Sometimes even the people closest to us—our best friends—can keep the deepest, darkest secrets.
1. A Loner's Act
A notorious loner in my class would always have an MSN Messenger chat window up with one of his friends every time he hooked his computer up to the projector. He would act all embarrassed that we saw his conversations with his friend from another town. He moved here from there, so we assumed he really was staying in touch with his old pals. Until one day we found out the truth.
Once when he was in the library on a computer, I spotted him logged on to his "friend's" MSN accounts...and messaging himself. Sometimes he would speak about the things he and his "friends" did, and ever since I caught him messaging himself, I felt really bad for him. He was a very kind, peculiar kid—not one I'd really be interested in being friends with, but I always treated him nicer after that.
2. Faking It All
A colleague I'd been friendly with for 5+ years faked having cancer. She shaved her head, did her makeup to make her look sick, and even started using a cane. I'd always bring her meals, wear the solidarity ribbon, and offer to cover for her if she wasn't feeling well and needed to go home. Finally, one of the other faculty members informed me it was all a ruse.
They all knew and had stopped feeding into it years ago, but whenever they confronted her about it, she denied it.
3. Gospel Of Luke
In fifth grade, at 10 years old, I met two guys, Luke and Peter, with whom I'd become good friends. Fast forward to high school—Luke was dating this girl for most of our senior year. Finally, she broke up with him and several weeks later, Peter started dating her. The day before graduation, Peter got into a physical confrontation with Luke, slamming him to the ground and pummeling him in the face hard enough to lift him up.
Luke then attended graduation with concealing makeup and sunglasses. But the truth came out eventually. It turned out that, at some point, Luke got aggressively physical with the girl over a really petty issue. When Peter found out, he confronted Luke and Luke got lippy with him about it. Some relevant background here—Luke grew up with divorced parents and a wealthy father who threw money at him to "make up" for the parental split, basically giving him what he wanted, when he wanted it.
He had a souped-up sports car his senior year that he did street drag racing with. Peter's parents were also split, except his dad severed all ties with him and his mom, and his stepdad was not a good man. Once Peter was old enough and strong enough, he decided he would never put up with that sort of action from anyone, Luke included.
So, his reaction to Luke's actions toward the girl struck a close nerve, especially because it was someone he'd known for so long. He knew Luke before I did. The last I saw of Luke, he was selling vacuum cleaners for "his business". I'm still good friends with Peter, who is now a lawyer and did child advocacy for a number of years.
4. For The Figure
This was years ago, but I learned from another classmate that my friend's parents were intentionally starving her for some reason unbeknownst to us at the time. She was naturally tiny so I didn't realize, but then her behavior started to change and I knew that she wasn't being treated right. After a while, the younger sister told us the shocking truth.
Their parents wanted her to be skinny (at 12 freaking years old) to look beautiful for an older guy that they'd arranged to be her husband. I don't really know what became of it seeing as I'm no longer in contact with any of my primary school friends, but I can only hope that she's doing well and that her sister didn't have to follow in her footsteps.
5. Karma Comes Back
When I was in the Marine Corps, a guy in my platoon had this young pit bull. She wasn't trained right because he was never home to do it, and when he was home, his way of teaching her was to beat the heck out of her. One day, I saw that the dogs were not there and I asked why. He told me he took her out to the woods and shot her with his .45 because he was sick of her messing up the carpet.
He laughed when he described how he had to shoot her twice because she kept twitching. I was seeing red, and I did what I had to do. I smashed his face as hard as I could. I left and never talked to him again. I found out about three months after I got out that he had passed in an unrelated incident. He apparently choked on his own vomit after passing out while tipsy. Karma, I say.
6. In The Nick Of Time
One day in the seventh grade, my friend slipped a note into my locker. It was signed very fancily, and the handwriting was uncharacteristically impeccable. In homeroom, I took it out of my binder to read it. The friend who gave me the note must have seen me open it because he basically tackled people to get it back. I put it in my binder and refused to give it to him until I read it.
