thank goodness I had endured years of fighting my older brother and male cousins. Anyway, years later I ran into her. She had taken up boxing.
22. Time To Socially Distance
The pandemic ruined my friendship. I have been friends with her since I was in diapers but I am also disabled and highly at risk of dying. She drank the Kool-Aid. The last straw was when she kept saying only people with pre-existing conditions would die so the rest of society should continue on as usual. Except I’m one of those people that would die…
23. Bye, Soul Sister
My former best friend and I were together 24/7 for like 7 years. He was my soulmate but not in an intimate way, like a “soul sister”. He’s gay, so we would call each other sisters. We moved to a different city together and everything was great for a few months then he started asking for help for his portion of the rent—which I was okay with AT FIRST—but he would take longer and longer to get it back to me and eventually, I wouldn't receive it for months.
It was his first apartment but I had been living on my own for a while already, so I was used to the rent payments and utilities, but I guess he wasn’t. But he would still buy weed and go out for drinks with friends. I finally confronted him about it and said that he can’t be spending money on these “luxuries” whenever he has debt to pay me. His reaction was insane. He completely blew up on me.
One month after renewing our lease—I know, stupid of me—he told me that he wanted to live alone. Little did I know he was actually going to move in with another friend of his. He left very suddenly and when I tried contacting him about his part of the rent and utilities for the last month, he blocked me.
So I called up the friend he was now living with and he refused to speak with me. His new roommate said sorry, hung up, and blocked me too. I was stuck paying almost $3,000 by myself—thankfully I was good at saving money—and he still hasn’t paid me back any of it four years later. I’ve given up on getting my money—but I didn’t expect him to act the way he did when I saw him again.
About a year ago, I was hanging out with friends from our hometown—they were mutual friends because we were always together—and he showed up randomly. It was a good evening but I knew in my head that I wasn't doing this again. He said it was just like “old times” and he missed me but I wasn't going to get caught up in that again.
To this day, he sends me memories on Snapchat and says “We were so cute” and I just reply with a heart emoji and that’s it. I would delete him off Snapchat but I don't want there to be any drama between my friends and him because he's definitely one to cause drama if something like that happens… and he likes to make people choose sides. I really don’t know how I didn’t see any of this when we were besties but I’m glad it’s over,
24. Time To Cut Ties
men standing while salutePhoto by Luemen Rutkowski on UnsplashMy old Navy buddy got into some trouble involving a girl. He got detained and falsely charged. The girl lied to the authorities about the whole thing. He was so depressed about it that he tried to hang himself with the bedsheets in cell after his initial arrest. Then he spent years trying to clear his name.
During that time the girl was in and out of rehab and had been caught lying multiple times. Nothing went his way and I was nothing but supportive toward him. Then he started lashing out at me regularly. I would try to joke around with him like we used to and he would accuse me of talking down to him or trying to mess his life up when all I would ever do is be an ear for him to vent to.
I would listen to all of his problems and frustrations, and basically, whenever I would have any type of input he would immediately take it the wrong way and lash out. I finally had enough and snapped on him one day and called him an unbelievable jerk.
He immediately shut me out of his life and probably to this day still thinks I was the bad guy. I still never understood what I did, I think he was just using me as an emotional punching bag. He was my best friend for 10 years and seeing him so broken was incredibly heartbreaking.
Luckily he’s a lot better now and we talk from time to time but not in any way like before. We might as well just be casual acquaintances who barely know each other now. Maybe it’s for the best because I couldn't imagine ever treating a close friend the way he treated me. A good life lesson I guess, sometimes you just need to cut nasty people out of your life.
25. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
There was one guy I was good friends with back in middle school. Everyone in the school hated him and I was scared for his mental health back then, so I decided to become friends with him, not wanting to see him take his own life. He eventually moved away but we were still on good terms—but then he took a dark turn.
Cut to a few years later and he’s now big into politics, claiming things about Latinos and religion—both groups of which I am a part of—that are hateful and just flat-out untrue. Needless to say, I cut all ties with him, I can’t believe this is what I get for sacrificing my social life for him.
26. Just Married
My friend no-showed to my wedding. We had been drifting apart already for a few years due to work and other life things getting in the way. But I made an effort to still invite him because he had been an important part of my life and helped me through some hard times. He never responded to the RSVP. I called him up to see if he had lost it, gave him the date, and told him I was excited to see him there and celebrate.
He didn’t show up, didn’t even send a text or call with a reason, and never even offered a single congratulations.
He instead messaged me a few weeks after with the audacity to ask if I wanted to take some photos of his dad’s car that he was trying to sell. When I confronted him and told him how disappointed I was, he gave some nonsense about how we’ll always be friends no matter what. No bro. Not cool. Actions speak louder than words.
27. Stuck In The Past
woman in orange blazer standingPhoto by Etty Fidele on UnsplashMy friend’s now-boyfriend and I hooked up once in 2018. I talked with him and told him I wasn't interested in that happening again. He starts dating my friend in 2020 and it's a volatile relationship. I guess my name gets brought up when they are fighting and he bragged to her about hooking up with me. Her reaction was devastating.
She blocked me off everything and I was left wondering what had happened until someone else told me. Oh well. She really could have talked with me about it and I would have been happy to set her mind at ease.
28. False Positive
My friend always talked about herself, never asked about me. She didn’t see any problem with hitting on/pursuing men in relationships but would lose her mind if a girl even looked at the guy she was with. She faked a pregnancy to get a guy to commit to her. And last but not least, chewed me out for being nice to her new boyfriend—the first decent person she had ever dated—because she thought I was interested in him.
29. Sleep On It
I was really good friends with a coworker of mine. That's how I met my significant other. We went on vacation together with one other couple at one point. For context, we went on vacation and my spouse and I had to sleep in a room with twin bunk beds while the other two couples got queen/king-sized rooms.
