My close friends pranked me real bad and I can’t move on.

A Reddit user shares a painful experience where a close-knit group of friends pranked him about a romantic interest, which, despite seeming harmless to them, left him devastated and struggling with his self-esteem. After months of emotional hardship, he was starting to heal, only to be betrayed by the people he trusted most.

‘ My close friends pranked me real bad and I can’t move on. ‘

My friends (20M) of 7+ years played a prank on me about a girl who is interested in me and even though it doesn’t mean much to them, I’m extremely distressed. I (20M) was recently talking to me friends (to whom I’m really close and they mean a lot to me and I to them)

on video call (we do those for atleast 1-3 hours a day cause we are in studying in different countries). On of my friends, told me that I have a girl I know that might be interested in talking to you. Me who had gone through a really bad breakup 2 years before was quite ecstatic.

I didn’t have a lot of romantic interaction with women after that as I was either too scared or felt as if I was betraying my love by trying to fall in love again. Now, when he bring that up to me, I’m really wanted to go ahead with it as I didn’t want to be a miserable alone f**k again. I decided to trust him on two condition;

1.) He is someone I’ve been close to for more than 7 years, so trust comes as a given. 2.) He showed me instagram messages from this friend of his who was interested in me. I started talking to her 2 days back and it went well.

Not too well as it would have seemed suspicious to me, but well enough to help me gain my confidence and lowly self esteem. I was quite happy about this romantic interaction and it quite literally made my days. My mood improved, I started to feel better about myself and I was what you would call a happy person.

Come to today, I talked to her after the F1 race like normal (she was also a big fan apparently) and she video calls me. Now, I’m ecstatic about this cause why wouldn’t I be. To my disaster, it was two of my friend who had been talking to me all this and they were willing to continue this longer but didn’t cause they thought “this wasn’t the right thing to do.”

They had made the instagram account seem genuine and foremost, their word was something I trusted with all my being. To them it is a prank and I’m overreacting. It was just for 3 days and it’s not like I was in love. I guess I was or having a genuine interaction with a female made me feel I was.

I am someone who has been starved of love for more than a year and maybe I had enough of it. Maybe I was willing to move on and actually be happy I had tears in my eyes when I was questioning them about all this! My self confidence is shattered again and I feel u**y as f**k when looking into the mirror. Your advice regarding this will be appreciated..

Here’s how people reacted to the post:

Elfich47 −  Practical jokes depend on who is laughing. Since the “victim” isn’t laughing, its all over. You don’t trust them anymore. I would expect you slowly dial them out of your lives.

Lurker_the_Pip −  They aren’t your friends.. They laughed at you. Please get new friends and block those guys.. Cruelty should never be tolerated.

No_Violinist_4557 −  This is not a prank. A prank usually means the “victim” can see the funny side and no harm was intended. You did not see the funny side and your “friends” (note the “”) intended to harm you by humiliating you.

They would know the pain and struggles you have been going through and you sound vulnerable, so this makes their prank seem quite malicious. You don’t need friends like this in your life. Cut them out of your life, but before you do, d**p a whole bunch of rotting lobsters in their cars on a nice hot day. It’s just a prank 🙂

ChaiHai −  Your “friends” catfished you. D: That’s horrible. I have been “best friend” catfished before. The pain of interacting with someone you thought is real but never existed is horrible. Grieving something less than a ghost is a real mind f**k.

This is not your fault. I would get better friends. I would only interact with those people who did this to you if they very sincerely genuinely apologized. You deserve friends who build you up, not tear you down. <3

tenebrasocculta −  If I were in your position, those friendships would be over. What they did was extremely cruel, and calling it a “prank” doesn’t change the fact that they abused your trust about something you’re sensitive about.

ToastedCheeseAt3am −  These cruel humans are not your friends.

stuckinnowhereville −  Block them every place- SM, phone, email….Change your number and email address. Ghost them. If the approach in public pretend you don’t know them. You see right through them- they are ghosts to you as you walk on by.

I’m so so sorry they did this. It’s not something you can move on from and be friends again. The trust you had was shattered. It’s like a China cup. Once broken even if you glue it together it’s never right again and likely will leak.

Tiny-Drawer-861 −  From what you’ve said, I think they thought it would be funny at first, but when they saw how happy it made you it made them feel guilty and that made them tell you. It is a horrible thing to experience and I’m sorry for that.

I think your friends made a poor lapse in judgement, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still your friends, and it doesn’t mean they’re bad people. It does mean, however, that you need to talk to them and explain how it made you feel, and really explain this thoroughly so the point lands hard.

Vindrea −  I honestly cannot imagine how you could trust them again… It is so hurtful.. I am sorry you had to be in this position. Hugs 🫂

ObjectiveSummer1783 −  i’ve seen some instances of this happening online and i think it is genuinely one of the cruellest things anyone could do

Trust is everything in relationships, especially with close friends. Have you ever been in a situation where a prank or joke went too far? How did you handle it? Feel free to share your thoughts or offer support in the comments below!