When I got home that afternoon, I finally pulled out the note so I could read it in peace. Apparently, my friend's extreme social awkwardness ran a bit deeper than I thought it had, and he talked about how his lack of other very good friends had pushed him to the breaking point. I texted my friend and told him that we could both be awkward together, and really who needs that many friends? He never replied.
One year later, he texted me out of the blue. He wanted to talk about the note. I had given it back to him the day after I read it and completely forgotten about it in my tumultuous eighth-grade year. Apparently, the note was a very subtle clue that he was going to end it all that night. My text was the only thing that stopped him. He said if I had read it an hour later, he'd be gone.
7. The Worst Kind
A friend of mine from junior high interacted inappropriately with younger kids at an arts camp. He was sentenced to a juvenile detention center for five years—until we finished high school—and I couldn't look at him the same way again. Obviously, I'm not friends with him anymore, and I have a lower opinion of my high school friends who are still good friends with him. How can you be good friends with someone like that?
8. A Bad Read
I went to high school with a guy who turned out to be a child predator. He was wanted by Interpol for human trafficking as well. In school, he was a nice, quiet guy who always showed up for whatever he was involved in. We were in a few clubs together and I never ever picked up on an odd vibe. I feel like I'm pretty good at reading people, but this is the one that completely got by me.
9. The Worst Human
One of the guys in my platoon got married. He's a jerk, of course, and he did it just so he could be allowed to move off base. I'm pretty sure he hit his wife too. Anyway, the whole platoon had a party there, myself included, for his new place. It was pretty cut and dry until three of the guys came back after disappearing for 20 minutes, the new husband included.
He told his very timid and seemingly lonely wife that her kitten ran off and they couldn't catch him. She was devastated, even though she thought he'd probably come back. Fast forward maybe a month. We were sitting in the battalion and it came up in conversation from one of those three guys how funny it was that the "annoying, worthless cat disappeared".
The husband just openly admitted that they ended the kitten's life before they threw it in a dumpster. There were three people involved, and there was nothing I could do about it. The worst part is that I somehow looked like the jerk when I let some of my rage show; as if I was the messed up one for being outraged. As much as I loved the Corps, it really seemed to attract some messed-up individuals.
I don't know about everywhere, but my experience of the infantry mindset is basically "screw everyone and everything that isn't us".
10. Out Of Place
In university, I befriended a guy who was into heavy metal music. He was quite different compared to me. I was sporty and on the university football team, while he was big on metal music and substances. He had come from the other side of the country and I could tell he felt quite lonely. He was also just barely surviving financially.
I used to invite him into my room with some of my other friends, and it would always end up with us talking about conspiracy theories until the early hours. When we were going out, I would drag him with me and I would stick a $20 or so in his pocket. I started a cook-off with him in the halls as he wasn't sure how to cook. I gave him a few recipes and he ran with them.
He was a great guy–we liked totally different things, but at the same time, we connected. Anyway, one of these nights, I forced him out because he was looking homesick in his room. He was tipsy and when we were walking home, he made a confession I've never forgotten. He put his arm around me and said: "You know, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here right now".
I thought he as referring to him being out and about, so I responded, "I know; you were tough to persuade to come out". He then said, "No, not this; I meant that you saved me so many times and you don't know it". Being confused, I asked what he meant. "Dude, I'm so unhappy here that I've thought about ending it all, only for you to come in and start talking to me".
I was in shock. I remember him looking straight at me as if he didn't just confess his darkest secret. He just smiled and motioned to the takeaway stand, asking if I wanted anything and saying that he was buying. A few weeks later, we broke for Christmas and we all went back to where we came from for the holidays. He rang me and he was in the car with a friend driving back to university to get his stuff.
I remember him sounding so relieved. He thanked me for everything. It was only later that I realized the difference I made, and it messed with my head a little bit. I started thinking about how things might have played out if I didn't initiate all of those times. I sincerely hope he's doing well nowadays and that he's no longer feeling homesick.