We ended up resorting to sleeping on the pull out couch simply because there was more space. Before said vacation, me and her had spoken of this already, my spouse mainly being the unhappy one regarding the sleeping arrangements. We giggled about it mostly because I hardly cared and my spouse chilled out about it. It wasn’t an issue.
Maybe four years ago now, a few months after the vacation, I spent the 4th of July with my alleged "best friend" and everything went completely normal. We had fun, and things were great. I tried texting her a few days later and no response. Weird...I didn't work with her anymore because I had gotten a new job in the city I live in. I thought maybe she was just busy as she wasn't that great of a texter. Tried her again a day or two after that, but again, no response. Now I knew something was up. I reached out to her a half dozen more times after that and continuously asked her what was wrong or if she was even okay because maybe something terrible happened to her and I just didn't know.
She just completely ghosted me. I get a random text one evening from her—and what it said left me in shock. It was rather confrontational asking me about how my spouse and I weren't happy with our sleeping arrangements during the vacation we took together. I responded to her and said it wasn't something me and her hadn't already talked about and it wasn't that big of a deal. Never heard from her again.
My spouse and her husband are childhood best friends. Cut to me seeing her for the first time four years later this past Thanksgiving. I was dreading the situation because she's rather confrontational, but we're adults, and I'm not afraid of her. I was almost thinking we would just hash it out as I have been genuinely confused this whole time why she's so upset and can't even offer me an explanation. She said zero words to me. Didn't even look in my direction.
I guess I may never know, and I've come to terms with that. There are just some people that are petty and can't communicate I guess.
30. Some People Always Change
welcome to fabulous las vegas nevada signagePhoto by Zalman Grossbaum on UnsplashThis is dumb but sometimes…people are dumb. We went to Vegas, dinner, and a show. After dinner, my dress felt tight so I wanted to change into more comfortable clothing—from a dress and heels to a sweater/jeans and flats.
My best friend was annoyed that I “always do this” and “didn’t show up for the night” by getting dressed to the nines. She didn’t speak to me or the rest of our friends for the entire night. Weeks later, she called to tell me we’re just different people and after 17 years we can’t be friends anymore.
All because I changed my outfit. Good riddance girlfriend!
31. Heard It Through The Grapevine
My friend spread rumors that I took some of her things. She never confronted me over the supposed theft even though we were seeing each other daily and doing our normal friendship things. I didn't even know anything was going on until another friend, from a different friend group, overheard one of the stories and came to me to ask me what was up with that. That’s when I learned the deranged truth.
It turns out she had been talking badly about me behind my back for a while so I ended up cutting ties. And that theft she had accused me of? It turns out it never happened. Her sister had recently moved out and had boxed up some things that belonged to her by accident.
32. Jealousy Hates Company
My best friend from middle school stopped talking to me after I started becoming successful around 20 years old. I excitedly told him I finally landed a good job and he asked how much I was making so I told him, thinking he'd be happy for me. Nope. He went silent for a bit, got cold, and we ended the call shortly after. I called him sometime later and his girl answered and I could hear them arguing. She was saying "Pick up the phone and talk to your friend" and stuff like that. Then click, the line went dead.
That was the last time we ever spoke. I was ghosted by my best friend of like 8-9 years because he was jealous of my success.
He had a pretty rough life in a lot of ways, really struggled in school, and as he got older had a hard time adapting to women as they got more mature. Back in the day, immature girls couldn't get enough of him, but as they grew up they were less impressed with him. They had all already dated a guy like him and his game just wasn't up to snuff anymore. By that time I was already settling into a long-term relationship with a beautiful girl. Between that and not seeing any prospects for a more successful life, I guess he felt like I was rubbing it in his face.
33. No-Flex Zone
white Maul type-C motorhomePhoto by Hanson Lu on UnsplashFor my friend, EVERYTHING was a flex on Facebook—how much money she'd made that day doing Instacart, her husband buying her a car, her full refrigerator, being able to stay at home and not work a 9 to 5 (she was also an occasional MLMer), her new RV, her spoiled tween son playing Xbox in the new RV, pictures of her plastic surgery, vacations, etc. Every conversation somehow, magically, turned the focus back to her, her life, her family, her possessions, and her struggles. Finally, I decided to say something.
I called her out on it. She said it was because she had anxiety and depression issues, she and her husband didn't go to college, and she was afraid of being judged.
Her constant need for attention grossed me out and I wasn't interested anymore.
34. A Short Fuse
I wouldn't necessarily say the guy was my best friend, but I'm pretty sure I was his best friend, if that makes sense. We met in middle school, and we had some common interests and some mutual friends. As we got older, he got a really bad Napoleon complex because he remained on the short side while the rest of us got taller.
A lot of our mutual friends distanced themselves from him, I was the last holdout because I felt bad for him and because I'm too nice. His arrogance and anger issues peaked in eighth grade. In the span of two weeks: he broke up with his girlfriend, punched two girls in the face, got dodgeball banned in our Phys Ed class, tried to choke one of our school's soccer players, and then got beat up by a girl behind the school. I had to give it to him straight when he started venting about his situation to me; he was kind of a tool. He disappeared the following week and I haven't seen him since.
35. Bridezilla
I got pregnant; my due date was the month of her planned wedding. I said I'll try to be there but I couldn't be her maid of honor anymore. Her reply was unforgettable. She said: "I wish you would have waited".
This was after my first pregnancy ended as a miscarriage. Well, she ended up postponing her wedding anyway…
36. Keeping Up With The Jones
silver foil on white ceramic platePhoto by Tom Radetzki on UnsplashI had to cut ties with my friend when she became an early Alex Jones convert. The sweet, wonderful person I knew turned into a paranoid nutjob.
