Getting rejected sucks, especially when it's done rudely. These stories are mostly from teenage years, and as you won't be surprised to learn, kids are mean.
throwaway32241 asked: What is the worst/rudest way you've been rejected?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.

This is cartoonishly mean.
This happened in sixth grade. I was bullied badly throughout elementary school. For reasons I still don't understand, I was made a social outcast by the mean girls. I was walking home from school with one of the cool boys in class, who was always nice to me one on one, but eagerly joined in the bullying otherwise. He told me that one of the girls in class was having a party after school and that I should come. I was so excited to be invited to a party with the cool kids. I went home, told my mom, and rode my bike to the girl's house. I rang the doorbell, and the whole group answered. One of them said "oh my god she actually came", and they all laughed. Then the girl whose house it was said "you can go now", and shut the door in my face. I was too ashamed to go back home and tell my mom what happened, so I rode my bike around aimlessly crying for a couple hours before going home. I am 35 years old now and that memory still stings. I am so grateful that I had a loving home life, and social media wasn't around yet. I don't know if I would have made it through otherwise. Don't be bullies kids.
Way too aware.
Went out for lunch with a dude I had a crush on. Told him I liked him. He said, "Are you aware of the concept of the friendzone?"
My friends and I have laughed about this for years.
Oh man I know that must have stung but that's f*cking hilarious.
Yup. One of those things at the time that was like "ouch" but also definitely fit the character of the guy. Now it's a hilarious anecdote!
The one line no woman wants to hear.
It's not exactly a rejection, but it was me being completely oblivious and optimistic because a cute boy was nice to me. I met a guy at a club meeting in college who I thought was pretty cute. He invited me to hang out a couple times to do homework or grab breakfast together in the dining hall and seemed into me-compliments and lots of eye contact and listened to me when I talked, etc. but never made a physical move. But we were both 18-year-old virgins meeting in public spaces so it wasn't unreasonable to assume he was just shy, because I certainly was.
After a while, he invited me to go see a movie, so I figured that this was like, a date. I meet up with him at the movie theater and it turned out he was going with a group of people, and it wasn't just the two of us. That should have been a signal, but nope. I spend the first half of the movie trying to snuggle up to him, hold his arm or hand, be cute, etc. I finally started to realize that he was super not into it when I rested my hand on his knee and he picked it up and returned it to my lap. We got out of the theater, and he turned to me in front of everyone and said "You know I'm gay, right?" If the ground could have opened up and swallowed me whole at that moment I would have welcomed it. I felt awful that I'd spent an hour or so trying to snuggle with someone who was uncomfortable and too polite to tell me to back off and still cringe to think about it now.
Did you stay friends after?
Yeah, of course. It's not his fault I misread his signals, and I can see why he would want to come out to me with his friends around for support in case I turned out to be rabidly homophobic. It was embarrassing but rejection is a normal part of dating.
That's a slam dunk of rejection. Kids are the worst.
In fourth grade my bf broke up with me by slamming a basketball in my face on the crowded playground.
Should have drop kicked him.
Ouch.
I was having a party for my 13th birthday. I sent my crush an invite, a week after giving them out I found a bit of torn paper on the school field, I recognised the colour/pattern, then looked up and there was the rest of it, torn into tiny pieces. The kind of tearing that takes time and effort to get it into as many pieces. 10/10 would not be a teenage girl again.
When I was 16 I was in love with this guy I was friends with. He was into me too and we we're relatively inseparable for a few months. I noticed he started seeming like he was into one of my friends.
The one day we we're sitting in class together and he was acting weird. We had recently taken a class trip to Canada and one of our friends took a picture of us on the bus. She came up to us and excitedly gave us the picture she took of us hugging. He grabbed it out of her hand and ripped it into a million pieces. I was absolutely horrified and had to run to the bathroom so I didn't start crying in front of everyone.
Oh my god this is so heartbreaking to read.
No one deserves this.
When I was about 14, a new kid came to our school and I made quick friends with him. We played on Xbox live a lot together. I developed a quick crush.