11. The Momager
I went to school with this one girl in sixth grade. She was very, very skinny and had platinum blond hair. She was super popular, but also a very sweet girl. She wore the shortest shorts and most revealing clothing even before puberty. By the time high school came around, her hair looked terrible. Still platinum blond, but it looked fried; like plastic.
It looked like any second her hair might fall off or something. She was so skinny still, with her bones poking out. She was popular though and always had boyfriends who were allowed to sleep over and stuff. I found out as I became closer to that group that her mom had been bleaching her daughter's hair ever since she was a little girl.
She was naturally a brunette, but her mom wanted a blonde show pony for a daughter. She starved her, criticized her, and got her the skimpy outfits starting in grade school. Her mom was obese as heck and looked like Jabba the Hut with a wig. She was definitely living vicariously through her daughter and wanted her to be blond and skinny to attract male attention.
It was weird as heck. I definitely felt bad for the girl after that and I hope she got away from her horrible mom.
12. The Audacity
My cousin was my best friend. She was a year older than me. We loved anime, and we would stay up to binge-watch Inuyasha or other girly shows. She and her brother even lived with us for a couple of years after CPS took them from their mom. She said we would always be friends and that our kids would grow up with each other as we did. But I just found out it was all a lie.
It turned out that she used to touch my little sister inappropriately when they were alone. I found that out last year. My sister begged me not to confront her. What did she have to say about it? "I'm sorry I did that to you, but I can't remember most of it". All those red flags—my little sister trying to switch rooms, the huge personality change she showed after my cousin moved in—all that time, I thought she was jealous.
Now, that cousin is pregnant, and she lies to everyone saying that my family used to take advantage of her and that she had to run away to a better life. The audacity...
13. Next Of Kin
There was an accident that ended a guy's life. I knew him personally. His parents were left in absolute devastation over the loss of their healthy son, and it nearly ruined them. The mother went on a brutal downward spiral of drinking and substances, and of course, their other son, who has cerebral palsy and an addiction to pain medication, also went off the rails.
A young girl got knocked up by the guy before he passed and she had gone to live across the province with her dad while she had the baby. Ultimately, she gave it up for adoption. Only a small handful of people know, and of course, his parents are not among them. Somewhere out there, his parents have a grandchild they know nothing about, and a kid is out there with the biggest, most loving family you've ever met.
I wonder if he looks like him. The kid would be 18 now and part of me wants to try and find him, but I'd have to give up her secret to do that. It breaks my heart and I'm torn about keeping that knowledge to myself.
14. Two-In-One
I had a friend from work who was older than me. We worked on the bar and spent a lot of time together. He had a twin brother who he always wanted me to meet. He used to like to party and would often tell stories of the crazy ones he had been to. At one point, he got me to come along with him to them and we went out to a few wild ones.
He was a friendly, upbeat guy, but he used to change at a second's notice and become unbearably angry and rude. He used to have these mood swings quite regularly and I started to notice that when he was happy, he would refer to his twin brother as the more serious one and when he was angry his brother would be the upbeat and happy one. The twist was coming.
One Christmas, he bought his family in to show them the restaurant we were working at and his brother never came nor existed. He was his twin brother.
15. State Of Mind
I had a close friend in the eighth grade who clearly had an extremely strained relationship with her mother. Constant fighting, defiance, anger, etc. Any semblance of a bond was simply nonexistent. I always wondered what was up, but, in my youth, I chalked it up to, "Well, we all hate our parents". One day, during a phone conversation—I don't know what topic of conversation proceeded it—her voice began to crack.
She told me: "When I was nine years old, in the summer, my mother told me I was 'out of control' and needed to be helped. She drove me to a hospital, and before dropping me off, told me 'I'll visit you on the weekends.' It was a mental hospital. I stayed there for a few weeks. My father had to do everything in his power to get me out".