37. What A Gas
My former best friend needed a place to live during the summer and I let her move into my tiny room in my apartment. I told her beforehand that I needed her help to pay rent and she said that she could. So fast forward, she moves a ton of stuff in my room that is already full of my things, doesn't give me a single cent, and doesn't even show any gratitude. She constantly told me she had no money to pay rent while she would talk about how she went out every night spending $80+ on drinks.
Anyway, we were supposed to move into another apartment together. She bails at the last minute and I have to find another one fast; being in college, everyone leases way ahead of time so it was really hard to find a place. I was mad but I shook it off. Big mistake.
The next day, I needed a ride to the bus stop because I was taking the Greyhound home. This bus stop was literally 5-10 minutes from my apartment. She has the nerve to say "I only put enough gas in my car to get to work and back"...seriously?
I packed her things up and kicked her out. Haven't talked to her since.
38. Why So Shellfish?
I had to dump one of my oldest friends. Finally, the penny dropped, and I realized that he was some kind of sociopath, constantly taking advantage of me, talking down to me at any opportunity, causing problems for me for No reason, except that he could. That was a very difficult (and painful) thing to realize—and I think he never did realize that he did it, even when I told him about some of the crazy things he'd done to me.
One time, he ate all the food I'd cooked for us both to eat that evening, apologized, and then did exactly the same thing the following evening.
He was also constantly borrowing small sums of money from me, not bothering to pay it back or keeping track of how much he'd borrowed—saying that was my responsibility.
He would also claim he "could throw me out on the street" whenever he wanted to, from the apartment I paid 50% of the rent for, to sleep on the sofa. This was when I finally gave up on him.
He riled up a common friend because his ex had flirted with me; he was trying to split that friendship up.
Once, he called everyone who I'd invited to a dinner party, saying the party had changed location to another city.
Weirdest of all? He brought me a gift of a big frozen crab. I've never eaten shellfish, during all the years I've known him. He put it in my freezer box and didn't close the door properly, so I had a big pile of water in the kitchen the next day and had to throw away everything in the freezer.
He also bricked my bank card PIN by entering the wrong code three times, saying he "thought it was his because they were similar". The card was at my apartment.
39. I Thought You Knew
woman whispering on woman's ear while hands on lipsPhoto by Ben White on UnsplashMy "best" friend from high school spread rumors about me because he wanted my then-girlfriend. When I went off to college I kinda left him behind, not really thinking much about it—but it wasn’t over yet.
Fast forward four years later, he storms into my apartment in a rage that I slept with his wife. Which is true, but I slept with her a year before they even met. After that incident, I knew our friendship was over. He pretty much just viewed our "friendship" as a competition of who can get the most women.
40. Don’t Be Late
My friend took advantage of me and would sabotage me constantly. She would embarrass me or be rude to my other friends. I would put up with it because I felt bad for her. She had bad relationships with family, no boyfriend, etc. The straw that broke the camel's back was the time she chewed me out on the phone for being 10 minutes late and said—I kid you not—"You being late is the same level of disrespect as giving someone AIDS"!
Yup. AIDS. The lateness wasn't even my fault, it was a designated driver I had arranged to take us to a bar. I wanted to cheer her up.
41. Stop The Car
I met a really cool chick at university who was doing the same course as me. We hung out most weeks and did all kinds of cool stuff. We became good friends really quickly.
I lived with my two best friends, a gay couple, and decided to introduce them all to each other so we all went out one evening and had an amazing time. I ended up staying at her place that night.
The next morning she was driving me home and she decided to tell me that she didn't like my friends because they were gay and she was brought up as a Christian. In the same paragraph, she went on to tell me that she didn't like Asians, poor people, or people that went to public school. I got out of that car and I have never seen her or spoken to her again.
42. Wore Out Their Welcome
low angle photo of buildingsPhoto by Agustin Lara on UnsplashMy significant other and I bought a condo and invited our mutual friend to move in with us. He got a girlfriend right about the time when we bought the house. Now, we were good friends with this guy and hung out quite a bit.
So he starts dating this girl as we begin to tear apart and redo the entire townhouse. Peeling off wallpaper and sanding down every crack and cranny. My boyfriend and I are working our behinds off on this huge investment. We keep asking him to come and help us, since, you know, he'll be living here too. He shows up exactly twice in two months of non-stop work, and one of those times, he left an hour later "just to drop off some keys to her" and obviously never came back. They had been fighting the whole time he was with us and he was summoned elsewhere I guess. So that's pre-moving-in.
He moves in and the girlfriend is immediately there every night and most days. She has no job and no car, so he goes to work and she just sits around at our house. She just hangs out at our place all day, with her one-year-old. She eats our food. She uses our electronics. She never leaves. She contributes nothing and asks us to buy her milk for her baby.
Our roommate can contribute nothing for food or anything other than rent, because of his new little family that he is responsible for. Our friend defends this, saying her kid is his son now. They'd been dating for five months and the child was not his, but he referred to him as his son.
There's way more, but those are the basics. She once told me, as she was eating a meal that my boyfriend and I cooked with the food that we bought and kindly included them in, that she "forgets that food costs money". This is the person that basically lives rent-free in my home.
She sat around all day and her kid ran around unsupervised. One very memorable time he picked up a knife that we were using to do a project. She didn't notice. God, I could go on for ages.
He, who was once an adamant atheist, is now wearing things that say, for example, "JESUS 4 LIFE"! That was hysterical. She was very religious.
Anyway, they went on vacation and were mad that we didn't pick them up at the airport last minute. The second they returned to the house, we argued—and what an argument it was—and then we sat them down and told them to get out. He is no longer friends with us. It felt awesome.
43. Talk About Paranoid
For background there is me and my boyfriend Dan, and then my friend Tiff and her boyfriend Todd. Two couples, all friends.
When we first all started to go out I was really good friends with her, but as time went on I saw more and more that she was selfish and egotistical, she once complained that her parents bought her 24k gold diamond earrings for Christmas when she just wanted the money, and so on. There is a long list of faults with her.
