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People Explain How They Lost Their Best Friend

Not all friendships are meant to last. Sometimes, there's a good reason for it, like maybe moving away to start a new job or falling out of touch because your babies are taking up all your free time. Whatever the accepted reason, you value the time you had together, reminisce on the good times, and move on.

However, there are those times when the friendship falls completely off the rails and you're not sure how everything went wrong.

Reddit user, FemaleThings, wanted to understand why a friendship fell apart when they asked:

"How did you lose your best friend?"

A One-Way Relationship

"I realized that they were my best friend, but I wasn’t so much so theirs. Made evident when I started being bullied in high school and she immediately turned on me, as if she had waited for this opportunity to ditch me"

– tizbean

Never First Priority

"Similar here. I was the backup friend. Any time she found someone 'better,' she'd completely abandon me. Would even avoid me sometimes so her new friends wouldn't see me with her."

"Then either they'd get tired of her or she'd get tired of them and guess who's coming back to be friends with me like nothing happened? She is. When she didn't have anyone else, she was an awesome friend. But when she had anyone else, she'd do things like ignoring me at my own birthday party so she could text them."

"After high school she'd sometimes randomly message me acting like we were going to be best friends again, then drop off the face of the Earth like usual when something better came along. Eventually she just never showed back up, and by then I was fine with that. I was done with dealing with that."

"Did give me serious trust issues that took years to work through tho."

– ShiraCheshire

Thinking They Need To Move On

"when we both graduated high school, she blocked me on everything (phone, socials, etc.) without any reason or notice. we weren’t fighting or anything and i wasn’t annoying either. idk it was just weird."

– urlocaldumbgurl312

Too Dead To Be Brought Back To Life

"Her sh-tty boyfriend drove a wedge between us and ultimately ruined her life (she did some shady sh-t too). I ran into her 10 years later and she apologized for everything. I accepted and forgave her, but knew I’d never really have a friendship with her again."

– ATru05

Too Taken By Something Else

"Cocaine. He isn’t dead, he’s just not the same anymore."

– ThrowawayzVI

"Same, kinda. I stopped drinking so much, quit partying and hard drugs altogether. All my best friends from that period of my life didn't. Turns out that's all we had in common and me trying to hang out with them just feels awkward now."

– NativeMasshole

We All Have To Give It Our All

"I stopped trying to maintain relationships with people who wouldn’t try themselves"–

– themarkof

Can We All Just Keep Our Hands Off Each Others' Spouses?

"7 weeks into marriage found out my best friend and husband are “together” and have been for a while. (I had known her for 5 years, he had known her for 13 years)"

– diet_pepsi_lover

"This happened to me. My wife ran off with my “best friend.” It gets easier to deal with but the pain never fully goes away."

– oskiew

Not All Best Friends Have

"Old age. Was a great dog."

– TheDrunkyBrewster

"Same here. 13 years of friendship has flown away from me."

– SweetLopez01

They Prefer Each Other

"One day I introduced my best friend to a friend so I could spend time with both since they were good friends to me."

"A couple months pass and now my best friend became best friends with the friend I introduced. I'm not angry that they are best friends now, I'm angry that they keep ghosting me when I text them."

:So while me trying to spend time with both, it was the exact opposite."

"It was really sad for me to lose my best and them ghosting me really made me sad."

– metosuz

Way Too Far

"Got into a fight for something trivial and she told me she understood why my mom left me"

– Prestigious_Web1124

Better Left In The Past

"We were both insecure about ourselves as teens, but she started putting me down in front of other people, especially if there was a boy she liked - making me the target of her jokes and making comments that were supposed to make her seem cool and sarcastic. I told her several times that it was hurtful, and she would always end up in tears, swear to me she wouldn't do it again but after a while she would always start again. She was the first real friend I made, so it was difficult, but I decided to just cut her out of my life after a few years of repeating that pattern."

– -_Midori_-

No Effort, No Friendship

"(english is not my first language, i apologize for any mistakes)"

"We were next door neighbours and spent the majority of our time together since childhood. She went to college and I barely heard from her but we still spent a lot of time together, especially during the summer (also since we were little we were in the same school, church, etc)."