I don't remember exactly what I said, except that I was so sorry. Mostly, I just wanted to hug her until she didn't cry anymore. This pops into my head from time to time. We lost touch; I hope life is treating her okay.
16. Parental Misguidance
I went to high school in a small, affluent suburban town. I knew this one girl—we weren't that close, but we had some mutual friends, so we were occasionally in the same circles. She was quiet, a good student, that type. Years later, she became a public advocate for children who had been sold into trafficking. It turned out that starting from the age of 10, her parents had been forcing her into adult work.
This was apparently going on weeknights after school. It messed me up so bad to imagine what she must have gone through, while still having to go to school and be a great student. It also messed me up to think that it could be happening in my own hometown. But the thing that really messed me up was this. Her parents used the money from this to pay for her to go to college, one of the most prestigious public universities in the US.
They really thought they were helping her. It scarred me for life.
17. Creepy Carl
I had a friend from the sixth grade to the 12th. He was never good with the ladies, and people would always call him creepy. Let's call him Carl. I'd talk to girls and ask them their opinion of him, and they'd call him "Creepy Carl". I assumed he was just a weird sixth-grader and thought nothing of it. Time went on and he had a slew of short-lived relationships that always ended badly.
In my mind, I always thought he had bad luck. Some people are just awful, you know? I thought he was just catching the bad ones. Well, come 12th grade, I started hearing some rumors. Rumors that Carl had taken advantage of one of his exes. So I started asking around; asking the friends of the girl that came out against him. Everything came back to him being guilty.
I started getting distant from my old buddy Carl. I didn't know what to do, and I didn't want to ask him about it. He told me that people were spreading lies about him, but that's also what he said years before that. Well, after I started distancing myself, more words came out. Another girl claimed he was aggressive toward her. At that point, I just looked at all the puzzle pieces in front of me.
Two accusations from two separate girls, many failed relationships where he was never the one at fault (apparently), and never hearing a good thing about him from any girl around. I was disturbed. I'd defended him in middle school, saying that he was just misunderstood. But I ultimately bailed. I just stopped talking to him. True or not, I didn't want to associate with a person that volatile.
Shutterstock
18. Woe Is Me
I found out that this girl fully just used people. She used other people to her advantage (mostly monetarily, but also emotionally). She'd get with guys she knew liked her and have them buy her expensive things before breaking things off with them. I found out accidentally when she had a little too much to drink one day and she gleefully told me what she'd done while talking smack about all those guys.
She called them stupid, annoying, etc. We'd been best friends for two years at that point and I had no idea she was even capable of doing such things because she'd always treated me well. I cut her off completely and to this day, she still emails me occasionally telling me of her woe-is-me stories. To think that I called her my best friend.
19. Hidden Red Flags
I knew a guy since my freshman year of high school. We were also roommates for two years in college. He was the nicest guy you could ever meet. But then I found out his dirty secret. Turns, out he was a major trafficker of substances. When he was finally caught, they ended up seizing something like $200,000 dollars worth of cash and pre-paid debit cards.
The entire time I knew him, I had no idea. He drove a 10-year-old car and he still took out student loans, so it wasn't blatantly obvious. It just blew my mind that someone so nice and modest could be into something like that.
20. The Bad Kind Of Spy
A friend of mine who I have known for probably 15 years dropped a doozie on his circle of friends. He was a perfectly normal dude. A little shy and quiet growing up, but he did well in school, loved sports, and always came to hang out whenever the group went somewhere. Then he got taken in by the authorities for voyeurism because he was videotaping dudes using the urinals at the college he had recently graduated from.
Everyone, from all his friends to his siblings to his parents, was shocked that such a mild-mannered, normal dude would do that and never even drop a hint. He ended up getting put on house arrest for a year. I visited a few times, tried to be really supportive, and see him through all of this, but shame seems to have gotten the best of him. He doesn't respond to calls or texts and has just kinda faded away.
