My best friend REFUSED to celebrate my biggest achievement, and mocked it instead! | Reddit Stories | EP3082

0:00 Hey, this is Carly. And this is Angie, your favorite OK Storytime hosts. And we've got some great stories coming up. But before that, we have a quick two-minute break from the sponsors that keep the show running. My best friend refused to celebrate my biggest achievement and mocked it instead.

0:17 I'm really going to reserve my judgment until I hear the achievement.

0:20 So me, 23 female, and my bestie, 23 male, have been besties for the past 10 years. Every single hardship, achievement, life experience, like literally everything, we have always shared and supported each other. Earlier this year, I finally got on the property ladder and bought an apartment with my long-term boyfriend of five years, 27 male.

0:43 What's a property ladder?

0:44 Just a ladder.

0:45 Just a ladder.

0:47 It's like chutes and ladders.

0:48 A ladder someone owns?

0:49 Yeah, someone owns.

0:50 The property ladder.

0:50 You get on the property ladder, and then if you get to the next rung, you get a house.

0:54 Oh, okay, I get it.

0:56 I finally was able to escape my high stress and kind of toxic family dynamic, and I have never felt more free. My boyfriend and I take so much pride in our home. We keep it absolutely immaculate and deep clean every three weeks. We fill the place with fresh flowers and plants, and even though we don't have a lot of money, we decorated it slowly and put our souls into it. Because I've moved slightly out of the city...

1:22 When my bestie came over, he stayed for the whole weekend, arriving Saturday and leaving Sunday evening. I was so excited to show him my small town that I've grown to love and to celebrate this massive life achievement. I collected him from the station and made him lunch as soon as he came through the door. I made him up a nice bed in the spare room and planned a whole weekend of fun stuff. By the way, this comes from Remote Pottery 9831, and if you want to spend your own stories, go to the r slash showcase story time subreddit. I'm Sophia.

1:51 I'm Dakota.

1:52 I'm Keon.

1:53 And we're here to give good advice goofily, but we don't have all the answers. We only know what we do. So let us know what you would do in the comments. And Opie says. The first day, he kept making sarcastic comments about the area I live in, saying that it was stuck in the 70s, that the roads were outdated.

2:08 And that there was nothing to do.

2:10 Well, sounds like a nice, quiet town to live in.

2:12 Sorry, OP's supposed to what? Do what? Is OP the mayor? What do you want OP to do about that?

2:19 Sounds sick to me, because that 70s show. That 70s show.

2:23 One of the greatest shows of all time. And I will now say, now that I know your achievement is moving into an apartment, yeah, that friend sucks. And he's probably jealous.

2:32 Yeah, he's like, I don't want to know, please.

2:34 I think it's called Projections.

2:37 I let it slide and just explained that it's a slower way of life than the city. He also kept complaining that he had to pay so much money for a train ticket to come and see me. I let it slide again and kept going. We got home from a day of exploring and I made all three of us dinner. I expected us to all have conversations and socialize while I was cooking, but he went and stayed in the spare room while I cooked. He didn't say anything, he just left. I had to call him out when dinner was ready and it was really awkward. Dinner was a whole spread that I made with love, as cooking is my favorite hobby. He proceeded to sarcastically rate my meal a 6 out of 10. Okay. Then don't eat it.

3:18 I like the Katie Powell's theory. I bet you that friend wanted to be the boyfriend. Yeah. He wanted it to be him and O.P.

3:25 That's what I was thinking. We then put on a movie and ate some ice cream. Conversation was going good until he randomly got up and said, I'm out of your bed. It was weird and it made me and my boyfriend feel a bit awkward. I don't know where you and your boyfriend may be cuddling. And he looks over and he goes, I'm going to bed.

3:43 It should have been me.

3:44 It should have been me.

3:44 How exactly did he say it?

3:47 On the Sunday, I woke up early at around 7.45 a.m. to do my meal prep for the next week and did so very quietly so I didn't wake my guest up. My boyfriend woke up around 9 a.m. and joined me in the living room to have breakfast. My bestie proceeded to come out of the spare room at 11 a.m., even though he knew I had a whole day planned for us and that shops in my town close early on Sundays. I let it slide, got him breakfast, and once I got dressed, we went on with our day.

4:16 I mean, I will say if there was no plan to leave at a specific time and you didn't say, all right, well, we're going to head out to the shops at like so-and-so time tomorrow. There's nothing really to let slide because nothing was said.

4:26 Yeah, you got to set those expectations. Otherwise, you're just annoyed, but he doesn't know.

4:32 OP, are we at the playground? Because you're letting it slide way too much.

4:36 Yeah, she keeps going, I'll let it slide. We need the electric slide. The plans were nice and we were just chatting and exploring. I thought things were great. It got to about 4.30 p.m. and he told me his train was to leave at 5 p.m. and asked if I was taking him to the station. I said, of course, but I was a bit confused, as when he previously spoke about coming down, he said his train home was for 7 p.m. I let it slide. Opie loves to do that. And we said our goodbyes at around 5 p.m.

5:09 Shortly after, I sent him a message saying that it was lovely to see him after so many months and that I hoped I was a good host, lol. I said that my boyfriend and I welcome him any time. and that our door will always be opened. Here's where it gets messed up. He messaged me back at 11 p.m. saying that he had a nice time and that I was a decent host, but I need to clean my toilet because the stains aren't pretty. What? And he very patronizingly explained to me how to clean a toilet and what type of toilet brush I should be using. He lectured me about how I should be happy. I'm hearing it from him and not someone important because it's basically embarrassing that he has had to tell me this. For context,

5:54 the stains he is referring to are some light lime scale on the very inside bottom of the toilet because we live in a very hard water area. There is nothing icky in there.

6:05 Just say it.

6:06 There's nothing gross.