He texted me to get on Live because he needed to tell me something.
"Hey, I wanted to tell you that I really like you".
I am excited but pretty sure it was a joke.
"Are you messing with me?"
"I really like you this is not a joke".
I believed him.
"Krissy, will you go out with me?"
I said "Yes".
"APRIL FOOLS! I would never go out with you". Then he laughed for a good few minutes.
He moved away before Senior year and I got to actually enjoy my senior year without getting bullied.
Edit: Thank you everyone for being so nice and reassuring me that this person was horrible and I never deserved what he did to me.
F*ck this kid.
I can't think of many as an adult if I'm honest, but I always remember an incident when I was around 11.
I was picked to go on this summer camp type trip for a week with a bunch of kids in the year above me (12/13 year olds) because of good behaviour. I was the only 11 year old. There was a boy I'd had a crush on for a while and on the first day he asked me to be his girlfriend. Obviously we were all children so that doesn't even mean anything! But he kept it going for the whole week, sending me notes, hugging me in the hall before we were sent to separate dorms etc.
On our last night I got a note asking me to meet him in the hall, when I went out the entire group was there (35-40 kids) all crying with laughter. He announced to everyone it had been an entire joke that the whole group had all been in on and he'd never be interested in an ugly teacher's pet.
As an adult, I'm obviously not remotely upset about the "romantic" rejection because I was 11 ha, but the social rejection and the public humiliation aspect of it was tough.
Anyway I'm 24 now and he slid into my DMs after high school and I told him to go f*ck himself, which felt good.
Anyway I'm 24 now and he slid into my DMs after high school and I told him to go fuck himself, which felt good.
I can't imagine what's going through his head that made this sound like a great idea.
Boners make thinky thoughts quiet.
Pity dates are obvious.
I had a similar thing! It was some guy in 7th grade asked me out, and I said "no"
For the next few days his friends kept coming up to me and saying how upset he was so finally I said I would date him.
Then a few days later I told him I would date him, he looks around and goes "hey it worked" and they all laughed at me because I guess it was a big joke.
Looking back at it (like even a few months later) I realized that he did that to make himself feel better. It's like when a guy flirts with you, you reject him, then he tells his friends you're ugly. Like obvi you didn't think that when you initially flirted with me.
Yeah what a dumb "hey it worked". He was basically saying "making someone go on a pity date with me worked!"
I think your assessment of that kid was probably spot on.
Somtimes, rejection haunts you forever.
Middle school. My best friend down the street and I tri d talking to the cute new neighbor kid.
"Naw, y'all's foreheads too big"
Lifelong forehead insecurity ensued.
Yep, wearing my fringe out today, helps turn this five head into a four.
:'( -Someone with a big forehead.
What a strange story.
When I was about 17, I went to the park on a "double date" with a good friend of mine and two guys we just met. We'd been there for about 10 minutes when dude #1 suddenly shouts, "I'll bet you $10 I can run through those trees and back in 60 seconds!" And he just takes off into the forest. After a few minutes, dude #2 decides his friend "must've gotten lost", runs to his car, and drives away. We never saw or heard from either dude again. It was a very strange experience because these guys pursued us and we're still not sure what made them run for the hills after spending just 10 minutes alone with us.
Just wanted to comment and say this is the strangest one. It's so weird it's almost funny how weird it is.
Many of us sometimes fantasize about what we would do to our worst enemies, especially in the moments when they're actively making our lives worse.
While most of us would never actually do any of the things that we contemplate instead of screaming at that super annoying person at the office, we do get pretty creative with the ideas.
Redditor take_me_there_ asked:
"What WOULD you wish on your worst enemy?"
This One Would Hurt
"A conscience. Let her realize the horrific things she’s done."
- Jenny010137
"Seriously. Introspection, self awareness, and empathy are traits that would improve a lot of sh*tty people."
- el_muerte17
"Oh I wish I had thought of this one. If my enemy had a conscience, wow life would be much different."
- Shelbysouth43
No Pearly Whites For You
"I’d like all their teeth to turn really yellow and stay yellow no matter what they do."