I've lost touch with him, but his dad is a family friend so I know he's alive and well. He grew up in a really conservative household and I feel like he just grew up so quiet because his true self was being repressed. Maybe he has always been gay and has been too ashamed to come out. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Who knows? All I know is, either way, I'd love him all the same, and I wish he would get in touch.
21. Quiet Misery
A few weeks ago, one of my close friends told me that he has to make a mental list of reasons not to kill himself every day. As far as I knew, he was completely mentally stable. For all I know, he still is—the way he acts is still very relaxed and he doesn't seem unstable at all. We're also part of a very big group of friends (school band), and he's in a very positive and supporting environment, so I'm not super worried about him.
But it's still something I think about.
22. Punching Bag
A guy I knew told me that one of his friends had been taught his whole life to "never hit a woman". This is usually good advice, but it was a living nightmare for him. He got into a relationship were his girlfriend became physically aggressive, and on one occasion, she broke his hand with a frying pan. He refused to defend himself under the "never hit a woman" belief. Then it got worse.
About a year later, there was a physical fight where the girlfriend threw, yet again, a frying pan. It struck his head, cracked his skull, and he hit the floor. Braindead on impact.
23. TV Famous
My husband's colleague and good friend of ours was caught on the very first episode of To Catch a Predator. After the episode aired, we thought back and realized we had met with him on the day after he was caught. I remember asking my husband if he was okay because he seemed upset. Little did we know, my husband spoke to him after the episode aired.
The guy "swore" that that was the first time he ever did something like that. We never saw or spoke to him again.
24. Well Done
Back in high school, there was this kid who used to hang out every now and then with my group of friends. I suspected the kid was gay due to his mannerisms and way of talking at times, but you could tell he tried his best to hide it. One day, he walked over to us and I asked to borrow his cell phone to make a call since mine had no battery.
He passed it over without thinking twice. I flipped it open, and what I saw made me gasp. There was a picture of a guy's you-know-what that he had been looking at. I just exited the picture and placed my phone call, but he was obviously horrified at what had just taken place. After the phone call, I handed him back the phone and he promptly left.
The next day, he avoided looking my direction in class and the usually cheerful guy was quiet and withdrawn. He was like that for a day or two and I realized he was scared that I might say something or judge him for what I saw, etc. So I approached him and spoke to him as if nothing had happened and he began acting like his old self soon after. We never spoke about it and I had never said anything to anyone until now.
25. A Smart Guy's Secrets
During my senior year of high school, we had a student teacher in our Government/Economics class. It was interesting because our actual professor didn't care for having them—he told us he hadn't had a student teacher in years, but this guy had all sorts of recommendations and academic achievements. The dude was born a valedictorian. Quiet, a little dorky, but otherwise fine.
He led the class a few times. As the semesters went by, we all got to know him and he was still quiet and dorky, but we all got along well. Cut to the summer after senior year—he popped up in the state newspaper. Apprehended in conjunction with a human trafficking ring (I went to high school in Arizona). Holy heck, you know?
26. A Senseless Loss
My friend got a divorce and was living in an apartment by himself. He needed a roommate, so I packed up and moved in with him. I knew he had a kid who had passed just a year prior, so I thought he probably felt lonely. One night, we were drinking and he started going on about how he was a jerk and deserved not to live anymore.
I knew what he was talking about, so I grabbed him by the shoulder and told him there was nothing he could have done. He broke down and told me the awful truth about that night. He told me he was playing WoW and the kid wouldn't shut up, so he grabbed him by the mouth and held him until he stopped screaming. The kid was only six months old.
He thought he just passed out, so he went back to playing. A half an hour or so later, he went to check on him and he wasn't breathing. He tried CPR. Nothing. He held his child until the ambulance arrived. He lied to them and to this day, everyone thinks it was a freak accident. I never told anyone before now. It was pretty heavy and he was such a nice guy that it messed up my entire outlook on things.
