I (27M) have a really good friend, let’s call him Sam (28M). We’ve known each other since college, and although we come from different backgrounds (he’s religious, and I’m an atheist), we’ve always been able to have open conversations about any topic without getting offended. We work in the same city, so we meet up frequently.

Sam is in a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend, Rachel (25F). She had been studying abroad, but after coming back for a month, they started going out again. Recently, she went back to continue her studies. I’ve kept in touch with her over the years, mostly because we have a lot of common ground, and I’m friends with her through Sam.

On April Fools' Day, I thought it would be funny to prank Sam. I asked Rachel to text him saying that she was considering breaking up with him because he wasn’t giving her enough time. I told her it would be hilarious, and even though she warned me that Sam might actually take it seriously, I reassured her that it was just a joke and everything would be fine. She agreed to go along with it, and I asked her to send me a screenshot of the message afterward.

Rachel sent me one screenshot of the message, and Sam knew immediately that it was a joke because of the timing (April Fools' Day). He wasn’t upset at all at that point.

But then, three days later, Sam received another message from Rachel that was eerily similar to the April Fools’ prank text. In this message, Rachel said she wasn’t able to give him enough time and that the relationship wasn’t working, and she didn’t want to keep him in a relationship that wasn’t fair to him.

Sam, already having been pranked a few days earlier, was devastated. He thought it was another joke at first, but after a while, he started to worry that maybe it wasn’t. It ended up hurting him deeply because he was confused and didn’t know how to take it.

Now, Sam is not upset with me, and I feel terrible. He knew the first message was a prank, but this second message made everything feel real and serious. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I feel like I made things way worse than I intended.

I’ve apologized to him, but I don’t know if I can fix this.

AITA for asking Rachel to prank Sam and for not thinking things through?