"She got a girlfriend and didn't tell me, but I never pushed it even though I knew since it's not my place to tell. I noticed because there were pictures of them hugging, and she is not an affectionate person so that's how i knew. She told me a year after they started dating. I didn't tell her I knew because that is mean and she would feel that she was outed and that would be plain awful."

"When they started dating she basically cut contact with me. If I wanted to make plans she wouldn't be available because she would be going to meet her and 2 other friends she had made recently (one being a former friend of a friend of mine, who also cut contact with her when this friend group was created), plans would be cut short and she basically doesn't talk to me unless she has to. when she knows I'm in town from college it's like I'm not there, even though."

"I go over to her house to say hello to her parents and she is there (and I say hello out of politeness, because after all we have known each other since we were babies, but I know that if I didn't say anything there wouldn't be any effort on her part). So basically, she started dating and I was left behind. I think I'm being petty and a little too attached, but I'm not the only person who has complaints about this. One doesn't do anything if the other one isn't present, so sometimes people don't make plans with them (this includes going to the beach, grocery store, playing video games...)."

"I tried to revive the friendship many times - I actually like her, like I've said we have been friends forever. For some reason. all those advances were useless, The effort to make contact again was useless. Her pet (whom i loved very much and also named) died and she didn't tell me, she didn't come to my graduation because I didn't invite her girlfriend (i never had a deep relationship with her even though I knew her, so it didn't make sense to me)."

"All of the good things that happen in her life are not shared with me anymore. I obviously was the only one who cared at all to maintain a friendship of a lifetime, so i stopped texting to see what would happen or if she even cared - much to my surprise nothing happened. I saw her last weekend at a mutual friend's graduation, before that the last time I spoke to her was in the ending of January or beginning of February."

"It took me a while to understand that if someone enjoys your company they will make an effort."

– moodeq

Friends From Afar

"She set me and my new boyfriend up to get jumped by my ex and thought it was hilarious. We were trying to mend a tough friendship that suffered a falling out due to the rumors she spread about me. We were inseparable until high school hit. I got a lot of attention from people that she didn't. She didn't like that. She spread rumors. In an attempt to repair our once inseparable bond, I suggested a double date. One thing turned into another, and she set me up."

"We tried to reconcile as adults. She was strung out on drugs and could never visit me alone; had to have druggie boyfriends around all the time. It was uncomfortable."

"She does great now. Clean, in a long term relationship, and has a child. It's easier to clap and love her from a distance. Up close was just toooooo much for me."

– Electrical_Potato934

Not Really A Friend

"realized she was bullying me my whole life. sure we had good times, but there was more bad then good. she would call me names, hit me, tell me i was ugly or fat. she isnt in my life anymore, although it seems that because now that ive found better friends and a new best friend, she wants to come back. i miss her, but i dont want her to be apart of my life."

– shieldxex

It Was All A Lie

"she found a new friend and left me, even though she said a day ago that I was her closest person. later it turned out that she was forced to be friends with me by her mother. =)"

– justmaryy2

Sometimes, It's Neither Of Your Choices

"Undiagnosed heart condition suddenly killed him. It was and still is awful. He was only 27. I have moments that I want to share with him, just call him, set up a trip together, text a funny anecdote etc, but can't and it hits me all over again that he's gone forever."

– WanderingPuppy

Treat others how you want to be treated. It's really not that hard.

Also, value the time you have with your friends. The future is wide and open and occasionally that openness means you won't always be together.

People's Craziest 'You Can't Eat At Everyone's House' Experiences

Reddit user 195901 asked: 'What is your “can’t eat at everybody’s house” horror story?'

Person cooking in home kitchen
Conscious Design on Unsplash

We've all heard the phrase, "You can't eat at everybody's house," but some of us have a few examples of our own to live by.

From not properly cleaning the environment to questionable hygiene ourselves, there are countless reasons why a person may not want to eat what you've cooked after watching you prepare it.

Bracing themselves, Redditor 195901 asked:

"What is your 'you can't eat at everybody's house' horror story?"