I'm a father now too, and thinking about it brings up a lot of conflicting emotions. He tried ending himself a year after I moved out. I figured him living with what he had done was punishment enough.
27. Punishing The Victim
I had a friend that I knew for four years. She was so quiet and sweet, then we all moved to different colleges and I found out she had to drop out of college to live in a sort of mental hospital. Apparently, her uncle had been touching her inappropriately since she was nine and she had tried to kill herself multiple times out of her misery.
The worst part was that she was of a South Asian background and her parents were very traditional (and cruel, it seems), so they refused to see her. They couldn't live with the fact that she had been touched by another man and would apparently never be able to get married. It must suck when your friends care so much more about you than your own parents.
28. Missed Connection
When I was young, my best friend went to a different school. There was a girl in his class who he was secretly in love with, and he had been for years. She was pretty, athletic, and well-liked, while he (like me) was a bookish nerd. In eighth grade, she passed in a car accident. Occasionally, our schedules would be different and I'd have a day off when he had school.
So I'd visit his school and pretend to be different made-up characters, basically just using a fake name and saying I was from out of town. I knew a few people from my friend's school who didn't know that I lived nearby and saw him all the time. After my friend's crush passed, one of these people, who had been close with the girl, told me that she had a secret to tell me.
It was one she could only tell me because I lived far away and didn't really know anyone involved. She told me that the girl who passed had also been secretly in love with my best friend. It's been almost 20 years now, he's still my best friend, he's married, and I've never told him. I never will.
29. Dangerous Youth
When I was in third grade, I used to hang out with this kid and my parents used to be really weird about it. They always told me to be with an adult and never hang out with him alone. Once, I hung out with him alone and my parents were livid when I told them. We were only friends for about a year as we ended up moving away to a new province.
When I was old enough, my parents told me the reason why they were so cautious—the kid had touched other children. He seemed so normal and we were so young. I have no idea what happened to him or anything.
30. The Real Reason
I got teased very badly in middle school by a kid. He was the reason for me attempting to take my life. In high school, I came out as gay and nobody really bullied me after that. I was everyone's favorite gay, if you will. My oppressor sat next to me in history class. He was gone often and would tell people he was skipping. He had these bumps on his arm that were fluid-filled and he said they were from a 4-wheeler accident.
I pulled him aside one day and told him I knew he wasn't being truthful. That's because I knew what was really going on. I said, "I know those bumps are from dialysis. I'm here for you. I won't tell anyone else". He broke down and came clean about everything. He needed a kidney and he found out in middle school. That's why he picked on me.
He didn't know how to deal with it. We're really good friends now, but knowing that he was a kid trying to deal with possibly losing his life was crazy.
31. Freaky Fiance
I found out that a friend's fiance was on parole for breaking into a stranger's home in the middle of the night and hurting a woman while her young child was asleep in another room. He also took her wallet and jewelry when he left. He had served several years and was on parole when she met him. She knew and she didn't care; it was only an issue because another felon on parole moved in with family in the apartment next to theirs.
She was afraid that her fiance's parole officer would tell them that they had to move, and she liked where they lived.
32. Plot Twist
One of my "friends" came over two weeks ago after being gone for two years. He told us all about how he almost got into trouble because he got tipsy at a house party and was found sleeping in a 14-year-old's bed. There was an investigation and apparently, they found both of them sleeping with their clothes on with separate blankets. They ultimately both denied it so they dropped the case.
He later got tipsy and told my roommate that he actually did sleep with her. We aren't friends anymore.
33. A Sudden Goodbye
I had a friend in high school who was a very charming and nice guy. He got great marks, loved sports, and was always involved in extracurriculars. He was very social, good looking, and he had a girlfriend. It's weird how people always say this, but everyone DID like him. He was just an honest, friendly guy. Then came a big shocker.
He ended his life just last year. They found him in his closet. He was 16 years old. I don't think I'll ever forget walking out of the car rental place and getting the call from a friend that he's gone now.
