There are two ways to stab someone in the back: physically and metaphorically. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which one hurts more. It’s never a good time when someone you thought you could trust betrays that feeling completely, and it can leave a nasty wound on your psyche much like a blade can on your body. Thankfully, all wounds heal, and there are always people out there that will help you recover. Chances are if someone stabbed you in the back, they weren’t that great anyways—and these Redditors know that better than anyone.
1. Wanna See a Card Trick?
In 2014, I woke up on New Years Day in horrible pain. I ended up needing emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder. I was a single mom to two kids under five and had just moved back to my hometown after living out of state. We'd had to leave a really bad living situation and had only been back about a month and I had not found a job at that point.
I had had a really close family friend who had been living with me before I had moved back and he ended up homeless so I bought him an $80 bus ticket and got him back to our hometown and let him stay with me a few days. He quickly found another place to stay, but we had invited him to my youngest son's second birthday, which is January 6.
I was like four days out from surgery and could barely make it down my stairs at this point, so he offered to go and pick up the pizza and cake for my son for me. We didn’t have a huge party or anything. I was on food stamps and had cash assistance since my son’s dad was not involved at all and did not pay child support. Even so, I offered for him to get himself a small pizza to take back to the girl he was staying with since her and her kids couldn't make it over.
So party goes great, everyone has a good time, especially both my kids. A few days later, my grandma was going to go grocery shopping for me, so I go to get my card and realize it's not there. I never got it back from the guy, and I forgot he even had it since I was all doped up on pain meds from surgery. I tried calling him like five times and he didn’t answer, so I get onto my account online to check my balance and he took everything.
I had like $600 in cash (paid my rent and bought my kids the things they needed), and then I had like $750 in food stamps. All of it was gone. He let the girl he was staying with convince him to take my money from me. I'd only used the money to buy the bus ticket, and the pizza and cake for my son since I'd been in the hospital for the first four days of the year and only home for two after that.
It is still to this day the most intentionally screwed up thing anyone has ever done to me, mostly because it was such a huge screw you to my kids. Like who steals from a single mom recovering from a lifesaving surgery, on her kid’s birthday? Especially after I helped him! Like wow.
2. Betrayal Before the Big Screen
Made plans to go see a movie with my friends for my 16th birthday and planned it weeks in advance. Everybody bailed the day before/of, but I decided to still go see the movie. Ran into my whole group of friends leaving the movie theater while buying popcorn.
3. Trading Up
Dated this girl for three years and loved her, then she broke up with me for the dumbest reasons. I was pretty hurt and my best friend of 14 years goes to her side and didn't ask me how I was at all. They ended up talking and are now currently dating, and I haven't talked to him since. Everything works out in the end because I found an even better girl, so it's all good now.
Still won't talk to my friend though.
4. Get Less Emotional
Best friend stopped talking to me after my dad passed. Took the whole friend group with him. Apparently I was "too emotional". I was 13. Having my entire friend group walk away from me when I was in such a bad place stuck with me forever.
5. Commander Take Command
Former "best friend," college and med-school roommate, banged and knocked up my ex-wife while I was deployed on the USS Nimitz (big loud aircraft carrier) for six months. Plus, the two jerks freaking wrecked and almost destroyed the 1965 Ford Thunderbird my grandfather passed down to me. I knew it was going to be a good divorce proceeding when the judge kept referring to me as "Commander cgludko, sir" during the hearing. He was a former junior JAG officer.
6. No Vacancy
Asked two of my friends if they wanted to live together in college. Then one of them asked another person in our friend group if he wanted to join in as well. Then they asked another...and another. And then once there were too many people for one apartment, they dropped me out of it. No longer "friends" with any of them.
Was kind of a wake up call though because I definitely gave way too much of myself to those people not knowing that I was the most expendable one. It really taught me not to put others on a pedestal and respect myself more and has since led to me developing far more healthy relationships that bring me a lot of happiness.
7. Bad, Bad Girlfriend
I was in what I later realized was a very bad relationship, but at the time, this dude was like a religion to me. I was crazy about him. My best friend at the time was sort of a "mean girl," but I wasn't very good at making friends so I put up with her being cruel to people. She would never do anything to hurt me right?
