7 Friendship Horror Stories That Will Make Your Skin Crawl

We hear plenty of romance horror stories and tales about terrible exes, but it turns out loads of people have platonic peeves too that are going unsaid. So we thought it’d only be fair to air a few of them to award a moment of catharsis for the poor people who’ve been messed about.

You know how the old saying goes: Friends are the family you choose, right? Well, not in the case of these poor folks, who’ve all been totally and utterly fucked over by some of their nearest and dearest.

Read these friendship horror stories and allow yourself a minute to gawp in absolute disgust at the way these people have been treated. Perhaps you’ll re-assess any problematic pals in your life or perhaps you’ll ring up your best mate and get them over for a drink to say thank you for not being an absolute prick and for sticking by you all these years. Some names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.

He was my flatmate and was from a very wealthy background… But then his dad pretty much went bankrupt and the money pipeline closed off. Quickly he was faced with reality, which was that he couldn’t afford the lifestyle he wanted, so he borrowed money from his friends saying he would pay it back. 

I kept lending him money over and over, as he is very charismatic, but I was tired of doing him massive favours with no return. After around six months, we went grocery shopping and the shop accidentally charged his card fully after we agreed to split the bill.

A couple days later, we have to pay our Airbnb bill and he leaves a note saying, “Hi, this is £1,000-ish, can you add the £20 extra from the shopping because I'm broke?” And I tell him, “Uhmmm, remember the £2,000 you owe me from last year, maybe we can call it even?” He got really angry and didn’t speak to me, but we still shared the same bed until I moved out to my new accommodation – then we never spoke again. 

At one point I considered him to be my best friend. To this day, I still consider him to be one of the biggest errors in judgements I’ve ever made. I had no idea he was just using me and that when he was done he would just toss me aside. — Wilm, 27

I once had a friend who said my ears were not pierced. I showed her my ears up close to show her the earring holes and she said: "Why would you obviously lie about something so stupid?” I think she showed me up to seem “cool” to the other people in our group. We had been friends for about three years – it was less gaslighting and more “ha ha I can make this person look stupid,” not realising that she looked unhinged when she kept insisting my (obviously) pierced ears were not pierced. This was the straw that broke the camel's back and I ditched her after this. — Allie, 36

No joke, this was the night our friendship ended: A vegan friend changed my food order and got me a vegan burger instead of chicken. 

The taste was okay, but the deceit ruined my appetite. He thought he hadn’t done anything wrong, he was giving us the “benefit” of eating better by being vegan. He insinuated I didn’t know myself well enough to know what I wanted to eat, and also put alcohol in my drink despite me being on antibiotics.

Him trying to one-up at every turn, his constant need to be right, to be validated for every move and never criticised for his own actions while constantly dispensing his opinions and disapproval on others was not something I wanted to continue doing. Looking back, I can see he would intentionally target people less financially and emotionally stable so he could be in control, which definitely played a factor in the “chicken” sandwich order.  — Will, 35

I had a friendship which was always very one-sided – in her favour – but it massively came to a head when we went on holiday together. My mental health was particularly bad at the time and I was using partying as an escape. She was always aware of my struggles and promised she would help me through them. 

One night I tipped myself over the edge with consumption and ended up having really bad intrusive thoughts, to the point that I was sobbing crying in the middle of the street, begging for it all to end. She screamed at me, told me I was being stupid and selfish and left me there to fend for myself. 

Understandably, tensions were high for the rest of the holiday but we obviously still had to get home together. We were meant to get the bus together from the airport from London to Wales, but she had secretly contacted her mother to come and pick her up. When I left the airport and saw her mum there, my immediate thought was ‘shit, I’m on my own’ – I was in such a bad way I didn’t think I would make it home. 

Thankfully, her mother ignored the extensive protests of my ex-friend to leave me stranded there. I’m forever grateful for the kindness of her mother at that moment, but me and that girl haven’t spoken a word to each other since. And honestly? Good riddance. — Jess, 24

I decided to set up a new company because where I was working was a very negative place. I asked my close friend if she wanted to get on board – she had loads of business experience so I was really happy. Two years in, the accountant sent a message to say: “There’s enough money in the account now for you both to start getting paid.” I was broke beyond belief so it was a relief. 

The next day I got an email from my friend saying everything was going wrong and she couldn’t work with me anymore, and that I was bringing down the name of the company. She said no one wants me there, my appearance isn’t up to scratch, I’m unprofessional – it was a turn from nowhere. We decided to split the business. I signed the contract and went home, but by the time I got home I had an email from her saying I should’ve had the foresight to read the contract properly and understand it. "You’re not entitled to anything," she said. 

I had to restart with no money. Then the bullying started – she started telling people I screwed her over – which is odd, considering she had the company. She was constantly getting people to send me messages to say she was suing me. She was obsessed. This was my first taste of not only an abusive friendship but also an abusive working relationship. — Annie, 41

My best friend at high school called me his “moral compass” because I was the only one who told him he was constantly being a dick to others. He cheated on girlfriends and messed people about but we had a good friendship and I was the one guy he’d never screwed around – until one night. 

He went to uni and I’d gone to London to visit him from out of town. He’d been getting less and less communicative since we’d left college, but he had agreed that I could stay over at his as I’d been at a gig near his halls. The last train to my hometown had gone and I was sitting outside his accommodation entrance alone waiting for him. But all of a sudden I saw him walk quickly into the halls with a group of friends. It was too quick for me to cross the road to meet him, so I texted and asked him why he’d done that and to confirm I was outside. He didn’t reply until the morning. 

I had to spend the whole night on freezing cold night buses as I had nowhere to stay and he wasn’t answering me. In the morning, he said “sorry mate, I got in super late, in the small hours….” When I told him I’d seen him walk in at just past midnight, and that I’d been stranded out all night, he never replied and never spoke to me again. — Ned, 31

We hired a friend to paint our house after I got a brain injury. The guy was a friend of my husband and they have known each other over a decade. He said $12,000 for two weeks but four months later and $52,000 spent, he was asking for ten grand more. We had no idea the guy was ripping us off. For the first six weeks he was “working”, no one thought I would survive my illness, so my husband didn’t prioritise the house and neglected to follow up. 

Once I was able to understand words again and found out what was happening, I just settled into pure rage. Because of my brain injury, I had very little control over my emotions and impulses. I ended up growing two more brain aneurysms over the course of this ordeal. I think that’s when my husband realised how bad it had become and was willing to remove this guy from his life. I was going to leave my husband over this! — John, 44

*Names have been changed to protect anonymity.