Fly Spray Sandwiches

"I told my dad my sandwich tasted like fly spray at my grandma's house. He didn’t believe me."

"Two days later, I caught my grandma spraying the benches 'clean' with the two-dollar fly spray you find at the cheap store."

"Dad figured it was safe to make sandwiches straight on the countertop because they looked clean. I dragged him over to see and he apologized and took my sister and me for fish and chips for lunch."

- littlehungrygiraffe

Special Seasoning Deviled Eggs

"My crackpot aunt served us a lovely tray of deviled eggs, complete with very old paprika sprinkled on top. So old, in fact, the many weevils mixed in it were dead."

- PhoneboothLynn

A Disturbing Surprise

"I visited a friend's house who was living with his mother, and she asked if I wanted a coffee and I said I would."

"Upon getting to the bottom of the cup and taking the last few gulps, I found there was a used bandaid stuck to the bottom… I never ate or drank there again."

- MrRailton

In Need of Child Protective Services

"I was babysitting a kid in a pretty dirty house. I was told to wake him up, supervise bathing and changing clothes, and feed him. I was welcome to whatever was in the fridge. Okay. The house and his clothes were filthy."

"Then, when I opened the cabinets, floods of roaches poured out. There were roaches in every opened box and container."

"I took him back to my house and returned him later that day. I hope the boy ended up in a better situation. I found out CPS (Child Protective Services) got involved shortly after."

- Alltheprettydresses

Traumatized by Raisins

"I was gonna complain about raisins in the potato salad but the other comments on here are scary. Oh my god."

- tcumber

"When I was a young kid, I stayed over at a friend's place, and his mom made veal or something with godd**n raisins INSIDE the meat somehow. It was so nasty, I never forgot it."

- User2716057

You WISH That Was Vinegar

"My MIL fished around in the green bin (compost bin) with her bare hands, didn't wash them, WIPED her GARBAGE JUICE HANDS on the tea towel, and then WENT BACK TO PREPPING THE SALAD."

"She also got horrifically offended if I didn't want to eat at her house."

- 116843189

Poor Home Hygiene

"My first boyfriend’s parents invited me for Thanksgiving. I came over a few days before Christmas and all the same dirty dishes from Thanksgiving were still in the kitchen. I passed on coming over for Christmas dinner."

- MinimalistHomestead

Every Surface Covered

"I went to a friend's house after school, he was going to teach a group of us to play D&D (Dungeons and Dragons)."

"We got there and his house was disgusting. I'm not the neatest person but the carpet hadn't been vacuumed in forever, clothes were all over the place, and dirty dishes were stacked everywhere."

"I tried to be polite even though the place reeked, but at some point, he was like, 'Who wants snacks!'"

"He picked up a bowl that was crusted with stuff, splashed in some water, wiped it with a towel that clearly hadn't been washed that decade, and poured chips into it. Then he asked if we wanted to stay for dinner. We did not."

- KnittinAndB***hin

O Holy Expiration Dates

"When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was always celebrated at Grandma's. I always got sick afterward. Like, Merry Christmas, you're going to puke now."

"It wasn't until I was all grown up and helping her out in the last weeks of her life that I learned why. She did not believe in expiration dates on anything!"

- SundayMorningTrisha

An Immune System to Remember

"My grandma made me a food phobic from a young age. Whether it was ramen with moths floating on top, or chunky milk in my cereal, it just scarred me for life."

"Dinner at her house was always a fight. Not eating her food was not an option. I'm not sure why that was the hill she would always choose to die on, because she was an amazing grandma other than this."

"Expiration dates aren't a thing. If the cheese was moldy, you cut it off... I think living through the great depression and raising kids in poverty changed her mindset on food."

"I mean obviously, she's doing something right because she's 91. She must have the immunity of a superhero."

- tha_stormin_mormon

Neighborly Love

"I used to help an old neighbor out with grocery shopping, I’d drop the bags at her door and she’d give me a check for the amount of groceries. She’d give me homemade cookies once in a while, chocolate chips."