Anyway, that relationship started getting abusive, but I kept with it because you know; I was young and stupid. I convinced myself that if I tried a little harder, everything would just fix itself. It didn't, and after a few months, we broke up. Sometime later I was at a party, and my "friend" was a bit tipsy. She told me (laughing the entire time) how she and this jerk were sleeping with each other two weeks after we started dating.
She details how they would sleep together while he was talking to me on the phone and then laugh about it. She went on to detail all of the ways and places they used to sneak around to sleep with each other. And this was the girl I would cry to when my ex would hurt me. She didn't seem to have any idea that what she was saying was screwed up.
She actually thought that I would think it was funny too.
8. Snooping for Better and Worse
Best mate from school decided he liked my girlfriend. Her phone went off while it was sitting in front of me one day and I noticed it was from him so I glanced at the message…and my stomach dropped. "I'm so in love with you too, I just don't know what to tell him but I guess it’s his problem, not ours babe".
9. Plot Twist on the Playground
I had one friend. I was bullied by everyone at elementary school. Because my friend would be bullied too when they hung out with me at school, we only played outside of school. One day a popular kid asked to play with me during recess. I was ecstatic! Until after a while they said, "You're not as bad as 'friend' said you are".
And that's how I learned why I was bullied.
10. Stealing Bones
11 years ago my husband had a bone marrow transplant. While we were in the big city for this (three months) we had friends and family taking up donations and paying our bills with them. One of these "friends" kept the money for herself and let our bills go in arrears. When I found this out, my husband was basically fighting to live through the worst part of the recovery process of a bone marrow transplant. Made me sick.
11. Wow, Mom
My mother told me she was sick of being with dad. She told me a bunch of things he'd done which made her afraid of him. She asked me to tell a few of her close friends about how she was being treated, because she wanted them to understand why she was leaving. Then she decided to stay with him. So she told her friends that she had no idea what was wrong with me. She literally said they should pray for me because it looked like I was going through something.
My own mother stabbed me in the back.
12. Friends Close, Victims Closer
I had one "friend" who would steal from friends pretty regularly. One time I had a small social gathering (six or seven people) and my new smartphone went missing. Jerk helps me look for the phone in my house for over an hour, later on I see my phone in his room on his desk. I just took it back, no words were exchanged. I just stopped talking to him altogether after that.
Later, he was at a mutual friend's party. Her 80gb iPod goes missing. Me and some other friends were suspicious that it was him, so the next day we called up the local pawn shop and described the iPod. Pawnshop guy said he got one that day. Sure enough, it was under the jerk’s name. Pawnshop owner offered to call 9-1-1. We declined. We approached the jerk and told him we knew. He tried to deny it, but we managed to shame him into admitting it.
Forget people who steal from friends.
13. The Worst Part is Not Knowing
Been very good friends for over two years. Their roommate moved out and they asked me if I want to move into their spare room. I was very happy to live with my good friends and I did everything I could to be the best roommate possible. After three weeks they found another source of income and kicked me out. First, they offered to help me find another accommodation but the next day they changed their mind and just told me to leave by the end of the month (it was seven days until the end of the month).
They didn't speak to me ever again. When we met somewhere in town they acted like they’d never seen me before. I have no freaking idea what I did wrong.
14. Screw It, Joining the Navy
In high school I was in love with one of my best friends (I'll call her Jackie). Jackie and I dated a little bit then right before prom I found out she was screwing my other best friend (I'll call him Sam). Turned out they were going to prom together and had planned on never even coming to pick me up. I confronted him about it and he spread rumors around the school that I smacked Jackie around and emotionally abused her.
I found this out when I arrived at the prom and had a mob of people drag me behind the hotel and beat me until I couldn't scream anymore. Nobody ever believed that they lied so I joined the Navy to get away instead of going to the college I had planned on attending with my friends.