- toothfixingfiend
"What did I ever do to you?"
- Spideredd
"I don't even know you! Give me back my enamel!"
- AngryMustache9
Everything You Own Is Orange Now
"Permanent Cheeto fingers. Just orange cheese dust getting on everything."
- cocoapuff1721
"This has to be one of the most evil things I ever heard, yet absolutely hilarious."
-Merk0411
"The Midas Touch: Snack Edition"
- MaryVenetia
Ouch, But Forever
"Stubbing and breaking their toe and right as it’s about to be done healing it happens again over and over for the rest of their pitiful time on this hell we call earth."
- No-Bee-2971
"Sisyphoot"
- Alpha_6
"More of a Toemetheus imo"
- PykeTheDrowned
Self Reflection
"For them to realize how big of an a-hole they are."
- mayhemanaged
"Same for me. The trouble is mine probably knows what a tremendous a-hole he is, and just doesn't care (it's what defines him, is his outlook more than likely), so, give mine a conscience as well, he undeniably lacks one."
- RhoadsOfRock
"a crushing moment of self realization is something that can destroy you mentally. I wish that on them."
- chancetodream
Bury Them Under A Mountain Of Minor Inconveniences
"Always being hungry two hours after eating no matter how large the meal. Slow internet. Traffic jams no matter the location. Self doubt. Allergies. Favorite shows spoiled."
"Nothing major enough to be life altering but constant, low grade inconveniences that wear on your soul every day."
- I_Love_Small_Br**sts
"Every bite of food they eat/drink they drink being slightly the wrong temperature."
"Coffee? Warm but not hot. Cola? Cool, but not cold. Muffin? Ever so slightly frozen."
"Not enough to ruin their life, but just enough to not quite have full enjoyment of anything.."
- HappiHappiHappi
They'll Never Be Able To Use Their Computer Again
"Quick scan with McAfee on their computer."
- halflife_3
"You f**king monster."
- Orion_2kTC
"The constant pop-ups from McAfee is too far."
- _Land_Rover_Series_3
That's A New Level Of Evil
"Bed bugs."
- thrawn1825
"Currently dealing with bed bugs, and I can absolutely confirm this is the kind of thing I would wish upon my worst enemy. It is miserable and painful, and I've tried everything to get rid of them at this point."
"I would easily wish this upon my worst enemy, x10."
- ArbitrarilyStagnant
"Oh hell no, you went there... Hopefully they aren't living in an apartment complex or you've cursed everyone in the building."
- expect_less
Well of course I know him. He’s me.
"$100,000. I sure could use it."
- Sparklesperson
"'It’s no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy'"
- FishyVonFishenHymer
"Lol I thought this was that deep sh*t like 'pray for those you resent to have all the things you want in life….' Then I realized."
- No-Chipmunk9527
Forever Constipated
"That they can never have a satisfying poop. They always feel like they have to go to the bathroom and when they do nothing comes."
- [User Deleted]
"Wow. That's evil. Always feeling the need to pee would be good (as in horrific) too."
- ipakookapi
We definitely don't recommend implementing any of these plans (not that most would actually be possible), but here's some new ideas for the next time you're stuck in a meeting with your most annoying coworker and need a little fantastical escape.
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I grew up poor, and I remember the little things that made me smile when we just happened to have enough that week.
The little things that a truly rich person would not think twice about.
Ah, the luxury of it.
What spells luxury for you?
Redditor ConAir161057 wanted to compare notes about the things in life that feel like items only money can buy. They asked:
"For people who grew up with little money, what always felt like a luxury?"
New clothes. I had so many hand me downs and thrift store clothes... new seemed like a dream.
Anxiety
"After growing up in a home where every unexpected problem was a financial emergency, my idea of wealthy became 'I just want enough money that if something breaks I don't get anxiety about how to deal with it.'"
Obiwan_ca_bl**me
Literature
"Getting to buy something from the scholastic book fair."
