📝 AITAH for getting mad that my friend doesn't want to spend time with me?

By Common-Ambition1746 • Score: 1 • April 11, 2025 2:22 AM


About a month ago, my friend (23F) got mad at me for something I (21 F) did. Automatically I apologized, but she said this was leading to a bigger conversation about how Ive consistently crossed her boundaries. She told me she was going to write a letter explaining what I'd done, give it to me, and we could talk about it. I asked for it automatically so I could know sooner than later but it took 3 weeks for her to get it to me. When it got to week 2, I told her that it was upsetting me how long it was taking but she said she was busy, and it didn't matter how long it would take because exchanging the letters wouldn't automatically fix how she felt. She said it would take time and me rebuilding her trust. This made me feel bad of course because I knew I had messed up but I didn't know she had lost her trust for me.

Anyways, last week she gave me the letter, I gave her mine, and we talked it over. I felt ok about it other than the fact that she told me that she didn't want to be best friends anymore and that she didn't want to spend as much time with me as I did with her (which made me sad obviously). Because of this, she said that we had to schedule hang out times and it could only be 3 days a week at most. I agreed because I care for her and we moved on.

The rest of last week went well, but this week was my birthday week and I had been hoping she would schedule some time with me. When she didn't by the time it was my birthday (which was yesterday) I asked her if she could hang out. She said yes to today, but when we got together, she seemed really unenthusiastic and reserved. I asked her if she was OK, and then I asked if she didn't want to hang out with me. She responded, "I can't help the way I feel" and then when I said "So does that mean you don't want to spend time with me?" she answered yes. When I asked her why she was still spending time with me then, she said she was "fulfilling her part of the agreement because we agreed on 3 days a week" and that "sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do". She also told me that she felt like 3 hours a week was still too much but she was doing it for me because she loves me. This really hurt me, especially since my birthday was yesterday and I'd been hoping she'd want to spend time with me at least this week. She then reminded me that she felt this way because I broke her trust and she had warned me it would take some time. However, if rebuilding her trust is going to take a while (like she warned me it would) it worried me that she would never want to spend time with me and that I would have to beg for her attention every time I wanted it. I don't want to be a charity case.

As a result of what she said, I responded, "You know what? I've been the pity friend before and I don't want you spending time with me because it's a chore or requirement for you. I think I deserve more than that." To that, she responded, "Fine. Then you have to wait for me to reach out to you." And she walked away.

AITA for not accepting her claim that she's unwilling to hang out "because she's recovering from me breaking her trust" or am I justified in thinking she's not taking steps toward forgiving me and therefore taking a step back since she doesn't want to actually hang out with me?

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