15. Wedding Blues
Saw someone giving me a hug and told everyone I was cheating on my fiancé. Our wedding was to be at the "cheater's" house and the backlash was devastating. We canceled the wedding and got married at the courthouse. My relationship with both of them has changed forever
16. The Real Mean Girls
A "quiet" girl I made "friends" with would only sit with me in class just so she could go snitch about me to my ex-friends. She would literally sit next to me for one or two classes (randomly) then go sit with them (later). I called her out on it after she came to sit next to me and told her, "Why do you even bother sitting with me, when we both know you’re just trying to get stuff to talk about me with them? When I come back from the bathroom you better go sit somewhere else".
I was usually very quiet and that was the first time I stood up for myself.
17. Back "Fired"
Brought a friend into a company based on my backing him because he had zero verifiable work experience. Long story short, he ended up going around making up stuff about me to my boss, got the position I was supposed to get as supervisor, and ended up getting me fired from the job I got him in the first place. I hate that greasy loser.
18. Some Friend
We (my husband and I) had a friend who we helped get back on his feet. Paid off some tickets he had. Got his license reinstated. Hooked him up with a solid connection for a reasonable, well-running car to replace his beater...AND gave him a place to live and a job (automotive repair). He decided it was a better choice to tell all our customers we were overcharging them (spoiler: we weren’t) and he’d do the jobs cheaper if they’d bring it to him at his house (This was a short time after he moved out of our house, after never repaying anything he owed us. Not that we’d asked). Broke my heart...
19. Ripped
Years ago when I did a health sciences undergraduate degree most of my cohorts were determined to get into medical school. Our medical school program mainly accepted students from only our competitive undergraduate course due to subject prerequisites. We all knew each other and were friendly, hanging out together and forming study groups.
Many of my friends were great. We shared tips, resources, practiced exams and interviews together. But there were a handful who really wanted to get into medical school, and since the program ranks applicants mainly based on undergraduate results, the better your friends perform, the lower your ranking is for selection. So near application time, some of us would head off to the university library to borrow out textbooks to find chapters or page numbers that the lecturer mentioned would be on the exam…
…And they would be ripped out. You'd go and find another library copy of the textbook, and that page would be ripped out too. All of them, totally removed in a hurry. I didn't believe that any of my friends did it—but I was so wrong. Once the interview process began, students started obtaining copies of the questions from previous years and lying when others asked if they had it.
I saw someone give a terrible, awful interview answer and the other student would give them glowing feedback and inform them they should say that, word-for-word, during the interview. It was a nightmare and a lot of relationships fell apart, or were never the same again.
20. Looted
As roommates in college we purchased furniture and electronics for the house, the agreement being that when we graduated and moved out that one would buy the other out. The day comes when my roommate begins packing up for his new job in another city. I say my goodbyes and head to work for the day. I return eight hours later to an empty house. That jerk took everything he could.
21. Soap-Opera Level Betrayal
Had a good bud of mine who's the godfather of my son, living with me and my wife. I travel a lot for work and was out of the country for about six months in the Middle East. Came back and found out she was pregnant with twins, and that they weren't mine.
22. Chinese Overtime
My best friend and best man at my wedding offered me a job as a restaurant manager for $3,000 salary per month. As soon as my family moved there and signed the lease on our new place he gave the job to someone else and put me in the dish room. He expected me to work overtime every week and when I told him I deserved to be paid for overtime he called it "Chinese overtime".
I got even by waiting for the orders to pile up when he wasn’t there and then I walked out. Then later, I finally found out why it all happened—and I’m still utterly furious about it. Apparently, all that torment was because his wife wanted to have a threesome with me and I had refused.
23. What Party?
One of my most painful memories from elementary school was when I saw one of my friends showing other kids pictures from her birthday party that happened the weekend prior. Almost all of my good friends were there having a blast with her...except me, obviously. She seemed remorseful when she realized that she "forgot to invite me"...but we were never as close after that.
And we were pretty good friends with each other, too.
24. Sinners Never Prosper, Duh
My son was born with a serious congenital heart defect and underwent open-heart surgery when he was only two weeks old. My best friend at the time said he was coming to the hospital to visit us. I had known this guy for years, been in his wedding, and been in third world countries on humanitarian missions with him. We were close.