Rich*itch3232
"My school, at the end of it a bunch of books were 'donated' and then spread out on a table in the library. We all got to go pick one book. So even if kids didn’t get to purchase a book, in the end they had a chance to still get a book. It’s actually how I got my first Harry Potter book. Was a cool idea for any school staff or parents active in their kids’ schools."
glass_pillow
Christmas
"Getting new clothes at Christmas from relatives. I don't know if that is exactly a luxury or the kind of answer you are looking for, but we never had a lot of money when I was in middle school. I went an entire year wearing the same pants everyday. The funny thing was my parents didn't even buy them for me."
"I got them for Christmas from my Grandparents. All the kids use to give me so much sh*t for wearing the same pants everyday. I always told them that I had 5 of the same pair which made me feel good inside and kind of made them ease off even though I know they didn't believe me."
"I remember I fell on the school bus one day and the jagged floor cut a hole right in the knee cap and the panic that went over me was just insane. It was one of the worst feelings of my whole life because I knew that I didn't have any other pants to wear and that now all of the kids in my school were going to know that I only had 1 pair. Needless to say I could not wait for the last month of school to end."
themagicman_1231
I'm Away
"Summer camp, or basically any school trips that had to be paid for. At my school the kids who couldn't afford to go on trips that happened during school hours still had to come to the school, we just sat in a room and did extra work like it was detention."
Helpful_Yams
"I was lucky. If you taught at the day camp your kid could go for free. That was just day camp though not sleepaway camp. My mom found a camp teacher who had no kids of his own and he signed me up as his kid so I could get free day camp. Did that all through elementary school."
randtcouple
Big Deals
"Going out for pizza was a big deal. Those free mini pizzas for reading books were huge."
Shroom4Yoshi
Food is always an issue when you're broke.
Damage
"Being able to turn on the heat in the cold and pay a professional to fix damaged appliances, plumbing, and other issues."
Liggettef
Spoiled
"When my grandma would come pick me up and spoil me. My parents didn't have much money and were addicts so when my grandma would come get me I would come back with new clothes, video games, toys, etc. I used to think my grandma was rich but she actually just had a stable income."
nawlepen
"I was in this position when I was younger. I always thought my grandma had SO much money… but all she did was go to work everyday. Always made sure I had clothes and all my school supplies. I miss her pretty bad."
Keywork29
Water
"I am from a small island in the Pacific. While I mostly still take cold showers, I have always felt that a hot shower is the finest luxury one can experience. I had my first hot shower when I was 22 years old and I can never forget it."
FSMPIO
"This is the kind of luxury I think people take for granted, I always avoided showers in the winter as a kid since most of the time they where cold showers and the temperature here was around 12c° during those times."
PowerfullDio
Showerware
"Towels. Honestly, I was almost 10 When I realized people didn’t just put back on their dirty clothes after a shower because my family was so large (12 kids total including myself) and extremely poor. I thought towels were just for hotels or were maybe a prop on television. I went to a friends house and she asked for my help folding her towels. I remember laughing and thinking she must be rich."
"Long story short, I wasn’t sure which way to fold the towels, and begged my mom to buy them after I revealed that my friend, Simone, had them. She bought a box of used ones from a local auction and I walked around with them on my head feeling like a frigging empress after that, even though—-let’s be clear… these were second hand towels!"
shakezula1025
Or BK...
"Grew up poor and when I was a kid I used to think you were rich if you had a dishwasher and a millionaire if you had one of those refrigerators that have a button for ice. McDonalds was also a luxury, a couple times a year on our birthdays."
chinderellab*tch
Everyone should have access to all of these things. Why is life unfair?
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And there are just as many grievances for which we are not at all sorry.
Curious to hear about people's track record of their questionable behavior, Redditor NanoPKx asked:
"What is something bad you have done with no regrets?"
Is it petty theft or flat out stealing? You decide.
The Parting Gift
"'Forgetting' to bring back a company ipad after they forgot about me having it. Actually they never asked for it back so I still have it and use it."