6:07 There's no poo in there.

6:10 He then proceeds to tell me that for future reference, I should have had tea and biscuits ready to serve when he came in. They should have rang a little bell and said, Oh, here ye, here ye.

6:21 O.P.

6:21 's friend is here.

6:22 Should have taken out that cape they have where they keep the crown jewels.

6:26 Yes. Someone knight him. As that's something that he's learned about hosting from his mother. Even though he doesn't drink tea and I literally made him a whole lunch pretty much ten minutes after he walked through my door. I also made sure there were plenty of snacks and drinks the whole time he was here at WTF. I welcome you into my and my boyfriend's home, an R safe space.

6:50 I take you around my area and clearly show pride and love for where I live. I put effort and money into making sure I have food and drinks for you. I make you a nice private and comfortable space in the spare room so you felt at home. And on top of that, I was excited to see you because you're my best friend of 10 years. And I finally have achieved something that I was working for so long.

7:11 And you take, take, take. take, leave, and then crap all over it. I hope you said all this.

7:18 Yeah, I mean, even that is like too much. I would just be like, hey man, I can clearly sense something is off. What's going on with you?

7:27 Does he have his own apartment?

7:29 I don't know. I don't even know where he's going home to. I'm angry and upset and blindsided. I don't want you in my home if your intention is to pick apart things that don't even matter. So am I the a-hole for not wanting him back here and not wanting to hear him out? We do have comments, but like, I don't even think he wants to come back.

7:48 Yeah, I mean, it's crazy to say you were a decent host when you cooked him multiple meals.

7:53 Yes.

7:54 Took him out on the town.

7:55 Yeah, spent all day with him.

7:57 Picked him up, dropped him off at the station. Gave him a room to sleep in that's his own.

8:03 Yeah. I don't know. He's like, I wasted my time to come to this small town and have three star commodities here.

8:09 So it's like stuck in the 70s. It's like, I don't know where they're at, but a lot of people like that era.

8:14 They do. They really do.

8:15 There's a show after it.

8:17 That 70s show. But we also got comments. Comment one. Did he bring you a hostess gift or leave you a thank you gift? Opie says no, he didn't. And update fourth or update three days later. Hey, wanted to come and give some updates, a bit more context to our friendship and answer a couple questions. Friendship background. So first things first, we have been friends for 10 years and met in school. 90% of the time we have a blast. We've had many disagreements in the past, but have always managed to communicate through them. I will say that he has a very specific type of humor and brands himself as brutally honest, which I've now learned is just a term a-holes use to cover their backs. Now that we're older and work full-time, we usually text or

9:03 voice note each other most days, just updating each other on life. But we still see each other every few months for dinner. We've been through a lot as individuals, and our friendship has always stood strong in these times. And we've always tried to uplift and guide one another when needed. We've been integrated into each other's families over the years, even to the point that my mom saw him as a son. To be honest, it has only been in the last couple of months that he's started acting like this. Weird and full of himself. How long have you been dating your boyfriend again?

9:35 That would be a nice piece of information to compare to, right?

9:40 I assumed. It was because he was mad I moved away. But he never opened up when I questioned it. By the way, I only moved an hour train ride away. Letting things slide. A lot of people commented on the fact that I kept letting so many things slide. I did that because I knew he is going through a rough patch as he recently quit his job. and so i wanted to make his time visiting me a really uplifting and positive experience also i didn't want to focus on any of his silly comments because i just missed him 100 i can see that he is jealous don't get me wrong he has his own achievements but a lot of them are things he's done to please family not what he wants. Whereas everything I've done is what I've chosen for myself. So I can definitely see resentment

10:27 and jealousy being behind why he's acted like this. Gifts for me. A few people asked if my friend brought anything with him to gift me as a congratulations on my apartment.

10:38 No.

10:39 It wasn't until you guys mentioned it that I realized, no, he didn't. No flowers, cards, chocolate, nothing. which is wild considering hosting standards are so important to him, apparently. Boyfriend's opinion, my boyfriend and I discussed what happened as we were both feeling really pissed off, and he admitted to me that he has never really seen my bestie as a good friend. He said that although we speak every day, it doesn't mean that person's actually 100% behind you. My boyfriend also said that he would never tell me to end a friendship. but that I should maybe distance myself just for a while to see whether or not my bestie even reaches out to me to check up on me or ask if I'm okay. She's like, I'd never

11:19 tell you to break off a friendship, but I would tell you to break off this friendship.

11:23 If it comes to it.

11:25 If not, then it's time to cut and run. Either way, my boyfriend doesn't want him in our home again. Me and the bestie spoke. I decided to put my foot down and show him the post. I told him I wouldn't let it slide. I told them exactly how I felt and that he disrespected me, my boyfriend, and our home.

11:44 I told them I felt like he bashed my biggest life achievement and just whittled down what was meant to be a nice weekend into something sour. I also told them that I didn't need advice on how to clean a toilet because I'm a homeowner and a grown butt woman. I told them that he was acting crazy for expecting tea and biscuits when I actively picked him up from the station and fed him the whole weekend. His response was that he was sorry that he came across harsh or rude. However, he stands by what he said. And that lime scale on my toilet brings my average score down.

12:15 Why are you ranking?

12:17 Are you at an Airbnb?

12:18 That's what I'm saying. He's like, this is a three star. This is three out of ten stars. You're not going to do.

12:22 Well on the Airbnb app. Let me tell you that.

12:25 Are you any kind of authority?

12:28 No.

12:28 On hosting? And this metric that you have, this average score.

12:33 You're staying there for free.

12:34 My guy. But also, yeah, I mean, OP, your guest score is negative.

12:39 Yeah, your guest score is through the- Through the ground. Through the freaking ground.

12:44 Down to the bedrock.