"I didn’t ever eat them because one time I caught sight of her apartment. It was a large studio, a small kitchen, and tv, and a bed/couch. And there were about 20 cans of cat food, half-eaten, and one million flies and small maggots in different stages of growth, dishes with crusty food stuck to them, and a wall of empty beer cans."

"After I saw that, and got a whiff of her apartment, I started helping her with taking garbage out and putting groceries away, cleaning out her fridge, and making sure her cat was healthy."

"A couple of months later, she got the virus, ended up at a rehab facility, and passed within two weeks."

"Some people need help and a little company…"

- SnooPeripherals6557

No Longer Rice

"A girl I was interested in at the time had cats. I came to her house one day to pick her up for a date and he had a large sack of rice open in her pantry with the pantry door open."

"One of the cats hopped out of the sack of rice and she just casually laughed at it like, 'Oh, they are always getting into things.'"

"I came over the following weekend that SAME sack of rice was in the pantry and I could hear one of them tussling around in it again, we stopped dating sometime after that but anytime she offered to cook for me I immediately pivoted to taking her out to eat instead."

- justad**nfool

"Those cats probably used it as litter."

- Anonymanx

"Yeah, that was my fear."

- justad**nfool

Could Have Warned Her

"My mom told me one about going over to her aunt Virginia's house. She, her parents, and her siblings were sat around the kitchen while her aunt cooked, and my mom could not figure out why no one else was having ANY of this incredibly delicious bread that was on the table."

"She was on her third slice when her aunt stepped out to do something else, and my mom was told by her brother to go look in the flour bin."

"It was absolutely filled with miller moth larvae. Aunt Virginia had been losing her eyesight for years."

- smoothiefruit

"It's f**ked of her parents not to warn her not to eat the bread... like, what the f**k, you KNOW the bread isn't safe, so you're not eating it, but you're fine with letting your daughter have three slices?"

- whydontthissitework

Bad to the Point of Malnutrition

"I graduated high school at 6' 10" tall, but weighing only 120 pounds."

"That's not skinny, that's emaciated."

"The food prepared by my bio-mom was so bad that it wasn't providing me with the nutrients or calories I needed to survive. I went off to college where I had to cook for myself (I wasn't allowed to cook at home because my father insisted that "cooking was women's work")."

"Not only did I discover that food didn't have to be burnt to a crisp, flavorless, or boiled until everything was grey. I also discovered that food can be made to taste good, and using things like salt, or pepper, spices, or various condiments can make it taste amazing."

"The "freshman 15" likely saved my life."

"The thing is, I don't think that my biomom was even aware that her food was that disgusting. Whenever we went out for dinner (which was more often than what my father wanted, but he was the one who insisted on going), she did nothing but complain about how the food was undercooked, 'practically raw,' or 'too spicy,' to eat."

"When she went to other people's houses (including her own extended family) she would criticize them for 'doing it wrong' when she watched them cook anything. She would often end up refusing to eat their food because she 'watched them ruin it,' when they cooked it. We never had guests over to eat her cooking. Ever."

- Galaxy_Ranger_Bob

Clean Hands

"We have a chili contest every year at work around Thanksgiving and I've stopped participating in voting for it because I want to know whose I'm eating before taking any. I work with some great people, but I wouldn't eat at or anything from their house. Strangely enough, the guy I absolutely despise I'll gladly eat his chili because he is clean and well kept and I know his house is."

"I also work with a bunch of people who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom in any capacity and we've secretly kept a list so to avoid any potlucks where they take food or to get food before they do."

- SafewordisJohnCandy

We're left with chills after reading these stories.

Where some people might make some mistakes in the kitchen out of just not knowing, like not properly washing rice before cooking it, most of these are just careless mistakes that have disgusting, if not dangerous, results.

Collection of VHS tapes
Bruno Guerrero/Unsplash

What makes us all unique is our passions and the things we love, whether it's singing in the shower, reading books, or listening to specific music artists.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are judged for our various tastes and interests thanks to social media, and it makes us consciously selective about sharing the things we love on the internet.

Curious to hear about people's personal desires under anonymity, Redditor sweet_chick283 asked:

"What do you secretly love that you would never admit to in public?"