34. Ugly Duckling
I have this friend who I go to school with. We usually play Counterstrike together and hang out during lunch. He was one of the quiet kids (mainly because he had Asperger's). One day, while having lunch, I noticed this mark around his neck and asked him about it. He said that it was from the time when his mom tried to hurt him because he was too "ugly".
At first, I thought it was a joke, but then some of my other friends asked more about it and he told them that his mom was a psychopath. She's currently locked up. It kind of messed with my head for a while.
35. Second Option
My brother's girlfriend started crying, and I asked why. I wish I never heard her reply. She told me she was only with him so she could spend more time with me because she loved me but never had the courage to ask me out. Essentially, she just settled for my brother. They broke up a few months later. I never got with her, nor did I tell my brother what happened.
36. Diplomat Daddy
My friend told me that his dad wasn't really a diplomat. In reality, he was an addict who OD'd and passed. All those years he was "abroad," he was actually six feet under. I know it could happen to anyone, but the guy is so polished, well adjusted, and just awesome. You'd never be able to tell he comes from such a place of hurt. He told me all the messed-up stuff his dad did to his family before he passed.
Apparently, he even broke into their place and took all their valuables to sell for money.
37. A Blood-Stained Past
One of my buddies and I were pledging the same fraternity when he dropped a big secret. I knew he was from some country in Africa, but he had been very private about it for the most part. Now I know the real reason why. He had been taken from his village in Uganda when he was very young and forced to watch his family perish.
38. Best Man, Worst Woman
At my wedding reception, the best man's wife got tipsy enough to confess to me that she was in love with my brand-new husband. She confessed that she had been for years, but "the timing was never right" for them to be together. She then rambled on about how maybe, someday, they would both be single at the same time...
39. The Story Checks Out
"Dude. My dad straight up ended someone's life once". "Dave, shut up". "No seriously, he told me he did. He dumped his body in the ocean. The authorities questioned him, but they didn't have any evidence". Turns out, his dad did spend some time amount of time behind bars, and Dave talked about all the substances his dad used to do. His story, unfortunately, seems plausible.
40. That Night
A girl who was my best friend ended up confessing to me in freshmen year that ever since she was young, her father had touched her inappropriately. I told her to not go back home that day and she could stay at my place for however long she wanted. I explained this to my parents who then called the authorities and let her stay at my place until the officers showed up to bring her in for questioning.
After a few more years of not seeing her, she added me on Facebook and thanked me for everything I did for her. Turns out, she went into foster care and moved in with a family all the way to Ottawa. Pretty sad story, but her life has gotten much better. I just wish I could've done more.
41. Never The Same
The FBI showed up at my best friend's dorm room one day. I overheard them questioning him. He'd been downloading sensitive videos and he told them the details of what he'd search for, etc. Apparently, they'd been tracking his computer for a while. He'd been doing this a long time. It really messed me up. Made me question how I could not have seen it in him, and thus, moving forward, I questioned nearly every decision I ever made. I still have a hard time coping. Feels good to let it out.
42. Blocked Out
One of my first boyfriends was really skittish about trying anything remotely intimate. I figured it was just because I was his first girlfriend and he was nervous. He ended up telling me that he was taken advantage of when he was seven years old at an amusement park. He got separated from his parents and a "nice man" was leading him to get help, or so he thought.
He had been repressing those memories for quite some time, and I guess his new exploration of intimacy triggered him. Despite my recommendation not to, he wound up looking into the official report (or whatever documentation it was)—he was shocked to see what it said. He thought he had just been inappropriately touched, but it turns out, he was the victim of much, much worse.
Blocking out the bad stuff is a real thing, I learned. Hearing that dark secret at 15 years old really got to me. I never told anyone.
43. Locomotive Bandit
A friend of mine who I hadn't known for long at the time told me to Google his name. When I did, a news article came up saying how he'd stolen thousands of dollars worth of wiring from train tracks, caused nearly half a million dollars worth of damage, and messed with the city's entire public transport system. He was a very interesting dude. I found out a lot of surprising things about him.