12:46 Through the floor. He didn't bother to properly acknowledge what I said about being hurt and upset. Neither did he explain any underlying feelings of jealousy or resentment that he may have had, which is fine, but at least acknowledge that you hurt me. I know you guys will be mad and think I'm an idiot, but on Monday I threw him a lifeline and I told him, this is your time. If you have anything to say, any thoughts or feelings, I want you to have the space to share them with me and we can have an honest discussion.

13:15 Do you think this will work?

13:16 Do I think he's going to go, yeah, I know, I wish I was your boyfriend. No, I don't think he's going to do that. No.

13:23 OP.

13:23 That's what he's going to say.

13:24 Let's be real. Just let him slide on out of here. Yeah.

13:28 He's gonna slink back into the hole that he crawled out of.

13:32 From too far, far away.

13:34 I was giving him the chance to stop sabotaging the ten years we had and just own up. He said nothing. He's left me undelivered and it is now Friday. I think that just about sums up his value for me in life. Even if he didn't want to open up about being insecure or jealous, a simple, heartfelt apology would have been okay. But nothing. Looking back on his behavior over the last few months as a whole, I thought he was changing, but I realized that you guys are right.

14:04 It's not him that's changed. It's me. Wow. I've grown up. I have a life I love and I am in the most loving and supporting relationship I've ever been in. I've grown up and he's stayed the same. I've just been settling for his crap out of pure comfort and routine as we've known each other for so long. It's safe to say I'm going low contact with him and that I'll be slowly phasing this friendship out Until he shows me some respect, compassion, or even an apology. He certainly won't be invited here anytime soon. It's not a decision I'm making just based on your guys' advice, although your words have helped. I've spoken to family and colleagues as well, and they've all said the same thing. I've also just taken this time to reflect on who I've

14:48 grown to be and what I deserve and want in friendships. This isn't it.

14:52 Poor guy. He just can't admit he's got feelings for you.

14:56 Yeah, right.

14:57 It's the only thing that makes any logical sense.

14:59 Yeah, I agree.

15:01 He's letting that get in the way of just being able to have you in his life, period.

15:06 Yeah.

15:07 I would have done like the crazy thing of like, hey, you know what? Can I come over to your place for just like the weekend so you can host me?

15:14 Yeah, and then you're like, where's my scones?

15:17 Where's my scones?

15:18 You can show me how it's done.

15:20 Where's the scones?

15:22 Update.

15:22 I will be mourning this friendship for a while. But it will be because of what we used to have. Because I cannot mourn a person I don't even know. And that's what he's become. P.S. It's my birthday tomorrow, which makes the sting even more dang. Yowch.

15:37 Happy birthday.

15:39 Happy birthday, minus one friend. His is two days after mine.

15:43 Oof.

15:44 And it's something we've shared for a very long time.

15:47 Oh, well.

15:48 It's time to enter a new phase of life without him, and that's okay. And yes, guys, the toilet still has limescale. But don't worry. I have citric acid on the way. Cool.

15:59 Nice.

15:59 Thanks, citric acid.

16:01 Citric acid on the way. Very nice.

16:04 Say goodnight, limescale. That'll teach you to ruin my friendship, limescale, in my toilet. But that's that. That's the end of that. I refused to make peace with my best friend's other friend, and it made her upset.

16:17 I don't need peace with third-party friends.

16:19 From the start. I, 21 female, want to make it clear that my bestie, 23 female, and I have been close since high school. We hit it off right away, despite being polar opposite personalities. She was nerdy with that sharp, sarcastic humor. that made enemies out of strangers. While I was the outgoing, if slow, jock whose personality was so mild, I didn't give people reasons to hate me. She selected her friends carefully. I, on the other hand, have always had a wide range of acquaintances available, though I value my friends above others. Bestie and I connected mostly over video games, D & D, and other extremely nerdy interests.

17:00 Sick!

17:01 Nice. We've enjoyed limited internet fame for some of our collaborative work on a particular comic, but for the past few years, we've kept up contact via Skype, working on our own projects. Okay, now there's Clara, who is Bestie's new friend, and she became her college roommate. We went to different schools, but even now, Bestie and I have remained extremely close. I met Clara on the first of two visits to Bestie's dorm. Things went okay, and I accepted that I didn't think Clara and I could ever be close friends, but I respected Bestie's choice of friendships.

17:37 Bestie and Clara got closer in the years between visits, and by my second visit, I realized Bestie had finally allowed Clara into her true confidence. Clara had reached best friend status.

17:49 Best friend status.

17:51 By the way, this comes from Trio Help Throwaway, and if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash ok story time subreddit. I'm Dakota.

17:59 Sophia.

18:00 I'm Keon.

18:01 And we're going to read this story and give our little good advice goofily, but we don't have all the answers. We only know what we do. So let us know what you would do and think down in the comments. And OP says, The second visit, however, is where the troubles began.

18:14 Oh, it's the second visit.

18:16 Oh, no.

18:17 On this visit, there was a citywide festival in Bestie's town, and I brought my younger brother, 15, and my girlfriend, 22, for the trip. The trip was supposed to last three days. We left halfway through the second day. Not only was Clara rude in the general sense, but she was so demeaning that my brother decided on the very first evening we arrived that he wasn't interested in putting up with her for the rest of the trip and chose to remain at the apartment. Oh, dang.

18:44 That is intense. She must be pretty awful. And I was like, you know what? She's so terrible. I should just stay inside.

18:51 Just exhausted. I can't even keep up. Just keep me away from her. This meant giving up on the event he paid about $ 45 for. My brother is incredibly perceptive about people, but I blew off his statements the first night because I was determined to enjoy myself. Then the next day, my girlfriend began to complain. Never when I was around, but Clara had begun to insult and make generally anti-queer comments around my girlfriend, which my brother could corroborate.