We roll around to a friend’s 21st birthday about a year ago. Her boyfriend cannot go anywhere without her except for work. No lads night out, he can't even look at other women and you can tell it grates him if I mention that Danny was going away for the weekend without me, or we'll be rating the lovely beer providers of our local pubs. But that’s not the most ridiculous part.
At this party, Tiff drinks and gets paranoid that a girl, who is a friend of ours, at another table is talking about her and decides to demand that none of us talk to her anymore. At this point I've had enough of her nonsense, tell her “She's free to make HER boyfriend do whatever she likes and he can be dumb enough to follow it but she does not have the right to try and control MY partner, so she better shut up, sit down and stay away from me for good”, and walked away.
I haven't said more than five words to her since, and only see her when Danny and Todd want to go to the pub.
44. Request Denied
A couple of people in high school stopped speaking to me for going to the prom with a lesbian friend. They have tried to add me on Facebook since, which is hilarious since I haven't spoken to them since 1996.
45. Friendship Is Magic
woman standing near body of waterPhoto by Lau keith on UnsplashMy friend was just like a brother to me; I'd never had that kind of relationship with someone before, especially since my direct family is quite dysfunctional. Ergo, I value my friends (the ones I have left) highly. This kid is about a year older than me, him being 17 now. We met at a meetup in our city and sort of hit things off from there.
After a long time of talking and relating, we decided that we were the best of friends and hung out as much as we possibly could. Due to distance, this was limited to each weekend. Our platonic relationship sort of pushed me to develop feelings for him—we were already acting like we were dating anyway, although it was just holding hands. He asked me one day if I liked him and I said yes, but I don't want a relationship because I'd just come out of an ugly one.
Here's the weird part. He goes off his nut and starts going on about how he'd be cheating on his girlfriend in Japan…whom he doesn't have on Facebook, whom he talks to once a month at best, whom he had only brought up once and didn't even reference her as his significant other at the time. He said that if he continued to see me, now knowing my feelings, it would be wrong. He claimed that he was an honorable man and had morals, and would dislike it if his "girlfriend" was hanging out with a guy who had feelings for her…not even my farthest rationalization could convince him to see reason.
He deleted me, ceased all contact with me; lived each day after as if nothing had happened. It was, to say the least, one of the most painful things I've had happen to me. I still love him as a brother/close friend and I still miss him. This was in May.
46. Nice Knowing You
My best friend got a girlfriend, so he had less time for me. After a few years, I got home and saw them moving stuff out. We lived in the same apartment, but a different floor. They never said anything to me at all, no hint. They just left, not even a card or an invitation. That was the end of the friendship.
47. Benign Tumor, Malignant Friend
I had a friend for maybe three years, she had originally been the girlfriend of one of my guy friends. I listened to all her tears and agony when they split up, all her depressing stories, and so on.
One day I went into the hospital for a biopsy, I was terrified I had cancer. I came home and looked at my phone—and what I saw made my blood run cold. It was full of texts from her about having a bad day, and a huge email about how she wanted her ex back. She didn't ask how I was, or how the tests went, all she wanted was someone to listen to her. That day I put her number on the block list, and blocked everything of hers online.
48. Best Friend, Worst Roommate
woman standing near gray concrete building during daytimePhoto by Jaclyn Moy on UnsplashI moved in with my “best” friend, her horrid boyfriend, and her antisocial sister. The friend and I had been incredibly close throughout all school, but over six months that deteriorated. The boyfriend wouldn't let her go out unless he could come too. He was pedantic and argumentative for the sake of “winning” a fight.
The sister wouldn't let me invite people over (my boyfriend included) unless she knew about it a day or so in advance. She claimed she had a severe phobia of “outside” people. But the final straw was when their mother came to visit. She stayed with us for two weeks without anyone informing me in advance, who I knew yes, but had decided to tell me what to do (no drinking, etc) as if I were her child as well. At one point I remember the mother told me it was a bit too late and loud to have friends over.
The friendship fell apart, she would side with her sister and boyfriend. We became bitter, there was note writing on their part, and she put dirty dishes on my bed, etc, to the point I would avoid going home. They decided to move out without telling me. I had overheard them discussing movers. In the end, the girl and I sat down and decided it would be for the best. But my nightmare wasn’t over yet.
The evening that she moved out there was a complication with money, my friend couldn't pay the movers. I decided out of respect for what we had, I'd loan the money and take it out of her share of the lease, along with the remainder of the bills, etc. In total, it was $600. She had government aid in paying the lease (which she knew about but hadn't informed me) and her share went back to the Department of Housing.
I was unable to properly contact her again. I had been spat on constantly for six months and then when she was crying and begging I thought I was doing a good thing, only to have been ripped off by my “best friend” I had known since I was 10 years old.
49. Snitches Get Stitches
I was 17 and my older girlfriend was staying with me while I had the house to myself. This friend was jealous and decided to tell my parents what we were doing. The aftermath was brutal. It resulted in a huge fight with my dad involving broken glass, screaming, lies and threats. I had to talk to the authorities and got threatened by them as well.
My friend tried to claim she had nothing to do with it…but I knew it was her. I cut off all contact and haven't spoken to her in 10 years.
Cheating is one of the worst things a person can do to a loved one. Betraying the trust of someone we are supposed to be committed to on such a fundamental level is truly despicable and heartbreaking, and the users of Reddit blew off some steam by telling the tales of their very worst, no good cheating exes.
We Feel for You
white and blue yacht on sea under blue sky during daytimePhoto by Alina Kacharho on UnsplashThis is so recent (a week ago). I went to the spot I first took her to on the ship we worked on to surprise her, and she was on top of another dude. They looked me in the face and laughed when they saw me.
Congrats, Buddy!