The guy said he was coming down that afternoon, but he never showed. I called to see if he was still coming and got his voicemail. I never heard from him again. Found out my "friend" thought my son deserved the heart defect because he was conceived out of wedlock.
25. Surprise Witness
A woman I thought was my friend (we worked together for years, our kids were friends, I helped her and her husband out when he was having mental health problems, she was in my sister's wedding party) appeared in court as a witness for my ex-wife in her bid to gain full custody. THANKFULLY she failed and I now have custody of my kids.
I haven't spoken to my "friend" since.
26. Taking the Credit
While freelancing on a sweet gig that came out of the blue, I found out that I would be working with Sean, a guy who was in my group at a former ad agency. Awesome, a friendly face. Sean was a geek. No one liked him and as his associate creative director (supervisor) I looked out for him. He seemed to try hard and I didn't understand why everyone excluded him—unfortunately, I had to learn that the hard way.
During two rounds of layoffs, I went to bat for the guy and saved his job, promising to work with him. He was always busy and, soon after I moved on to a new job. So I looked forward to working with him some more and proving those mean jerks from our old agency wrong. While working this freelance job, l sensed something was wrong soon after it began...
Sean had no ideas. None! He literally brought a blank pad in day after day. Excuses were that he was tired, the assignment confused him, etc. I was nervous, but I was stuck. So, since we were on a team, I shared my ideas, our only ideas, with him. We had to present an hour after lunch. During lunch, I had to go to a doctor's appointment with my wife, who was seriously ill.
On my way back to the office the cab I was in had an accident. A jerk in a Lexus slammed into us. No one was hurt but it totaled both cars. Further, I didn't feel comfortable leaving the cabbie, as he was foreign and spoke little English. The guy who hit us was ranting, so I stayed to give a statement to the authorities. I called Sean to explain and asked if he minded handling the meeting and asked him to relay my situation.
Then…the jerk presented MY work, claimed it was all his, and they sent me home because "Sean nailed it". Salt in the wound? Took nine months to get paid for the time I did put in. All along, I tried to explain, but no one believed me. He copied my notes in his own writing and submitted them as proof. As far as they were concerned, I was riding this guy's coat-tails. I could have kicked his nuts for a week without getting bored.
Two months later, he was found out when he tried it again. Dozens of former coworkers called to rub my nose in it. "Still think we were just picking on Sean?" I learned that sometimes people are shunned because they deserve it.
27. Flip-Flopper
A guy who seemed like a good mate when it was just us, and then as soon as there was someone else, or a group, he totally changed and tried to make me the butt of all jokes. Even worse if there were girls around. After a while, I called him out on it, and he was just like "Dude, it's just a joke," but I was done with him after that.
I saw him randomly earlier this year, after years of no contact, and it was amicable, and we caught up a bit on how we're getting on with our lives, and while he has grown up and become a bit more grounded, there's been no intention of rebuilding a bridge. I think if I ever met someone who has that side to their personality, I'd drop them like a hot potato.
28. Ring Heist Time
He stole my fiancé from me, just married her using the ring that YOURS TRULY bought. Profile picture now features her holding her hand up with that ring and everyone is pretending he bought it for her.
29. Supernaturally Fanatical
A girl I knew in college invited me over with her friends to watch Supernatural or something like it. I wasn't a fan of the show or whatever. Afterwards I was like, "It was alright". I thought she was fine with this. She was not. She smashed a lamp into my face. It didn't break, but it did hurt. She kept telling me how wrong I was. Her friends told me she is just like that.
30. Pure Jealousy
My buddy introduced me to a lady-friend of his at a party. I took an interest in her, asked my buddy if he was cool with me asking her out and he told me to go for it. She and I had what I thought was a great date. My buddy called me the next day to tell me that the lady wasn't interested and couldn't see a way to let me down gently, so she asked him to tell me to break all contact.
About two months later, I was drunk-dialing various folks, decided to call the lady up and ask her why she had blown me off. She said that my buddy had told her that I wasn't interested and that I wouldn't be calling her anymore.
31. Stolen Comfort
This is not my worst story, but it's definitely the weirdest. I lived with this crazy girl a few years back. She was a fun roommate but her crazy got old pretty fast. She decided to move out, which was great because I was done with her drama and really wanted the place to myself. My first night in the place by myself was fantastic, it was quiet and clean and I couldn't wait to fall asleep.