19:20 With my two favorite people warning me that something was up, I know that.

19:24 The brother is cooperating that they were said, but it sounded like he was cooperating the anti-queer. He's like, yeah, that's true.

19:33 I joined in.

19:35 She does suck for being queer. And that's what he thinks.

19:38 No, that's not what he's saying. Not collaborate, corroborate. With my two favorite people warning me that something was up, I was forced to face reality. Neither my brother nor my girlfriend were comfortable, and they approached me requesting we leave immediately. When I asked to speak with Bestie about the situation, Clara insisted on being present for the conversation.

19:58 What if I was there? Hey, I know you're having a conversation about how terrible I am. Can I be there? Can I be there?

20:03 We don't share secrets in this household.

20:05 Hi, I'm here. I'm already here. I'm standing behind you.

20:08 I'm just curious.

20:09 I'd be like, yeah, you can. This is actually about you.

20:12 Oh.

20:12 So grab a seat.

20:13 Okay.

20:14 Now, as a more physically inclined person, I have a habit of keeping my hands stuffed in my pockets when having emotional conversations. It keeps me from fidgeting in most cases. But in this case, it saved me from lashing out. The conversation escalated with Clara taking immediate offense that we wanted to leave. And at some point, the conversation incited Clara to take a swing at me.

20:36 Okay, this is how I imagine Clara would take a swing. What'd you say about me?

20:40 No, it's the head down.

20:46 Watch out. Why I oughta.

20:49 This is how OP keeps their hand in their pockets.

20:57 Opie's like, oh, just wait.

20:59 Just wait.

21:00 If I could get my hands out of my pockets, you'd be sorry. And Clara's like.

21:05 For our listeners, it's Lin-Manuel Miranda doing that awkward pose with his hands in his pockets. You know what I mean.

21:11 Oh, yeah. So Clara takes a swing. With my hands in my pockets, I only leaned back. And no contact was made.

21:19 Oh, my God. No, no, no. Can we get the new... Can we get Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man going.

21:23 Yeah, just the.

21:25 Avoiding flash.

21:26 Yeah.

21:27 That's OP.

21:28 This is very... We need this.

21:29 This is important.

21:29 We need this. We can't continue until we see this. Until we see actual footage of OP. I'm looking for actual footage of OP.

21:36 Actual footage of OP.

21:39 Oh.

21:39 It's coming in live. We're authenticating this.

21:41 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

21:43 Yeah.

21:44 Yes.

21:45 That's OP.

21:46 So.

21:47 OP.

21:48 Dodges. At that point, I escorted myself and mine out the door and to the car home. Once away from the situation, my brother and girlfriend explained even more than I had realized at the time. With Bestie, I have something of a tit-for-tat relationship. She insults my dim-wittedness and the stereotypes about ladies loving ladies, and I respond about her pigeon-toes, whiny voice, and terrible choices in boyfriends.

22:12 Oh! But that's just called being friends.

22:17 OP.

22:19 OP said, huh, we can fight. We can play. I'll play ball.

22:22 Yeah, that's what they, yeah. It's friends.

22:24 That's the best of friends.

22:25 I must emphasize this is affectionate teasing built up from years of friendship.

22:30 I do it with Dakota all the time.

22:32 Oh, wait, that wasn't Clara.

22:33 No.

22:34 Oh, okay.

22:34 Sorry.

22:35 I thought that was Clara.

22:36 I'm generally used to being the butt of jokes and I don't get upset easily. But my brother and girlfriend both brought up that Clara had been outright insulting me to my face. Instances that I had blown off with awkward laughter.

22:48 I had this experience growing up. Not growing up, but one of my good friends' girlfriends. Like, my friend and I grew up, we have our sense of humor. It's very like this. Like, we're like, we can make fun of each other and like, just dig. But like, it's out of love and like, we get it. But then his girlfriend would do it with me and it just was awkward. It was just like, I would stop and I'm like, why are you saying that? Like that's, I don't know you like that.

23:13 Yeah. You have not earned it.

23:15 And you're definitely not earning it now.

23:17 Take a step back.

23:19 I hadn't noticed. But in retrospect, I can see where Clara took liberties I would not have allowed if I didn't trust her on Bestie's behalf. The problem is Bestie and I sort of came to an unspoken agreement not to talk about that trip. and I stopped talking to Clara entirely. Bestie has now moved into my area upon graduation, and while we are closer than ever, it's apparent she only considers myself and Clara as her close friends. I accepted this, but now Bestie's pushing that Clara and I make up and become friends. I understand that from Bestie's point of view, Clara and I share a lot of interests, but I personally am not interested in having any relationship with Clara, though I am Careful to remain civil whenever

24:00 Bestie brings her up or tries to start three-way conversations on Skype over text or working on projects. Bestie is my first priority. I value her as a friend and colleague. If I force her to choose between Clara and myself and she chooses Clara, I know our friendship would probably break irreparably. And there is an edit. Hey, it's Carly, Keon's girlfriend, here.

24:20 We're going to get back to the stories, but here's three minutes of ads from our sponsors.

24:25 My first question to your bestie would be like, did you hear all this stuff she's saying about me and my brother? Like, why are you allowing that? She swung at me after being told she was acting out of pocket.

24:38 Yeah. No, I would have that conversation because it really doesn't matter. You don't need to have that conversation with Clara because Clara is a lost cause and also not your friend. But have that conversation with your bestie. Say like, why do you allow that? Yeah. Why are you okay with her acting like that to me?

24:55 Yeah, but also, I don't, and this is an adult thing, or you start growing up, you're like, I don't have to be friends with your friends.

25:02 I don't.

25:02 I don't want to be friends with you.

25:03 That's true. But, you know, still is not okay that she's not respectful.

25:08 That, too.

25:09 To OP when they are together.