– Koetjeka
Furry Companion
"I stole a barn kitten while delivering packages for FedEx. He kept climbing my legs and getting into the van, sitting under the wheel when I tried to back out (it was a steep driveway, no way to swing the van around). I called the number on the package, looked the name up on facebook, called the local non-emergency to get contact info, all failed."
"So I took him. Now, if you're not from a rural environment, you might not understand that barn cats like that are 'no-man's-cats.' For all the owners know, he got sick or got got by a coyote. And he would have died, because when we got him to the vet he had a nasty upper resp infection and some other nasties."
"Now, one deformed nasal passage and the cutest snore later, we have a bonkers little orange cat with the heaviest penchant for snuggling I've ever seen (his name is Monty btw)."
"Edit: I forgot to pay my Cat Tax: https://imgur.com/a/HIXS4us"
"Edit Part 2: Monty loves the attention. Thank you for loving him as much as we do :3"
"MmmmMMMMRrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW" -Montgomerey Valentine, 2022
– SonOfSkinDealer
The Dirty Treat
"A housemate of mine kept eating mine and my girlfriends food and even though I asked him to stop the only thing he would ever say is 'I thought it was mine' then keep eating it."
"Well I bought my girlfriend some ice cream she really enjoys and she put the half she didn’t finish back in the freezer. Well when she want to get the rest it was gone and it made me madder than I think it probably should have."
"The very next time I saw him and somehow keeping a straight apologetic face I told him how he accidentally ate our sex ice cream and that bits of it had been on our parts etc. I told him I felt guilty not to tell him and that I had to apologise for him to eat such a thing."
"I will never forget the face he made when I told him. A face of pure self disgust and shock to which all he had to say was 'I wish you never told me that' and proceeded to move out around a month later."
"Although he didn’t actually eat sex ice cream, like why the f'k would you put it back after use anyway? Sometimes I wonder if I went to far but in that moment I just did not care at all. He still doesn’t know it isn’t true and I’ll probably never see him again."
"F'k you Vitas buy your own food."
– SpicyDolphin74
Vengeance is sweet.
Payback Time
"A drunk driver hit my parked car, left a huge dent in the front driver’s side door, and then drove away. I happened to be looking out the window at the time and saw the whole thing, including his plate number. Cops got there not long after and took my statement. After a couple days and a couple phone calls, I found out nothing was going to come of it because he was the son of the sheriff the next county over."
"Fast forward a couple months, I see his car parked behind a local bar within walking distance of my apartment. I got out my hunting knife and sliced all four of his tires, and made a couple trips around it destroying the paint job. Yellow Pontiac Sunfire, and I still remember the goddamn plate number even after almost 20 years."
– IgnoreMe304
For The People
"I was a GM for a retailer that was going out of business. During the liquidation I let my employees that worked until the end store product they wanted to buy in a closet I claimed I didn't have a key to. Oh the final days I sold them all the items they requested for 95% off. 70" tvs, ipads, gaming laptops whatever they requested."
– Midnights606
Surreptitious Swap
"Years ago I worked for a wealthy dude who was married to someone semi-famous. He would waltz in every morning and talk about the fantastic dinner he had the night before, how he hung out with some other famous person or whatever else."
"He paid me peanuts. I had a hard time making ends meet."
"I was the office assistant and IT guy. So it comes time to get a new computer for one of the designers. I spec something out, and show it to him. It was a ripper of a machine for the time (early 2000s). But it wasn’t expensive enough for bossman."
"So I added a really high end graphics card. Boss was happy then. The card added nothing for the designer: they only did illustrator and photoshop."
"So I came in that weekend and swapped the graphics card for my aging one from home."
"No one ever knew. Or cared. And I got a new graphics card."
– Dudeinairport
When times are tough, people had to do what it took to survive.
T.P. Crisis
"In college I was so poor I would steal toilet paper from the supply closet in our major building."
– Business_Loquat5658
Hungry College Buddy
"I stood watch for a college friend who was going hungry because he’d been disowned and his roommates had made living with him intolerable after he came out."
"I was loosely affiliated with an off campus program with local churches that gave free student dinners on Thursdays. We would go to church to eat, then bring dishes into the kitchen."