I crawled into bed and pulled my comforter over me...but my comforter felt weird. It felt almost flat. Well that didn't make any sense because I had a very expensive fluffy down comforter. I checked under my duvet cover and that jerk switched out my comforter with her dirty nasty Walmart comforter! Who the heck steals someone's comforter?!
32. New Glue Jeans
I had some "friends" who were always talking smack about me (found out from another good friend). One day I came to school in my brand new jeans that cost around €150 and they put glue on my chair while I was in the bathroom. I sat on it. I asked which one of them did it, none of them said a word. We went to the principal's office and these jerks had the guts to say that I put it there to get them in trouble.
Their parents were called and I earned around €200 and a new pair of jeans.
33. Literally
I had a friend who actually stabbed me in the back. He was screwing around with a throwing star and launched it in my general direction trying to scare me. Went in about an inch at the deepest spot. I was so angry.
34. The List
In seventh grade she wrote a 10-page letter on all the reasons I should kill myself, and had all but one of my friends sign in agreement after I confided in her that I felt like something was wrong with me (early undiagnosed depression—go figure). The day she gave it to me was arguably the worst day of my life. It also just so happened to coincide with my parents telling my sister and I that they were considering divorce, and my grandmother passing.
35. It Looks Nice…On Me
My best friend through high school went with me to pick out a winter coat. I'd saved all summer so that I could get a cool one since my aunt and uncle couldn't afford much. Found one I loved, but she talked me out of it saying it was really weird and people would make fun of me. The next day the jerk wore that jacket I'd loved to school.
36. Beards Heal All Wounds
Told a friend a secret in high school "I suffer from major depression and social anxiety, don’t tell anyone, I’m seeing a therapist". That took a lot for me to say. I was making progress. Friend proceeded to tell the entire class. People thought I was crazy. That’s high school. I stopped being friends with the few friends I had. I was more alone. I graduated high school with zero friends. Thanks…
Don’t worry though, in college I blossomed into a bearded man with no fears. Life has been swell ever since.
37. Your Kids Will be Fine
I had a friend for 20 years. He called me at night to ask to borrow $3,600. It was for his last year of a degree and would get him a raise when he graduated. At the time, I was making quite a bit of money and had lots in the bank. He said he would pay me back in a year. Three years later, after the crash, he still had not paid me back and was constantly giving me lame excuses like, he "needs three vacations a year" and "is saving to buy a house".
My situation had changed and he was still not only refusing to pay me back but still asking for favors and loans. I finally said I was broke to which he replied, "You are stupid, I am never going to pay you back or help you out". I dropped him as friend and have had very little contact with him since. He did hire my wife at a company he manages. I guess I should have seen this coming.
I had just gotten married and had two kids. Another time he said, "Your kids aren't starving!" He always just thought of himself. Could not care about anybody else. I guess I thought he was funny. Listened to his gross stories and finally enough was enough. Last time I talked to him as a friend he was asking me to get him some marijuana. I said it was way out of my way. I was too busy.
He said, "Too much to ask for eh?" I said, "Well, what would you do for me?" When you grow up with a guy, it just seems it is too hard to recognize he isn't really a friend. Kept this inside for a while. Don't have any friends from high school anymore because they were all like this. Should have hung out with a better class really.
38. Brushed Off Again and Again
My roommate, and supposedly my best female friend, slept with my ex-fiancé. In our bed. Every day. For three months. While living with us because her mom kicked her out. When I found out it wasn't one of my more lady-like moments. Just a word of advice if I may; though it is natural to go after "the mistress," don't let the SO get out of it.
Especially if he's STILL defending her even after she moves out. Also, "Once a cheater, always a cheater" is most certainly a very true cliché. Lastly, not many two straight adults of opposite sexes will watch dirty videos together just because they can, usually they're involved. If you catch your SO doing so with anyone who isn't you, don't brush it off.