25:12 Yeah, and she's bigoted. That's crazy.

25:13 And she tried to hit OP.

25:15 There's an edit. I want to mention that the insulting comments are not as shocking as everyone seems to be finding them. We live in an extremely conservative area, and unfortunately, Bestie is more the outlier here for defending me than otherwise. It's something my girlfriend and I are used to, and we play it safe. But for the typical behavior in this region, Clara's comments would have been considered extremely mild.

25:36 The fact that she let us stay in their apartment to begin with meant a lot. My issue on this topic is more with trying to reconcile with Bestie without making it seem like I'm forcing her to choose between us. And there's an update from a month later. Yeah, I mean, uh, I'd say exactly what Keon said.

25:51 Yeah.

25:52 I can't be friends with everybody, and I'm certainly not friends with her. No, sir. She's outright hostile with me. If anyone's going to fix any of this and make us friends, it's going to have to be all her. Yeah.

26:06 I don't know what other work OP could put in.

26:08 It's very easy, OP. You just say, Bestie, I'm your friend. Bestie, I'm not Clara's friend.

26:14 Let's get one thing clear.

26:16 Let's get one thing Claire.

26:18 One thing Clara.

26:20 I want to clarify.

26:21 I don't like her.

26:21 Well, we have an update. Well, Reddit, it's safe to say at this point that everything went absolutely, completely, horribly wrong since my original post.

26:29 Oh, no.

26:30 Perhaps not too surprisingly, Brother Dearest found the post, and despite my attempts to make this story vague, recognized it was me.

26:37 No. So, wait, but Brother's chill with you? Yeah, Brother's on your side.

26:41 Brother's chill with you?

26:42 Yeah, wait, where does this go? He called me up, and we had a good long talk, and he concurred with many of the statements you made here. Brother had been uneasy about Bestie, but had assumed the two of us had come to some agreement on our own and hadn't wanted to intervene. On the advice of several posts here and my brother, I planned out key points I wanted to discuss with my Bestie. That I wanted to stay friends, that my desire to remain her friend did not mean she couldn't be friends with whoever she wanted, but that I would not be forced into a relationship with Clara, and that I would remain acquaintances with her for Bestie's sake, but nothing more. that the project ideas I shared with her were not to be shared with Clara,

27:20 and that if she continued to break my confidence, I would refuse to work with her in the future at all. And finally, that we would go over the events of the trip from start to finish because I wanted to hear Bestie's side of what happened and explain my full side. Personally, I was pretty impressed by how well I kept to my points. In retrospect, I realize now that the only reason I got to say my piece was because Bestie had gone quiet pretty early in the discussion. Too quiet, which was not like her. By the end of the discussion, we both seemed to be at a loss for what to say. Bestie left and I had thought things might get better. I went to work in a good mood.

27:55 And after my night shift, my phone was full of messages. Clara was pissed. She had called me every name in the book, accused me of stepping her in the back and holding a grudge. And Clara claimed I tried to sick Bestie against her. She demanded to meet to talk face to face. No.

28:13 So, okay, so Bestie is now... You talk to her and she's not standing up for you. And Clara's like, how could you? How could you tell her the things that I've been saying to you?

28:22 And she wants to meet face to face. You know what she's going to do, OP.

28:26 She's got to go. There we go.

28:28 Yeah. Why? Why even meet face to face? Like, why do you need to meet face to face?

28:32 What do you want to do on my face? What are we?

28:34 What's going to happen? When Bestie begged me to do at least that much foreclosure. I agreed.

28:42 Why do I need to give her closure?

28:44 Yeah, like closure for what? I didn't date her. She was never my friend. She doesn't like me. Who's the closure for?

28:52 The closure on her swinging and missing? Was she going to clock me in the jaw?

28:56 She wanted another try. Just give her another try.

28:58 Just give her a chance.

28:59 One more.

29:00 Give them a chance like Odysseus does.

29:02 She's just going to take one more swing and we're going to see if it happens.

29:06 We chose a coffee house around the halfway point between our homes. Clara was defensive right from the start, but I suppose I probably was too. Clara demanded to know what I had said to Bestie, and I tried my best to stick to my plan of making peace, but firmly holding my ground that this would be the last time I met Clara. I hadn't expected Clara to accuse me of being jealous of her. She accused me of being attracted to Bestie and said that that was why I was trying to get rid of Clara.

29:33 And this like once again goes back into Clara's prejudiced, bigoted thinking. of like, oh, well, you're, you know, sapphic, so you must be attracted to your best friend.

29:45 Yeah, if this is really screaming that she's actually attracted to best friend.

29:49 Yes, it could be so.

29:50 And doesn't know how to compute. I pointed out that I was in a relationship and she had actually met my girlfriend in And that I had nothing against besties and Clara's friendship. That I only wanted to separate from Clara. Clara asked if I had been lusting after her then. I denied it. She asked if I was jealous that my girlfriend might like her better.

30:13 Oh, that's so funny. I would laugh in her face. You think my girlfriend likes you better? And then you could launch back into the pigeon toe. Buh, buh, buh. Hit her again.

30:25 I'm not proud of my actions, but I lost my cool. I warned Clara to back off and leave my girlfriend out of this. Clara made another comment, including a slur, about my girlfriend's preferences, and I snapped. When I slammed the coffee cup on the table, the paper crumpled and hot liquid exploded over both of us. It didn't feel particularly painful to me, and I have no burn marks whatsoever, but Clara let out an unholy shriek and jumped back.

30:49 Soon we had the manager and three other customers surrounding us, with Clara begging them to call the cops. When it was apparent the situation wasn't going to escalate further, Clara had been given ice. And I was asked to leave and I did so. I mean, honestly, dude, like if Bestie stays with her after this, if Bestie continues to be friends with Clara after this, it's like you might as well just tell her like, dude, this is what happened.

