Reddit user u/Snoo0Dall asked, "People who are no longer best friends with someone: What happened?" and I was simply not prepared for the unreal, messy, and just straight-up heartbreaking stories that came flooding in.
Here are the top-voted answers:
1. "When I realized the friendship was toxic. Whenever I would hang out with her, I would feel drained. I became her therapist."
2. "When your 'best friend' of 15 years always acts like they’re the main character and you are only there to support the plot, like an extra in their play. It took some time to realize they needed to make me feel inferior in order for them to feel superior. And when you stop playing the part you are not useful for them anymore."
4. "Over 10 years of friendship. We traveled together, worked together, he was the best man at my wedding. We were best friends, the kind of friend you could call any time of day or night and he’d be there to help. Then he met his now wife…Suddenly any gatherings at my house they couldn’t attend because she was always sick from 'something she ate.' She was from a wealthy family, the kind that literally owns a small island, and lived in an affluent neighborhood. It’s not like I was poor or lived in a bad neighborhood, but by comparison, I’m sure the very thought of her being in my part of town made her sick..."
5. "After more than 20 years of being besties, she just ghosted me. After a year of not hearing from her, despite reaching out, I asked her husband if she was okay. He was confused because she claimed to be talking to me all the time. Whatever. It hurt for a while, but she honestly brought very little to my life in hindsight."
6. "My so-called best friend would 'bust my balls' in front of attractive women to make himself look better. I was always confused because there was 0% chance of competition. There’s a point where it gets old and you never look back."
7. "It ended because of a pre-paid cellphone plan. It's 18 years ago at this point, but my then-best friend pocket-dialed me, while my phone was lying on the desk in the classroom. I didn't hear it ring and some random guy in my classroom answered the call, but just left it sitting on the desk. I think it was sort of a prank. The call ended up lasting enough that his $25 phone plan got all used up. He ended up calling me the day after, calling me all names under the sun, and where I could go to fuck myself. I had no fucking idea what he was on about, and when he explained that his phone plan had been emptied. I even offered to just pay it back just to be told to fuck off. I haven't talked to him since. I even saw him at a train station a few years later, smiled, and waved at him. He literally turned around and walked away, waiting for the next train instead of taking the same train as me. I guess our friendship was only worth $25 to him."
8. "After high school ended, he became too busy. I invited him over every weekend, each time he'd said that he come, but didn't show up. After a year of him not coming, I stopped inviting him."
9. "I was going through an extremely rough patch with my husband in our 23rd year of marriage. My best friend of 38+ years decided she was in love with him. She went behind my back and told him. They started an affair. I was eventually able to forgive him. Not her. I expected more from her. I’d have taken a bullet for her and she just fucked me over during the absolute worst time in my life...and just as we were starting to get everything back in place in our marriage. That set other things in motion that changed my marriage forever. I tried, but I can’t forgive her. And it hurts so goddamn much to not have her in my life. I thought we’d grow old together and be best friends til we lost our teeth and our marbles and drive the retirement home wild with our antics. I truly loved her as my forever best friend. I’ll never understand how she could do that to me."
10. "We just grew apart. I think I reached out to her once to ask how she was doing and didn’t really get a response, so I just kind of decided that was that."
"Sounds like you made the right call. One-way friendships aren't friendships."
11. "I was in a group of friends who started bullying a person I knew out of nowhere. I told them I was not okay with that. They soon started hanging out without inviting me. I am still very glad I did what I did."
12. "He tried to sleep with my wife. I knew him for over 30 years."
And finally...
13. "I stopped paying."
Now it's your turn! Did you "break up" with a BFF? Comment below!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.