hi! i’m 16f and i really need a second opinion on this. sorry in advance for the rambling!

some info: my friend (who we will call crystal) has always loved to be the center of attention. she has pranked me before, but NOTHING like this. they typically only lasted a couple hours. she’s also 16f and we have been friends for almost 4 years. were in a friend group but me and her were the closest. also, something worth noting is the fact that she’s muslim (but doesn’t actually practice or do any of the things muslim people should)

this all started in december. we have drama together so i was walking to the class and i see her crying her eyes out (like full on panic attack) at the end of the hallway. as her best friend, i quickly run up to her and console her. i asked her what’s happened and she lifts up a pregnancy test. a positive one. i glance at it for a second and instantly hugged her. her telling me she’s pregnant wasn’t something that was impossible. she was kind of known for having a lot of bfs. anyway, i was the second person she told—the first person was her other friend who had bought the test for her (it was $50, keep this in mind). the bell rings so we go to class. our drama teacher is super understanding so when she saw crystal crying she told us that the room across the hallway as empty. we went there. for the next hour, she cried as she told me everything. i felt so terrible. near the end of school, the other girls in our friend group (we will call them May, Adria, Sophie, and Emily) somehow found out (i don’t remember how) and were spamming our group chat. they did not believe crystal at all, and were teasing her. the bell rang and school had ended, May came to the room and saw Crystal’s state. she was shook. she tried consoling her but crystal pushed her away and screamed at her to leave her alone. apparently may felt so bad that later that night she sent a long text to crystal apologizing and saying how she felt like she had failed her and that she has her full support. crystal responded back saying that the fact that she didn’t believe her meant that she was a bad friend. i only found this out later. I walked Crystal home as she continued telling me what happened. i’m not going to lie, the story sounded too good to be true. she described it as the best first time ever. i don’t remember the exact story, but she said that he was a year older and that she went over to his house for a project..but why would a 16 year old be in a project with a 17 year old? i brushed it off because i had thought that she was embarrassed of the actual way it happened, maybe behind a dumpster or something super unromantic. she told me that she didn’t want anyone else to know—only our friend group. i promised her that i wouldn’t tell a soul. a couple weeks pass and EVERYONE is talking about it. someone asked to be invited to her baby shower, lol. Crystal was pissed as hell because she thought one of us told someone else. she yelled at me, may, and adria. we decided to try and find out who told. wanna guess? it was crystal. she was telling people that she was pregnant..actually, she was bragging. she told a few people it was a boy (who we will call tristan) that got her pregnant. tristan is a pretty popular guy in our grade, him and crystal had a talking stage prior to this whole thing. poor guy was getting stopped in the halls and being ridiculed and shamed for getting a girl pregnant.

i’m going to fast forward a bit to march. the first week of march she told us she got her period. it felt as if the weight of it all was lifted off of my shoulders and i wasn’t even the one that was pregnant. the second week of march, were all sitting in the caf when she comes over and is all smiley and giggly. she sits down and a couple minutes go by before she leans over and says “oh my god, guys! do you remember when i first told you i was pregnant?” i nodded, then she said “it was all a joke!” my heart dropped. i was confused, and a bit hurt. when no one in our friend group believed her, i stood up for her. i felt like a fool. i would skip my classes to be with her while she had panic attacks. i listened to her rant and vent about her problems at home. she basically ruined tristan’s reputation, and manipulated our entire friend group into apologizing for not believing her. i was in so much shock that i just told her to leave. i needed time to process. if she lied about being pregnant—what else has she lied about?

our next period was drama. i didn’t know if i was ready to face her. i walk into class, and guess what i see—crystal in the corner of the room laughing and giggling away with a couple friends as if she didn’t just destroy our friendship. anyone who knows me would say that i value integrity over anything. i felt like it was only right to tell the people she lied to the truth. i didn’t once talk bad about her, i just said “by the way, crystal was never pregnant. it was just a prank.” i didnt blocked her on anything because i wanted to give her a chance to apologize. if she did, i would have forgiven her.

the third week of march. no apology. she stopped showing up to drama and i was getting asked by random people if i had dropped her. i was spending nights thinking about every single conversation we’ve ever had—was any of it real? the way she cried was so insanely real. i felt her pain, i couldn’t believe it was all an act. the few times i’d see her at school, she would be crying. i was not going to initiate a conversation. if our friendship meant a lot to her, she would apologize.

fourth week of march. she started messaging us, asking to meet after school so she could give us the explanation we deserved. she’d either never show up, or cancel last minute. i finally was done with her bullshit. i blocked her. why was i hanging on to someone who clearly didn’t give a shit about me? during this time she was also talking shit about adria, calling her a slut because she was allegedly talking with tristan when he had a talking stage with crystal (this is partially true, adria was talking to tristan, but she had no idea that crystal was talking to him too. she stopped immediately after she found out).

first week of march. april 3rd to be exact. i was in drama and she wasn’t there, as usual. i was practicing for a presentation i had the next day when my drama teacher pulls me out of the class. i had briefly informed my drama teacher of the situation before, asking her not to pair me and crystal for the final project (because me and her were so close up to that point, she was really surprised and asked why). as soon as she takes me out of class, i knew what this was. i see crystal. crying. crying the same way she cried the day she told me she was ‘pregnant’. my teacher clears her throat and tells us that she has heard both sides and definitely thinks crystal should apologize, but also believes that i should hear crystal out. (our teacher didn’t hide the fact that she was on my side). the teacher leaves and i just stare at crystal. i had a million questions, but the first one i asked was “where did you get a positive pregnancy test?” she blinked, and she told me that it wasn’t positive. she had coloured it faintly with a red marker—i have no idea how i didn’t notice. then she broke down crying again, going on about how i’m her best friend and for the past month she’s realized what a stupid prank that was and that she’s terrible sorry. it took her a month to realize that? i was already done with the conversation. i was just mad. lying about pregnancy isn’t something that you just come up with—it requires planning. i asked her why it took her a whole month to apologize; she then said the dumbest shit i’ve ever heard in my life. “you know my family situation..i could never really open up to my family so facing you guys after what happened was just really scary”. this enraged me even more. she has NEVER had an issue opening up to me. i know everything about her and her family life (which i now know was mostly bs). our teacher came back and asked what the conclusion was, i shook my head and said “if we continued to be friends, it wouldn’t be the same. you lost all of the respect i had for you. i would never be able to rely on you. i don’t want to acknowledge each other anymore.” she just stared at me, then at our teacher. our teacher shrugged and said “crystal, you are in no position to invalidate her boundaries”. crystal cried again. i just rolled my eyes—i was thinking “i have a project to do. what the fuck am i doing here?”. crystal looked at our teacher and made up some bs about me posting rumours about her on the school anonymous confession account. my teacher looked at me, and i shook my head. i had literally never posted jackshit about crystal, and this was just another one of her victimizing lies. i told her to stop being a pussy and grow up, then walked away.

second week of april (last week) i told everyone she’s had lied to that she was never pregnant. i would also tell them to be friends with her at their own risk. remember the girl that paid for her test? kiera? yeah, i told her too. turns out she never paid her back. crystal just took $50 from her to prank us and never payed the poor girl back.

so, AITAH for turning all of her friends against her?