These aren't really chores for the following Redditors.

Good Clean Fun

"Mopping, im a janitor and generally hate my work... but damn mopping is so good."

– MrDDog06

"When you have a great rhythm going it is something special. I get the same feeling while I vacuum, but won’t let my wife know I enjoy it."

– Bogus_34

Act Of Unwrinkling

"Ironing clothes. A dozen of them. Can’t explain how it relaxes me. I told one person and they looked at me like I’m crazy."

– eerie_white_glow

"My mum misses the days when dad would be out on a Friday night, my brother out with friends and me upstairs quietly playing PS1. She would pour herself a Bacardi & Coke and do the ironing while watching her TV shows."

"I'm sure she doesn't really miss it now that we've moved out and they've retired but it was her wind-down after a busy working week so I can see how people can find it relaxing."

– xdq

Our solo actions can spark joy.

Big Brother Is Watching

"pretending to be on the Truman show and whenever im in my house i act all inconspicuous so they dont know that i know that they’re watching me."

– Bec_121

"C’mon man, you’re not supposed to let him know. You signed a contract when signing up for live views. I’m reporting you."

– doeswaspsmakehoney

The Multi-Tasker

"Playing video games naked at home while eating cheese."

– thickening_agent

Releasing The Kraken

"I love the feeling when you've eaten good fibre and let out a solid long train log in the toilet. That feeling is heavenly."

– therapoootic

"Even better when it’s a clean wipe and not a poo crayon."

– TheWarmestHugz

Ultimate Comfort

"My (male 41) weekend routine is coming home from work, make hot chocolate, start a fire, dress in a ugly pink nightgown made for old ladies and watch forensic files."

– crazyloomis

Some people are obsessed with collecting things.

So Kawai

"Sanrio stationery stores. All those different multicolor pens, a thousand kinds of erasers, spiral bound notebooks galore... my kids sadly have absolutely no appreciation for this wonderland..."

– HavingNotAttained

It's A Staple

"Office supplies have a weird, special place in my heart ever since I was a kid. They don't even have to be 'cute' necessarily."

"Japan's legendary stationery stores is unironically a reason I want to go."

– _CozyLavender_

Not Caring Anymore

"The older I get the shorter that list gets. Not because I love less things, but because I don't care about hiding it."

– Bi-Beast

"YES!! I'm 53 now. I'm working my first job in public since 2006. Today is Halloween and we're allowed to dress up so I am sitting here waiting to go to work dressed as a VERY bad Wednesday Addams. My bf said I'd 'look stupid' because no one else will probably dress up and I'm like, 'WHO CARES!' My makeup looks horrible and not like I practiced, but I DO NOT CARE! I'm having fun with it anyhow and I don't care if my coworkers dress up or not. I'm bein' ME! :)"

– deanie1970

Honorable mentions start here.

The Savior

"Picking up worms from the street and sidewalks when it rains and moving them into the dirt so they don’t burn in the sun, every time it rains I do this."

– sky_kitten89

Hero Of The Moment

"Yoooo I scoot SO many snails and worms. I work as a tech/mechanic at an automotive shop, I had a peoject car towed to my house the other day and it was covered in snails. I saw them when the tow guy/coworker was unloading and I was like, 'oh! It comes with free snails!' and began moving them. He laughed then realized and said, '... Oh, you're serious. Uh... Okay.'"

"I don't care who knows it. These little things barely can look out for themselves, why shouldn't we if we can take a moment to help? I don't care what happens next, it probably doesn't matter overall but I can help this moment."

– chris14020

Why should some of the hidden desires mentioned above have to be secret?

Redditors opening up about some of these would make them a hit at parties–no shaming.

As a matter of fact, I'll totally be down for a Forensic Files viewing party where we all make hot chocolate, light the fireplace, and cozy up together in our respective pink ugly nightgowns for old ladies.

historical reenactors
Sigmund on Unsplash

We've probably all heard some variation of the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Real life isn't just strange, it can also be downright ridiculous.

History is riddled with moments of absurdity.

So ridiculous that people have a hard time believing real life is, well, really real.

Keep reading...Show less