Found out via Facebook a few months after I had broken up with him that he cheated on me. I was still friends with his siblings and parents, and they were tagged in some photos of him. Holding his clearly to-term newborn son. Less than nine months after I broke up with him.
Something Not to Be Thankful For
I'm not on great terms with my family, so I suggested making a roast chicken for the two of us for Thanksgiving. She opted to go to her roommate's family's place—the roommate who I learned she was sleeping with shortly afterward.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
man in red and black striped polo shirt holding gold iphone 6Photo by jaikishan patel on UnsplashI was at a party with a group of friends. I was standing behind my best friend talking in a group when my friend all of the sudden gets a text. I look at his phone and it's my girlfriend's full name and her asking when he is going to be over. She was supposed to be out of town at her mom's house.
Did He Get an A+?
I caught my boyfriend of two years. He had asked me to proofread his paper on his Mac and the text messenger popped up in the right hand. He was sitting in his bed texting some girl "goodnight, I love you" while sitting right next to me in his bed. I deleted his entire paper, wrote "Who's Marissa?" saved it and told him it looks great and left.
She was his girlfriend of eight years who lived next to his parents two hours away.
A Sudden Change of Heart
I knew he was cheating when he suddenly became concerned about his looks but didn’t want me to look good. He went on a diet, started wearing contacts, and started shaving his pubic hair, which he wouldn’t do for me. Also became distant, had a lack of interest in sex, spent a lot of time on his phone, had weird mood swings that didn’t relate to our relationship fights/make ups, along with lots of other signs.
The Question You Don’t Want Answered
man between two women taking selfiePhoto by Elevate on UnsplashI was "roommate with benefits" before and somehow I was the other woman. I don't know how he thought he was going to be able to keep the two of us a secret from each other. It's been about five years and when I think about it the emotion that comes back isn't sadness or anger from the betrayal, but amazement that he thought he was going to get away with it.
The Question You Don’t Want Answered
Back when Myspace survey quizzes were popular, I was reading one that she posted. A question on the quiz read "Who was the last person you kissed/had sex with?" The answer was not my name...
Racking up the Minutes
Phone bill was three times bigger than it should have been. Over 400 minutes to one number. The kicker was that she also had a company cell phone with unlimited calls that I obviously never would have known about, and the guy was someone she worked with. She literally wanted to get caught because she was too weak to tell me to my face.
Fly Me to the Moon
a woman looking out the window of an airplanePhoto by Chris Curry on UnsplashJust got on a flight in London headed to Vegas. Sitting next to my GF, and she wants to show me something she has planned for the trip, so gets out her phone. It opens to the Messages and shows a chat with a guy (I know him) saying how much she is going to miss him and how she doesn't want to go away with me anyway. The doors close on the plane and that was a really fun 10-11hrs...
A Little Subtlety Can Go a Long Way
Right before my ex got caught cheating, I saw his phone laying on the couch like it fell out of his pocket. I picked it up just as he realized he'd dropped it. I swear, he leapt across the room to take it from my hand before I could even say a word. I had already begun suspecting, but that was pretty definitive that I was right.
Setting an Example for the Baby
When I got home from work, she would be going to work and I would be hanging out with our baby. Around the time he was one and a half, she started going to the bar with co-workers. I was fine with it because it wasn't often, maybe one night a week, and she came back home by 12. It quickly got up to coming home between 2:30 am and 4 am, plastered, four to six times a week.
She started mentioning this one co-worker a lot and how cool he was. My paranoia got the better of me and I checked her phone one alcohol-induced coma night and she had been trying to get said co-worker to meet with her at an abandoned gas station a few miles up the road while she was on her way out.
I approached her and asked what she planned to do when he showed up, "just hang out and shoot the s***!" to which I replied, "While you’re drunk, at 2 am, behind an abandoned gas station..." She never admitted to it, but that, a lot of not-even-subtle clues and people I knew seeing her out at the bar gave me all I needed to know.
The Roommate Disagreement
woman in brown shirt covering her facePhoto by Fa Barboza on UnsplashShe was having an argument with a housemate and they shouted at her—with me in the room—“At least I'm not cheating on my fiancé!” She moved out less than a week later.
Happy...Birthday?
I went to her 18th birthday party. I wandered around mingling with all her friends, and then I realized I hadn't seen her anywhere in like 45 minutes. I thought nothing of it at first, but then I went downstairs to use the basement bathroom. It was locked. I knocked and I heard a very breathy female voice say, "Occupied! Go Away!" Since I really had to go, I decided to wait.
GF came stumbling out of the bathroom with some guy about ten minutes later, looking all flustered and stinking. Apparently, the guy bought himself a bathroom quickie with a few hits of a toke. She made some excuse about how they were "just talking" and he was an old friend. I shrugged, actually wanting to believe her.
But when I went in to finally go to the bathroom, the stupid girl had forgotten her panties on the bathroom floor. I handed them to her in front of all her friends upstairs and walked out. "Here. You forgot these in the bathroom downstairs." It was one of those classic zinger moments when you really burned someone, but at the time, I just felt sick and brokenhearted.
Those Dog-Walkers Will Get You Every Time
Not so subtle, but my ex was being guarded with his phone, and every time I caught a glimpse of the screen while he was using it, it was the same girl. Asked who she is and it's his friend from "dog-walking club" Yeah right—they actually met on Tinder. He also went through my phone, and not very subtly either, because he accidentally sent random thumbs up to a lot of people on Facebook chat.
Then there was the random message from the above-mentioned girl, who had gone to the effort of looking me up and telling me to"back off her boyfriend." Hahahahahaha. There were a lot of things she didn't know either, apparently.