31:11 You might as well just start a timer until it happens to you. She'll do this to you. She's crazy.

31:17 Yeah, she's definitely crazy.

31:20 We give best friend truly an ultimatum.

31:23 I don't think we need an ultimatum. I think you're just going to say, hey, this is what she did. I will never be around her again.

31:29 Yeah, but then personally, I'd be like, if you're my best friend, I don't want you hanging out with this person ever again.

31:34 The fact that you can hang out with this person who treats me like this. Yeah, but I think start with just saying, hey, she treated me like this and see what she does.

31:43 Yeah.

31:44 She'll go, no, that's not Clara. She's an innocent soul.

31:47 She called her out. No, best friend already called Clara out. She already said, because Clara was so upset at OP. She was like, why did you tell her? So clearly the best friend already called Clara out.

31:57 Yeah.

31:57 I think she did again.

31:58 I think best friend probably just told Clara, like, yeah, OP doesn't want anything to do with you, really. Seems like a justified thing from her. Yeah. I don't know, man. I have texted bestie, asking to talk but heard nothing back until I got a single text. I need time to think. Please leave me alone. Then a few hours later, I got one from Clara saying she would not be pressing charges against me for burning her.

32:22 Prove that I burned you. prove it a.

32:26 Few days have passed now but i think i've made my peace with the situation i've got work to keep me busy plans for a group hiking trip over the weekend and movie night with my girlfriend to look forward to i am not happy things haven't worked out with bestie but i'm not losing any more sleep over it it's great while it lasted and i'm okay with that and that's the end of that story i don't know man like i'd just be like i'm still totally down to hang out with you and be your friend I'm just never going to hang out with that girl. Like, I'm just not. It's just not going to happen.

32:57 I mean, I would hope that if your best friend heard this, she would have changed her mind. But I don't know.

33:03 It's not even like, I don't even think you should tell her, like, you can't be friends with her. It's like. No, yeah, no, I don't think so. It's just more like, I want nothing to do with her.

33:10 I don't think you say, oh, you can't be friends. I would just hope that she wouldn't want to be friends.

33:16 You know? I don't know. It feels like maybe they became, like, codependent on each other, like, during college or something. Could be.

33:22 Yeah.

33:23 Yeah. Clara sucks.

33:24 Clara is the worst. Clarified, she's the worst.

33:28 Found a comment from the post. Bessie and I have talked at length about what happened, and I made it clear that right now that our relationship has changed and how she treated the situation really hurt me. Right now, things look like they're getting better, so we'll see how things go with time. Yeah.

33:44 Yeah, that's all you can do.

33:46 Sounds about as optimistic as it can be. Just count down, count down, until Clara's going crazy on you, dude. And she's also so definitely.

33:55 Into girls, bro.

33:56 She even was like, you think your girlfriend's more into me? It's like, no, after you slurred her and insulted her? No, I don't think she is, actually. Are you into my girlfriend? Do you want my best friend to be your girlfriend? Is that the fantasy that you live in? That you guys were dating? My MO for people like that is either just like complete ignorance, you know, where it's just like, oh, yeah, it's like, I mean, I know what you're saying is rude, but I'm not even going to process it as that.

34:23 I'm not going to waste a single shred of my mental energy on caring about anything you say. Like, full stop, you could say anything, and I'd go, oh, that's great.

34:36 But there is the end of that story, folks, and we got another one coming right up. Hey, it's Angie, your favorite Riley's girlfriend host here. We're going to get back to the stories, but here's three minutes of ads from our sponsors. My gym buddy was cheating on my sister's best friend, so I exposed him. Yeah, fair. Good.

34:56 Good thing.

34:57 My 26 male used to train alone, because I don't have to take others into account. I gotta go my own way. I don't train with others.

35:04 I don't got time to worry about you, lily-livered wibs.

35:10 I'm a lone wolf. I have a very irregular schedule and long hours, so this works for me. I train whenever I can. I also lift pretty heavy. I met Ben, 35 male, eight months ago. He joined my gym and we hit it off. He talked to me and asked me if he could train in with me. I was hesitant, but I could use a spotter sometimes. He's a cop and surprisingly has the same irregular shifts as me. His lifting stats are very close to mine. We started working out together and motivating each other for higher PRs. As guys do, we started talking about hookups, dating, and life in general during sets and And sometimes we hung out outside of the gym as well. Yes, guys.

35:54 I heard no mention of the Roman Empire.

35:56 Yeah, you're fake.

35:57 You guys probably didn't even talk about Hadrian's Wall, did you?

36:00 Did anyone bring up the Library of Alexandria burning down?

36:04 Or how aqueducts were made?

36:05 I actually have an incredibly... cool thing that I want me to bring up later.

36:10 All right. He told me he was dating around and had a few if buddies. I thought nothing serious or exclusive because he was seeing several people at the same time. By the way, this comes from Ninja Kiwi. And if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash showcase story time subreddit. I'm Sophia. I'm Dakota.

36:26 I'm Keon.

36:27 And we're here to give good advice goofily, but we don't have all the answers. We only know what we do. So let us know what you would do in the comments. And Dopey says... One day, my sister, 28 female, came to the gym with me. Ben was there too. She recognized Ben as the boyfriend of her best friend, Allie, 30 female. I asked her if she was sure and what does she mean boyfriend slash if they were exclusive.

36:50 She told me, yeah, and of course they're exclusive. I quickly changed the subject.

36:56 Man, how does this guy have the time? He won, he's a cop.

36:59 Yeah.

37:00 Several other or six other women.

37:03 Yeah.

37:04 Yikes. That's a lot. That's a lot of ladies.

37:07 He's serving the public.

37:08 It's like, I'm out there saving lives.

37:11 I'm here to protect and serve.

