Not all friends are forever.
It's a fact of life, sorry to say.
But don't despair: We're not saying that you shouldn't trust anyone. Just know that some people aren't going to be around as long as you might want, and that's okay.
What's not okay is when your so-called "best friend" screws you over, as we were reminded of when Redditor NoctisCaelus asked the online community:
"People who have had 'friends' stab you in the back, what is the story?"
"Made plans to go see a movie..."
"Made plans to go see a movie with my friends for my 16th birthday and planned it weeks in advance. Everybody bailed the day before/of but I decided to still go see the movie."
"Ran into my whole group of friends leaving the movie theater while buying popcorn."
Heartbreaking. But that tells you a lot about who they are. You're better off.
"It really taught me..."
"Asked two of my friends if they wanted to live together in college. Then one of them asked another person in our friend group if he wanted to join in as well. Then they asked another...and another. And then once there were too many people for one apartment, they dropped me out of it."
"No longer "friends" with any of them. Was kinda a wake up call though because I definitely gave way too much of myself to those people not knowing that I was the most expendable one. It really taught me not to put others on a pedestal and respect myself more and has since led to me developing far more healthy relationships that bring me a lot of happiness."
"I was 13."
"Best friend stopped talking to me after my dad died. Took the whole friend group with him. Apparently I was "too emotional"
"I was 13. Having my entire friend group walk away from me when I was in such a bad place stuck with me forever."
Hopefully you're in a much better place now. That's heartbreaking.
"One day a popular kid..."
"I had one friend. I was bullied by everyone at elementary school. Because my friend would be bullied too when they hung out with me at school, we only played outside of school."
"One day a popular kid asked to play with me during recess. I was ecstatic! Until after a while they said "You're not as bad as 'friend' said you are". And that's how I learned WHY I was bullied."
And knowing's half the battle. Sorry for your pain.
"Then she decided..."
"My mother told me she was sick of being with dad. She told me a bunch of things he'd done which made her afraid of him. She asked me to tell a few of her close friends about how she was being treated, because she wanted them to understand why she was leaving."
"Then she decided to stay with him. So she told her friends that she had no idea what was wrong with me, but they should pray for me because it looked like I was going through something."
"My own mother stabbed me in the back."
Hopefully you cut her off after that.
"The next day..."
"I had a best friend that I knew for 16 years. She got pregnant and her parents tried to kick her out. Her parents wanted her to get an abortion but she refused. One of our HS friends told me someone should push her down a flight of stairs so she can miscarry. I told her that's a very bad idea and defended my best friend. The next day, the principal came by my class to ask me if I could attend a meeting about something important."
"If I didn't attend, I was going to be expelled. When I arrived to the meeting, our shared friend claimed I was going to shove my best friend down flights of stairs so she can miscarry. My best friend believed her. We stopped talking after that."
"Many of my friends..."
"Years ago when I did a health sciences undergraduate degree, most of the cohort was determined to get into medical school. Our medical school program mainly accepted students from only our competitive undergraduate course, due to subject prerequisites. We all knew each other and were friendly, hanging out together and forming study groups."
"Many of my friends were great - we shared tips, resources, practiced exams and interviews together. But there were a handful who really wanted to get into medical school, and since the program ranks applicants mainly based on undergraduate results, the better your friends perform, the lower your ranking is for selection."
"So near application time, some of us would head off to the university library to borrow out textbooks to find chapters or page numbers that the lecturer mentioned would be on the exam."
"And they would be ripped out. You'd go and find another library copy of the textbook, and that page would be ripped out too. All of them, totally removed in a hurry."
"I didn't believe that someone from our cohort did it, until interview practice began. Students began obtaining copies of the questions from previous years and lying when others asked if they had it. I saw someone give a terrible, awful interview answer and the other student would give them glowing feedback and inform them they should say that, word-for-word, during the interview. It was awful and a lot of relationships fell apart, or were never the same again."
"Took 6 years..."
"Best friend of 8 years started sleeping with my girlfriend (later wife) a week after I introduced them. Took 6 years after my son was born to find out they would meet up a few times a month. Was a chance he wasn't mine. Luckily he is!"
What terrible people. Hopefully things are good between you and your kid.
"On the day of their birthday..."
"Friend told me they weren't doing anything for their birthday."
"On the day of their birthday, photos appeared on Facebook of them out with the rest of our friends."
"They're not my friends anymore."
These are some harrowing reads!
Do you have similar stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.
@LeeMerrittesq/X
@bob_moss/X
@jelanijones/Bluesky
@Aurkayne/X
@sadcommunistdog; @froglok/Bluesky