44. Staying Close
In high school, while we were tipsy, my friend took out a photo of the girl she babysits. She pointed at her and said, "That's MY baby". I just laughed and was like, "That is not your baby and thank GOD". That's when she gave me a look I'll never forget. She said, "I have to tell you something".
She confessed that the little girl she babysits is actually her child that she gave up for adoption a few years ago. I had no idea my good friend, who is a lesbian, had a child at 14. Not to mention a child that I'd met before.
45. The Unknowing Savior
I found out that my friend debated about jumping in front of a car to end herself. She did this every day after school, without fail. She also told me that I was usually the one to stop her whenever I said bye or something. This messed me up for a while.
46. Miss Perfect
My childhood best friend's mom was Miss Perfect. She always had the best snacks made for playdates, her house was perfectly neat, her hair perfectly combed, and she was everyone's softball coach, girl scout leader, class mom—everything! My own mom said that when she used to see her when picking us kids up from school, Miss Perfect's breath ALWAYS smelt minty fresh. Like, she was so perfect.
I am in college now and I recently attended her funeral. Turns out, she was a savage drinker. Her breath always smelt minty fresh from mouthwash to cover up the stench of her drink. She literally destroyed herself with her addiction. So sad. Literally what seemed like the perfect woman was actually deteriorating over the span of 10 years. I have no idea what she was going through to this day.
47. The Secret Revealed
One of the funniest guys to be around in high school had a paraplegic brother who was slowly dying throughout our time together. I only found out after we graduated that he even had a brother and that he had passed a few nights before prom. It really put a different perspective on all the memories we had together and the fun times we had.
Who knew that all the while he was quietly dealing with that by himself. Really hit me hard when I found out.
48. Craving Normalcy
In high school, I had a friend from another school who one day just suddenly passed from leukemia. I didn't even know he was sick, but that's not the worst part. We were actually dating secretly. We had one mutual friend who introduced us in passing and she didn't even know we ended up becoming a thing. A couple of months into it, she came to school and told me his secret.
I checked his Facebook page and it was flooded with comments and messages of people paying respects. At first, I felt betrayed about not being told; then I felt petty. Eventually, I realized that he probably never told me because he liked feeling normal, rather than having some girl treating him like a frail, sickly teenager. I still miss him, though.
49. Escaping Home
This girl I knew in high school was on the same rugby team as me. Ever since the spring season started, she began showing up to practice more and more infrequently. The coach always told us to stop asking about her and he never said anything against her not showing up, but he was rude to the rest of the other players who skipped or slacked off.
Cut to our quarterfinals tournament—she finally showed up, except something was horribly wrong. For one, she was crying. She was still determined to play, though, and played aggressively well against the other teams. I later found out that she lived in a dangerous household and she finally got emancipated that week. Throughout the two years that I had known her, she never gave any indication of anything like that.
As far as I know, no one else knew what was happening either. It came as a total surprise to me and really opened my eyes. It made me wonder for the first time if anyone else I knew was being covertly taken advantage of at home.
50. Canine Cruelty
I went to visit my best friend after we hadn't seen each other for a while. I asked about her smaller dog, who wasn't at the house anymore. Back story about this dog: he was bought as a puppy and when his owner was going through a divorce, he put the dog in a basement. The only interactions he had with people were negative ones, so over time, he became aggressive toward people.
The original owner was putting him down and my friend decided to rescue and rehab him. She had him for a couple of years, and when I went to see her, he wasn't there anymore. So when I asked what happened, I was horrified at her answer. She apparently had gotten upset that he peed on the carpet, and she decided to drive him to a dirt road by the airport to leave him there.
She laughed when she told me that he ran after the car...you know, in a way where you could tell she expected me to find it funny too. I was livid; shaking. I left and never talked to her again.
Sources: Reddit
.jpg){kind=link}