37:12 And ending relationships. My own. The next time I met Ben at the gym, I asked him after our work about Allie. And he confirmed, yeah, I'm dating her. I asked him if she knew about the other girls. He said, nah, she didn't. He was basically cheating on her.

37:29 You can take out the basically.

37:30 I felt very guilty and conflicted. I told him I knew Allie. And she was a very nice girl and didn't deserve this kind of behavior. I said we could no longer be friends and I didn't want to train together anymore. I told him to cut all contact. He said he didn't understand what had changed and said we were good friends and I shouldn't throw this away. Dude, what do you mean you don't understand what changed? OP just told you.

37:54 Yeah, the context of everything you've told me is now I've been cheating on my girlfriend who OP knows and thinks is a nice person.

38:02 So what's not, what aren't you getting? I have to say a part of me still wants to train with him and hang out because I thought he was a good guy. But then I feel incredibly guilty towards Allie and no, I can't do that to her. Our gym sessions were great and I always felt pumped up. I told Ben, no, and stop texting and or calling me.

38:22 Don't call me. Don't come by my house. We're done. He still does and it's kind of awkward at the gym, but I ignore him. He still wants to be friends. Am I wrong? Is it my place to tell Allie to dump this guy because he's a cheater? Oftentimes, the harbinger of bad news gets crucified. So I don't want to tell my sister and burden her with this knowledge and task of telling Allie. What should I do? Tell Allie?

38:49 Tell my sister? Shrug it off and still train and hang out with Ben? Not that last one. For sure, not that last one. There's an update. What do you do?

38:58 Um, I mean, if you know her well enough.

39:01 Yeah.

39:02 Just tell her.

39:02 I feel like the only two good options here are telling your sister or telling Allie.

39:08 Yeah.

39:08 But I think you could tell Allie you know her.

39:10 Those are your two options.

39:12 But this guy's a cop. If you do this, do you think?

39:17 But OP benches more than him.

39:18 I know, but.

39:19 OP's stronger than him.

39:21 Should you? It's like playing with fire.

39:24 I don't think this is playing with fire. I don't know.

39:27 It's a thing of like you never want to be on the bad side of like hope he's already on.

39:30 The wrong side of the law.

39:33 I think this guy wouldn't even care he's got like six other women he's just a bad.

39:36 I'll bring that up to him i was like hey man just leave ally alone like you have six other girls just break up with her or i'll tell her.

39:41 Yeah i would tell her that's another way to go about it yeah I.

39:45 Hope he's stronger than him. He can take him.

39:48 I'd be like, you're better than this. You don't need Allie.

39:50 He's not better than this.

39:51 No, but you would just lie.

39:53 I would call him out. Update. Three days later. Thank you for all your replies. Some were worried because Ben is a cop, which is some is Keon.

40:04 Am I wrong?

40:05 It's not like there's any history of cops going completely over the line when they feel they've been slighted by somebody or You know, using flock cameras to track their exes around.

40:18 You're with the sum. Well, that would never stop me from doing the right thing. And I'm glad I did. I knew I had to tell Allie, and you guys gave me the push I needed. I would have wanted to know and would be very upset if someone I knew was aware of my significant other cheating and chose not to tell me. I found out the extent of Ben's debauchery. First, I told my sister right away that Ben was sleeping around and I wanted to warn Allie.

40:45 She came with a bombshell.

40:47 Marilyn Monroe?

40:48 A hot new bombshell has entered the villa.

40:51 Do we think that Allie knows?

40:54 Well, oh, Ali, the girlfriend already knows. Yeah.

40:57 I thought you.

40:59 Were going to say like the sister already knew.

41:01 Oh, the sister's one of the girls?

41:02 Yeah, well, oh.

41:04 Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

41:07 Well, let's find out.

41:08 We're just throwing a lot out there.

41:09 Ben was hitting on her too. That a-hole is infuriating me now. Ben sometimes tagged along when my sister and Ali would hang out and Ben would always flirt slash hit on my sister. This a-hole is making me furious right now. My sister hadn't told Allie because she didn't want her to get hurt, and nothing happened. It did happen.

41:29 Who's flirting with you, girl?

41:30 Do you think OP's sister was kind of into it?

41:33 I don't know. I think there is kind of like a, it could be. I think that's a good question to ask. But I also think from my experience of, not this situation, but from my experience of not knowing whether or not someone is flirting... And you're like, oh, I don't want to be like, oh, this person is creeping me out because they technically haven't done anything.

41:55 Yeah.

41:56 So it's hard to be like, hey, Ali, your boyfriend is flirting with me because you don't have proof.

42:00 I mean, I did that immediately with our friend. I've told that story before where it was like just an out of pocket comment. And it was immediately like, oh, OK. Walk outside. Hey, your girlfriend just said this to me.

42:14 I think that is good.

42:15 Just wanted to let you know.

42:16 Yes.

42:17 I think it is important to do that, but I also could see where Allie might be like, I didn't know how to bring it up. But I think it is good to always call people out and say, hey, this happened. I'm uncomfortable, especially if it's your friend. Nothing happened and never would because Ben is Allie's boyfriend. And also, my sister doesn't date a-holes. So then I decided to tell Allie. My sister was there too. I decided to take the direct route and rip the truth out like a bushy woman getting a full Brazilian. Oh.

42:47 Train.

42:48 Okay, it would be quick and sting, but not as much as slowly peeling it off.

42:53 Graphic, but true.

42:55 There's a little bit left to this story. It's gotten a little bit weird now.

42:59 Bird in the hands were too in the bush.

43:01 Apparently, Allie suspected some debauchery going on because he was being secretive with his phone all of a sudden lately and would hide it when he was texting or turn away the screen. Allie was upset, but she saw it coming, I guess, and was really glad I told her. She said she loved me like a brother of her own and really thanked me for being honest. She dumped Ben right away and wants to go no contact and block him on all media. I was at the gym yesterday and today, but didn't see him. Nice. He's probably in his little hidey hole.