"Anyway, he would go in there and steal stuff like peanut butter, literal bread (not an allegory), granola bars etc. while I watched out for the pastor."
"Eventually we both got caught, the pastor for the college students got a bit mad because he was responsible for us while we were there to eat. And I think it was offensive on some level to steal from church. But then he saw what my friend was taking, and asked him if he had enough to eat. My friend shamefacedly said no, not usually."
“'Okay, fine. Put the food back, and come with me.' Took my friend grocery shopping instead, got him connected with the food pantry and community garden at church instead."
– SchnarchendeSchwein
Based on these examples, people didn't twice about their actions in the heat of the moment.
Within reason, we all gotta somehow get by.
But do you think their actions deserve punishment?
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When a person sees someone they care about going through a struggle or crisis, their instinct is to uplift them with positive advice.
But sometimes, the wisdom imparted by friends isn't always helpful or relevant to the situation.
Curious to hear from strangers online who could do without specific knowledge, Redditor Saibotnl1 asked:
"What life advice can just f'k off?"

These Redditors have a problem with how certain people have on outlook on life.
Time To Rest
"Sleep when you’re dead."
"Cool, but you’re going to be dead a lot sooner."
– Tag2graff
Irrelevant Sadness
"People have it so much worse than you so don’t be sad!"
– notrachelmar
"To that I like to say, 'people have it so much better than you so don't be happy!'"
– ___jupiter____
Your Life Path
"Almost anything relating to what age you must be in order to buy a house, have children, marry, have a profession, or do anything else. Seriously, everyone's life is different from everyone else's. Make your life the way you want it to be. If you so desire. Up to you."
– Frn071
On The Contrary
“Cheaters never prosper”
"Yes, they f'king do."
– waqasnaseem07
People can get out of any situation they find displeasing.
But others feel people should just "stick it out."
Ignoring Bullies
"Just ignore bullys or get someone else to handle it for you. I have never seen this work, only makes it worse. The only effective way I've seen to deal with them is by not making yourself an easy target and make them scared to f'k with you again. If going psycho on their a** is the only thing they'll respond to that's their fault. Also want to add in schools they will punish you for self defense but that punishment is only sitting around a few hours in detention or sitting around at home with a suspension. The punishment is temporary boredom, it's absolutely nothing compared to being bullied and when it's over the important message will still stand that you will not tolerate being a victim."
– User Delted
Remain to be Miserable
"Stick it out"
"Whether that's sh**ty jobs, shi**y relationships, shi**y living situations..."
"By all means don't just give up on things when you face challenges, but if something feels wrong or is wrecking your peace then take some control and change it if you can!"
– petitezoey
"Easy for you to say," might be an auto-response to these suggestions for many people.
Invitation For Recklesslessness
"Live like everyday was your last"
Yall know what people do when they learn they have a single day left to live?"
– LimeGrass619
A Possible Consequence
"I did that as a teenager and ended up homeless and addicted to heroin. Didn’t pan out for me too well."
"19 years sober though today."
– Open-Section-7263
A Practical Approach
"If I knew with certainty that I had one day left, I'd double-check all my financials, my will, and my insurance policies, make sure my wife had all of my passwords and knew where all the money was, spend the rest of the day with her and the kids, then call the medical examiner and ask to lie down on the gurney so that when I die they won't strain their back moving my remains out of my house."
– Asteriad
Nose Stuck In A Book
"Work while they sleep. Study while they party"
"That's not a recipe for success, that's a recipe for a lot of white hairs, burnout syndrome and a stroke before your 40s..."
– Khomuna
Doesn't Apply To Everyone
"Do what you love and money will follow"
"I love walking my dogs and grilling food for my friends but That sh*t doesn't pay the bills as well as my engineering degree!"
– Elons_android
While people's intentions are good, they're better off keeping their two cents in their own pockets.
Not everyone likes to hear platitudes.
Sometimes, people just want to know they're not alone with their problems over listening to unlikely solutions that are nothing more than superficial pick-me-ups.
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