Thanks for the Reminder
man and woman lying on grassPhoto by Clem Onojeghuo on UnsplashI technically didn't catch him cheating, because he came clean about it when he broke up with me. I did, however, find out who he cheated with. He told me it was with his friend Natalie, who I had never heard of before, except for the time maybe days earlier when he told me about his "half black" friend Natalie. Ok, at the time I wasn't sure why he shared this detail.
This was ten years ago when we were all fresh out of high school, so I don't remember exactly how the conversation went. Days go by and a coworker asks me if we're still together, because she saw him kissing a girl, and she shares her description as "darker skinned." I tell her we broke up, and that's probably the girl he cheated on me with, it's ok.
Days go by and my good friend Nora's older brother invites me to hang out, totally out of the blue. I take him up on it and we go to a park near his parents' house. Lo, we spot Nora's car. We're walking through the park and there's Nora's parents' dog running around off leash. And there, on a gentle slope, is Nora and my recent ex making out on the grass.
Nora and her brother are Egyptian and could easily be described as "half black" or "darker skinned." My ex had made Natalie up.
Status: It’s Not That Complicated
Literally five hours after we broke up, he updated his Facebook relationship status to "engaged" to a girl who I thought he was just friends with. She uploaded a photo showing off the ring with the caption "he finally asked, and I said yes!"
Second in Command
Phone dinged, I checked it, (same phones no case both charging next to each other.) The text said, "I miss you too" and was from a girl he was dating when we were separated. Fast forward a few months to when he deploys. Check his email because at this point I know something is up. Find emails, so I contact the mistress.
She was very transparent with me and told me that basically, they were dating before he even met me, which means he courted me, asked me to marry him, married me then we had a child together all while he was still seeing her. We separate for a year, he dates her exclusively, we get back together, and he maintains a relationship with her. All of this without me knowing.
I found this all out while I was a month away from birthing his second child and he's getting shot at in Afghanistan. We decide to work through it, but I never could get over the fact that he cheated on me for four years and had no problem hiding it from me, and only came clean because I found out, as in, he had no intention of coming clean.
When he returned home he confessed to many other times with other people (thank GOD I never got an STD). After three subsequent years of him refusing to go to counseling so that we can ACTUALLY deal with it, he tells me he wants a divorce (a month before we are supposed to get a permanent change of station to Alaska). Moved back home with the kids, filed for divorce and life is amazingly better now. Screw that guy!
Raise the Roof
women standing side-by-side on street during daytimePhoto by Zoriana Stakhniv on UnsplashMy cousin showed me a picture of her hooking up with the male stripper at her bachelorette party.
For My Ears Only
I caught my dad cheating on my stepmom because he said he wanted to listen to Adele on my headphones. The second he said that, I knew something was up. He would never take me and my sister out for any reason other than personal pleasure and why ask for my headphones. I come to find out after a little bit of snooping on his phone that he was sending Facebook audio messages to girls, so his wife couldn't read the messages. That really changed how I saw my dad.
Not That Kind of Emergency
She told me her little cousin (who is mentally handicapped) swallowed something (a battery I think) and was in the hospital in NC and was flying down there. Later, she went and took a nap. I was on the computer, clicked on the favorite place link to Gmail and saw a flight confirmation email to NY. I realized it was her account and not mine.
I sat at the edge of the bed calm as could be and as soon as she woke up I asked her what she was doing in NY. She tried to say she didn't know what I was talking about, but I told her I saw the email. She then said she was going to visit some friends, and I was like oh, is that why you made up this big lie about your cousin?
Dial 1 for Heartbreak
grayscale photo of man holding telephonePhoto by Angelika Agibalova on UnsplashHe was in the basement of the house we had JUST BOUGHT TOGETHER having phone sex with her, not realizing that the sound would travel through the vents. It sucked at the time but in hindsight, he did me a huge favor.
Wake up Call
My girlfriend started working with and talking about this girl and inviting the girl and her GF to go to dinner with us. We went on a double date with this couple a few times over the course of three weeks and I noticed every time we were all four out, my girlfriend would drink much more heavily than usual. It was weird.
We were having them over for dinner one Sunday, but had an adult sports game before (which usually involved light drinking) and she was acting super weird about making sure we were home on time and had dinner ready, etc. That night, after they left, she passed out on the couch next to me. Her Apple watch buzzed, and I glanced over and saw a selfie of this girl.
This was enough to get me to look at her phone (for the first time ever) where I find texts with sexting and details about their hookup. I took screenshots of all of it and sent it to my phone.I got dressed, texted a friend, packed a backpack, and woke her up by throwing her phone (with those messages open) at her and walking out the door.
She groggily sorted it all out and attempted to contact me all night and eventually texted the other girl's GF those screenshots, which I thought was pretty cruddy. Sort of an "if I'm going down, you're going down with me."
Fashion Statements
My first GF, that I had lost my virginity to, banged some dude from high school that allowed her to wear his letterman jacket home since it was cold. He came to her house to get it back and said it just felt right. All while I was at work. The worst part was she told me on AIM when I got home!
Sleepover
woman in blue denim jeans lying on bedPhoto by Adam Winger on UnsplashHe has a longtime friend of his (who happened to be female) who was staying the night. She was sleeping in the basement bedroom and we were upstairs. Well, he slipped out of bed in the middle of the night and woke me up. When he noticed, he told me he had to go to the bathroom. I guess I already had my suspicions, because I lay there and listened to him walk down the hall, then past the bathroom, and down the stairs.
So, I followed. And caught him in the basement getting ready to have sex with her. Oh. I was not a happy puppy. Was stupid and tried to salvage our engagement, but I wasn't "fun anymore" and he left.
While You Were Working
My ex worked a night shift and I worked day shift, so I'd wait for her to come home (so kids wouldn't be sleeping alone) and one night she just didn't show up...Pulled up Find my iPhone to find out she's at her ex’s house. She came home a little later after texting/calling her constantly with some extra news: he got her pregnant...What a wonderful day.