39. Rumors in the Hospital
I was in the hospital having my first child. Two of my friends were going around telling anyone who would listen that my boyfriend wasn't the father. My boyfriend never doubted me, and our son looks just like a mini version of him. 15 years and three more kids later, the boyfriend is now my husband and those "friends" have been out of our lives for a long time now.
40. Stabbed in the Back (Side)
Chilling on the bus in first grade, a friend and I were standing up talking to someone in front of us. We finished talking and I jumped back down into my seat. Another friend to my left thinks it would be funny to grip a pencil down to the seat, sharp side up, beneath my butt as I sat down. Queue full-force sit-down on a sharpened pencil.
Thankfully it only hit the cheek and didn't go...well I don't like to think about what could have happened.
41. She Definitely Didn’t Like You
My friend was dating a girl who I could tell just didn't like me, but at least we were civil to one another…until the camping trip on the May 24 holiday weekend. She was adamant about keeping our drinks separate, that was fine. I had my Bud, they had their Mike’s Hard Lemonade’s, fine. Then I got up early on the first morning and made pancakes for everyone. Why? Because that's just how I roll.
When the campers rolled out of their tents to the smell of apple cinnamon pancakes and campfire coffee, she was the only one to flip out. I'd gone into HER cooler and used HER margarine. My buddy just looked pained and tried to keep the peace as I tossed her a toonie and apologized. Her reaction was to grab a lock from his gym bag and lock "their tent" with "their booze" and "their food".
Later, he came to me and asked if he could borrow the car so that they could run into town, get some condoms and have some words about being a bit easier with the other campers. I said okay and handed him the keys—and it turned out to be a horrible mistake. When they returned hours later the tank was empty and the field kitchen (a wooden box w/ straps called a wannigan w/ plates, cutlery pots and pans etc.) was missing from the back of the station wagon.
We searched the camp, nothing. It was my dad's and had been handed down in the family for generations. I drove off to fill the tank and buy a new tub of margarine, and was halfway down the country road when I saw the wannigan on the side of the road, smashed in the ditch. There were marks along the back panels beside the flattened down seats where one of them had clearly pushed it out the back of the moving car.
After piling it all, stunned, piece by piece back into the wagon, I gassed up and drove back, then packed up. Not a word was said by anyone, until I tore up the camping permit and peeled out with their shouts behind me in the dust. Never spoke to either one of them again.
42. The Ultimate Revenge
My "best friend" and I worked together for three years at a restaurant. I was the night manager and was really cool with all of the employees, but especially her. We hung out outside of work all the time, she went with me to the beach and carnivals with my kids, who adored her. She started dating this guy at work who was slowly becoming a drug addict.
I could see it (my crackhead aunt made it easy to spot) but no one else could. After he screwed up for the 10th time in a week and started nodding out at the sink, he was fired by my boss on a Saturday. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was going to lead to the most terrifying night of my life. The following Monday night, at closing time, he came in the backdoor wearing a ski mask.
I was walking towards the front door to lock it when I was grabbed from behind and felt something cold against my neck. It took me a second to realize it was a knife. He said, "Get me the money," but I couldn't move. I was literally paralyzed with fear. My brain was screaming at me to move towards the register but my feet just wouldn't move. He screamed, "Give me the money!" again but I was frozen.
He then dragged me to the register, made me open it, grabbed a fistful of 20s, and ran out the back. My best friend at the time this whole thing went down? Conveniently, in the bathroom. I was still in shock trying to explain to the officers on the phone what had just happened. When I hung up the phone, she asked what had happened and I told her I had just been robbed at freaking knifepoint.
Her exact response was, "I hope no one thinks I had anything to do with this". Ummmm what? So long story short, they find the guy (I told them I recognized his voice) and he rats her out on the set up (the "set up" was her texting him an all clear when only she and I were in the building).
He didn’t have to though, she quit the next day. And stopped replying to my texts. When I found out I was heartbroken. This is someone who was around my kids regularly. I was diagnosed with extreme anxiety and PTSD after being robbed and still have flashbacks randomly. If someone comes up behind me and startles me I panic.
The amount of money my life was worth to them? $440 The punishment they received? He got two years in lockup, 50 years suspended. One year of probation. She got one year probation.
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