43:32 He's probably enforcing the law.

43:35 Yeah, he's probably out giving like so many parking tickets and like speeding tickets. He's like, oh, another one, another one. You don't get one. And someone's like, I was going one mile over.

43:47 He's like, yeah. $ 200 for talking back.

43:49 $ 200. Okay, you're going to jail.

43:50 It's a talkback ticket.

43:52 I'm doing you a favor. I'm going easy on you. I'm giving you 10 fines today.

43:55 10 fines. We'll see how it goes. I'm not switching gyms because of this a-hole. I've trained there for years now and know the owner and staff. I really love my gym. OP, you're strong enough. You just have to fight him in a one-on-one battle to maintain... Your claim on that gym.

44:14 Yeah, you guys should do medieval MMA. You guys put on full armor and just go three rounds.

44:20 You should do the plot of Madagascar 2.

44:25 Escape to Africa. Yeah.

44:26 Thank you. Where the lions have to fight for the crown. Or a dance battle. Did they do a dance battle? I can't remember.

44:33 This guy cheating on his girlfriend thinks he's Moto Moto.

44:37 He thinks Moto Moto likes him.

44:39 Moto Moto is him.

44:42 I like them big.

44:43 I like them chunky.

44:45 I like them.

44:45 This is my advice to OP. OP, become a firefighter. And then whenever you guys do the yearly firefighter versus police force thing, which always happens everywhere.

44:56 Yeah.

44:56 Booyah.

44:57 When they take to the streets in a riot and fight each other.

44:59 Yeah.

45:00 All right. But we've got comments from the video. My friend's boyfriend made explicit AI pics of her sister. She stayed. Loyalty. And this was posted July 17th, 2026. And we've got a TLDR from story one. OP has been best friends with Cass for 17 years, part of a tight group who never had any drama until this week. Cass had been noticing strange behavior from her boyfriend of five years.

45:27 So she went through his phone while he slept and what she found made her sob hysterically. AI generated corn of people they all knew, including her own sister and his own mother. Then she hinted there was something even worse, something she refused to show or tell anyone, before suddenly doing a complete 180 and insisting everything was fine and they'd work it out. But when OP pressed for the truth, Cass started telling different lies to different friends, dodging every hard question. If you're curious to know the full story, you can go watch the full video and we've got comments.

46:02 Yes, we do. I remember this one, and boy, oh, boy.

46:05 Truly a perplexer. Yeah.

46:07 Gross. We have some comments. Take a look at that video. Check that one out. But comments from that video, starting off with Nikki Cockwell, 3444, saying, AI needs to be legally regulated. If these deep fakes end up on the internet, they can ruin lives. And let's be honest, in this story, it was ruining lives. Yeah.

46:27 Ruined my life.

46:28 Ruined my ears.

46:29 Yeah, they do need to be regulated.

46:30 The AI stuff is so far ahead of the regulations right now. And so it's trying to catch up. Yeah.

46:37 Not great. Another comment from Sparrow118 saying, what a doozy of a first story. He absolutely needs to take accountability and get help before he gets himself into real trouble because he's going down a real slippery slope.

46:51 Yeah.

46:52 Also, the girlfriend has stuff going on too. She's this insistent on sticking with this dude to the end.

46:57 Yeah.

46:57 Yeah.

46:58 Some people are just very stuck. Yeah.

47:02 I just remember she was like defending it.

47:05 Yeah.

47:06 It's like it could be worse.

47:07 No, I was watching this show, this like reality TV show that my friend got me into. I don't even watch these types of shows. But there's this one girl whose boyfriend is so awful. And the whole time she's like, well, no, but like I want to focus on the good stuff. And this other guy in the show is like, what would you feel if your daughter was treated like that?

47:25 And she's like, well, I would tell her to focus on the good stuff. And know that there's more than just the bad.

47:30 The positives outweigh the negatives.

47:32 Yeah, but her boyfriend is so terrible. And everyone was like, what?

47:37 Yeah, the math on that doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make sense.

47:41 And I feel like that's this girlfriend.

47:42 Oh, I don't want to spoil it. There was more to it, remember?

47:46 Yeah, go watch this, guys.

47:47 Yeah.

47:48 Another comment from Tiffany saying, that weird story, I bet he made defakes of her as well. and threatened to do something with them. And that's why she won't leave him?

47:59 Who knows?

48:00 Maybe.

48:01 Maybe.

48:02 I mean, that is illegal.

48:03 I'm not going to say anything, but there was more to it. And then we went, oh, but she didn't give us the full reason or what it was. And one last comment here from jrob2430 saying, this exact stuff is why I hate AI so much. I won't use it if I can't avoid it. I think the only AI stuff I have that I like is maybe like Google Assistant on the phone. And even that stuff doesn't work half the time. I'm really worried people are going to get removed from life over fake AI videos.

48:34 It'll get worse before it gets better.

48:35 Yeah, I don't know. Best way, best way I think is to just refuse to partake. And that's, yeah, I try not, I try my best to not use the, you know, the Google Gemini summarizer. Because also it's just like at a baseline, like incredibly unethical technology just in terms of like what, It's what is happening to the land, all the power usage. It's all of it. It's just blatantly bad.

49:02 But that's the end. On that note, on that positive note, that's the end of the episode.

49:07 Yeah.

49:07 There are good things happening out there. Go look up something nice that happened in the world.

49:11 Go in the park. Go to the beach.

49:13 There's technology that's working on fixing up reefs.

49:17 It's true.

49:17 So let's focus on that. that's the end of that episode though so if you love us make sure to subscribe we love you and see you tomorrow