Good Luck Getting a Ride
I had let her borrow my car while I took the bus to work, my friend called me at work to say that my girl was making out with some guy in my car. So I got a taxi over there and yup, there she was. I knocked on the window guy jumped out. I was going to start beating his ass, but I told him to just leave, this might not be your fault.
She started making excuses, I just asked her to step out of the car. Got my keys and drove away a mess, she screwed me up for a long time. She made me lose trust in women and messed up my concept of relationships for a long time.
Say Cheese!
man in black shirt holding black smartphonePhoto by Shane on UnsplashWhen I was at college we had this campus Twitter account that people would post pictures of random people caught making out at parties to. I blacked out one Saturday night and woke up to a few angry texts…
Band Camp Blues
When I was 14/15 years old and at band camp, my best friend (let's call her Emma) and I were dating two boys who were best friends. Typical, right? So, one day Emma and I get out of rehearsal and we go to meet up with our boyfriends, who are nowhere to be found. So we look harder, we're wandering around campus, and we hear low voices behind a ledge.
Lo and behold, our precious boyfriends were there...MAKING OUT WITH EACH OTHER. Emma immediately started crying, which caused the boys to pull apart with a suctiony schluuurp. I suppose I wasn't as in love with Boyfriend as I thought, because my reaction was to laugh hysterically. I had never seen two boys make out before. It wasn't bad.
Double Standards
She told me in gratuitous detail the name, body type and acts she performed with like ten different dudes—ranging from making out to intercourse with "only" two dudes. She thought I would forgive her and it’d bring us closer and like it’d be good, so we could talk about those experiences together. After this, she moved for an "open" relationship—which made it all okay because she'd get to retroactively apply our "open" status.
I was young, in love, and heartbroken so I said yes because I was desperate to hang on to her. Then she broke up with me when I hooked up with someone else after like four months of "open" status and her having like a primary friend-with-benefits because I "liked her too much."
Gridlock
grayscale photo of woman standing between two menPhoto by Jessica Felicio on UnsplashWas dating a girl in college and didn't think she was cheating. Another guy she was dating thought she was. He found my info in her phone and texts me about it. He wants to confront her. We both meet up at her place while she isn't home. He's a nice guy and we honestly got along pretty well for the half hour we talked before she arrived.
She saw us both as she drove up and the look on her face was shock. By the time she got out of her car she was crying but didn't say a word to us. We went in her apartment and her roommate acted as the mediator but it didn't really get anywhere. Me and the other guy were pissed and wanted answers. We weren't getting any so we both gave her some choice words and rolled out.
It’s Either Me or Pop Tarts
A friend in college cheated on his girlfriend because she told him he had to stop eating pop tarts so he could lose weight, and he didn't know how to break up with her. When she found out, he straight up told her to her face that he couldn't give up pop tarts. I wish that was a lie, those things are pretty darn high in calories.
Neal, Neal, Neal
My GF was getting ready for work one day and I noticed she was wearing makeup which she hadn't done in a very long time. I sarcastically asked her, "Is Neal working tonight with you?" to which she said, “no, I just wanted to look nice today.” I dropped her off at work and who was there? Neal, that dirty rat. Like in other stories, sometimes it's the abrupt change in a subtle thing about a person that sets off the warning bells.
Well This One Is a Little Weird...
white and blue dream catcherPhoto by Dyaa Eldin on UnsplashI've never been able to explain it, but I saw my ex cheating on me in a dream. I saw everything. I told her about it and she freaked out. (To be fair, I described the dude's bedspread, fish-tank, and his room. I have never been there).
Wouldn’t Wait
I was 17 and he was my first boyfriend. I wasn't going to sleep with him and told him as much, so he was having sex with a girl who I knew from church youth group in his car before he would come hang out with me. She wanted him all to herself, so she showed me the messages—I was dumb and didn't believe her because this wasn't the first time she had stirred up drama like this.
Sure enough, his car was outside the church in the back corner of the parking lot and he was waiting for her. Although, TBH, I was mostly just dating him because I hadn't been kissed yet and was tired of waiting for someone I could see myself falling in love with. I was angrier over the humiliation of being cheated on more than because I loved him.
Star-Crossed Lovers
My ex was very into astrology. She cheated on me, and blamed it on the timing of the great American eclipse of August 2017.
Delete From Contacts
man standing on top of rock mountain during golden hourPhoto by Joshua Earle on UnsplashEx-girlfriend. Woke up one morning and it was plastered all over her Snapchat story of her making out with her ex at some Christmas party. This was the day after a very intense romantic evening with her...Was a tough day to get through for sure. She decided to completely drop contact with me after with no answers as to what happened, but thank goodness I'm out of that train wreck now though...One month on and I'm doing much better.
You Haven’t Evolved Enough to Come up With a Better Excuse Than That?
When my husband and his mistress got caught, they tried to invoke an evolution argument and convince me that "humans aren't meant to be monogamous." I'm like, "if you don't believe in monogamy, why did you even marry in the first place? You could have joined a free love hippie commune at any time if you wanted to. But that's not what you did."
Misplaced Pep Talk
I remember I was brushing my teeth and looking at myself in the mirror, and I thought to myself, "I finally feel like I can trust her! I don't think she has been unfaithful at all to me. That's a good feeling!" I went back to the computer where we had a Skype session going, and I told her my mirror thoughts. I was so proud of myself because I can have trust issues.
She immediately went silent and started biting her lip. I was like "ooooofff course.." She ended up telling me that things got rekindled with her ex, and they started hooking up again. It was just the worst because we were in a long distance stint of our relationship. We broke up, and she got back together with him, and then wanted me back, and then wanted him back. I'm not even sure where it all stands now, but we don't communicate.
Betrayed by Your Own Family
men's gray suit jacketPhoto by Scott Webb on UnsplashMy dad told me. 5 years later. On the morning of my wedding to another woman. After I dumped the cheater for unrelated reasons. And my entire family pushed for me to get back together with her. AND THEY KNEW SHE WAS CHEATING.
Life is Too Short to Waste on Guys Like Sam
My best friend was in the hospital having emergency surgery, during which she almost died. Her family told her boyfriend, Sam, about her situation. He never responded or showed up to see or ask how she was doing. He then proceeded to cheat on her with some girl from high school, claiming, “She didn’t answer my texts for two whole days!!” Yeah, because she was nearly dead, you jerk!
Tripped up
I was gone for a week for work. Got back to my building after a flight home and had no ride. She forgot to come pick me up. I finally got a hold of her, came to pick me up half drunk, went back to our house, I was unpacking and turned around and she had her hair and makeup done and just said "I'm going out, see ya" and left. This was after I had been gone for a week.
The next day was Friday, she had got home after I went to bed and left for work before me. I got home, and she was already gone, and had texted me and said she was going to her friend's house to hang out for a house party for the weekend. I didn't hear from her again for two days despite calling and texting her. She got home late Sunday night and told me she "lost her phone in the couch.”
I told her this wasn't working, and she needed to leave. She packed a bag while I cracked a beer on the couch. A couple days later, my friend emailed me a boatload of pictures from the weekend she disappeared, all of her and the guy she was cheating on me with. He had posted them on his Myspace that Sunday evening. She actually continued to mess up things for me for quite a while after this, financially mostly, but eventually, I got free of that disaster and moved on happily.
Good Thing She Didn’t Call Your Bluff
man in gray crew neck long sleeve shirt standing beside woman in black crew neck shirtPhoto by Afif Ramdhasuma on UnsplashShe kept deleting all her texts... I got suspicious and told her I had a cool program on my PC that picks up all texts wirelessly. Confronted her saying I had seen them on my PC, she admitted it without me seeing a thing.
Get Thee to a Dentist
One morning, I went to brush my teeth and my toothbrush was wet. I found that odd, so I asked my girlfriend if she had used the blue toothbrush, and she said “yeah” all casual. I said that the pink toothbrush was hers, and she played it off like she didn’t know. I suddenly realized that we had been using the same toothbrush for a few weeks, and it kind of grossed me out. That started a very small argument. I went to work, as did she, but she didn’t come home that night. The next morning, I called her out and she admitted that she slept with another guy who "didn’t think she was gross."
Silence Does Not Equal Consent
My ex-girlfriend cheated on me when I fell asleep. She said since I wasn't responding when she asked if I would be okay with it, she assumed I was. Wack!
While You Were Healing
man covering face with both hands while sitting on benchPhoto by Christian Erfurt on UnsplashOh man I have a winner. I had surgery on my testicles due to a possible tumor (it wound up being benign), so I'm recovering that evening in bed. My girlfriend (long-distance) visited me to take care of me. All is going great, except for my crotch hurting and my wearing of a diaper—but hey, I had just come back from Afghanistan, so life was still pretty sweet.
My girlfriend offers to make me some food. Sweet. So she asks me to look up a recipe on my phone. I can't find my phone—so she tosses me hers. Well, let me tell you, in the midst of me looking up a great Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe, a message from my friend Ryan flashes across the top of the screen. I can't make it out, but it looks an awful lot like sex.
I'm like, "Oh Ryan, what are you giving a hard time to my girlfriend about," So I click the message, if only to relay what I presumed was a joke to her. Well, let me tell you, the joke was on me. Those two had been going to Bonetown, USA, while I was deployed. They talked about me being gone as a sexcation. My girlfriend asks if I found anything good.
I'm like "Oh heck yeah." Now, I show her the texts. She denies anything happened. Which is, well dumb—so me being a man of dignity, kick her out of the apartment and send her on her way to Georgia. Wearing adult diapers, I kicked her out of my place. Honestly, I just wish I had found out after I had eaten some Cordon Bleu.
Love Is Not a Game
I'd finished doing the dailies on my WoW character, and I knew he wasn't going to be home for a while so like many times before (with his permission) I logged into his account to do dailies for him. Then the PM's started. Very explicit PM's. Not only was he cheating on me in a game (with loads of people, cybersex in WoW, eugh). But it got worse.
There was one girl who was talking about things outside the game too. I admit I played along for a while to see what was going on.After that, I told her who I was. It all ended rather badly, between her and I, him and I, and him and her.
Be Careful Who You Message
I was dating this dead beat guy for about 2 years. I lived on my parents' property and so did he, for free. One day while I was at work, I go on break and I get a FB message from a guy I barely know. It said "I don't know how you feel about this, but it bothers me." I click it and see a picture. At first I was thinking it was spam and almost deleted it before enlarging it (seemed like one of those click bait titles that hijacks your account).
Something made me decide to click it anyway. When I click it, I see a screenshot of a FB convo between my bf and his gf. He was hitting on her, telling her how much of POS her bf was and how he would treat her so much better than that. He told her not to tell anyone about the convo. Well, sucks for him because the girl immediately showed her bf, who showed me.
Ha! Judging by the time stamps, this conversation took place the previous night at MY house on MY laptop (it was the only way he could have this conversation). Needless to say, I left work early, went home, kicked him out of my place, and made him homeless. Oh well.
Less Than Immaculate Conception
pregnant woman wearing red long-sleeved dressPhoto by freestocks on UnsplashI know this is cliche and I've definitely complained about it before, but coming home from a 12-month deployment to a black baby when we're both white were strike one and two. Strike three was her telling me she had black relatives (whom I've never met) so that could be what happened, sure. Doesn't matter what excuse you have, though, there isn't a magical 12 month gestation period. Makes me very angry.
Honesty Is the Best Policy
I was married for six years and caught my husband cheating. His response was to just shrug and say, "I got nothing." That was it.
