As confessions hung heavy in the air, the weight of rejection and understanding intertwined, leaving both shaken yet strangely unbroken. In the heart of Valentine’s Day, their story became a poignant reminder of how delicate and complicated human connections can be, especially when hearts are involved.
This actually happened on Valentine’s day but I’m still getting shit for it. Please tell me if I’m TA.
I’m really good friends with this guy (we’re both 20) and we pull little pranks on each other all the time. We both started working at the same place so we see each other a lot more.
Around early February we were hanging out one night and he got very drunk (he normally doesn’t get that drunk). He started awkwardly confessing his crush and telling me how much I mean to him etc.
I thought he was just messing around but he said the same things the next day fully sober. I told him that I’m not interested and he didn’t look very upset. He actually took it very well and we talked about something else afterwards.
(Fyi – all of my friends said that he was seriously upset about the rejection but that wasn’t my experience).
On Valentine’s Day we were on our lunch break and I told him that we needed to talk.I told him that I really thought about his confession the other night and wanted to tell him something important since it’s Vday.
He panicked and asked if I’m serious. I said yeah and asked if he wants a kiss. EVERYBODY knows that it’s the oldest and lamest trick in the world. But he fell for it HARD and got soooo excited.
He was actually about to kiss me but then I pulled a Hershey’s Kiss chocolate out my pocket and offered it. At first he didn’t get it but then he understood. He didn’t speak to me for the rest of our shift.
I told him to lighten up but he straight up ignored me. When we texted later that night he was giving me 1 word answers. I personally think that’s an overreaction.
After that day he stopped hanging out with our friend group and barely texted anybody. Two weeks went by and our friends got really concerned. I told them about the incident and they started roasting me hard.
I have never received so much shit for something so little. They all agreed that I’m an asshole and shattered his confidence. I’m not sure if I agree. First of all, we prank each other frequently.
He knows that I’m not serious about anything 99% of the time. Secondly, how could you fall for the Hershey’s Kiss line?
My friends still bring it up occasionally and say that I’m horrible for what I did. He hasn’t talked to me at all since that day. I’m pretty sure he forgot about it by now. So am I the bad guy?
Conclusion
The original poster (OP) faces conflict because their belief that the Valentine’s Day prank was harmless fun, consistent with their established relationship dynamic, clashes directly with their friend’s severe emotional response and the negative judgment from their shared friend group. The OP feels the friend is overreacting to a simple joke, while others perceive the action as deeply cruel given the recent confession of feelings.
Was the OP justified in executing a widely known, albeit potentially hurtful, prank on a friend who had just confessed feelings, given their history of pranks, or did the context of the confession elevate the action to emotional manipulation warranting the friend’s complete withdrawal?
Here’s how people reacted:
It doesn’t matter if it’s a well-known joke, the fact is that some jokes should only be done if you know that it won’t hurt the other person. Even though you’ve done pranks before, this is one that crossed the line since you knew that he recently confessed and were told that he took the rejection badly. Then when you started the prank he was very clearly anticipating that you would reciprocate his feelings. This turns it from a prank to something akin to bullying, like some mean girl telling a guy to meet her at X place, then never showing.
You did this joke purely for your own amusement and didn’t think about the other person, which is incredibly thoughtless. Even if you didn’t intend for them to be hurt, he was. It’s basically the emotional equivalent of going up to him and suckerpunching him.
>He started awkwardly confessing his crush and telling me **how much I mean to him**
>
>all of my friends said that he was **seriously upset about the rejection**
>
>I really thought about his confession the other night and **wanted to tell him something important** since it’s Vday. **He panicked and asked if I’m serious**
>
>I have never received so much shit for **something so little.**
Four important sentences.
Your whole prank was based on playing on his feelings for you. Just because you don’t feel the same way, doesn’t mean his feelings weren’t a big deal to him, but again you already knew that because you used them to your advantage to do a prank … about being romantic with him.
Consider the reason he **”fell for”** something **”so little”** is because he wanted it to be true so badly. He was blinded by his feelings for you, and you made him so happy for a moment.
It was cruel to begin with (like, stereotypical-bully-in-every-high-school-movie level cruel), and you never even had the decency to apologize.
So you trolled a guy who has feelings for you and it’s his fault. Got it. YTA
You knew this guy had a crush on you (he literally told you he did when sober) so you decide to mess around with those feelings on Valentine’s Day.
If he hasn’t spoken to you since, then this isn’t a ‘harmless prank’. You’ve ruined your friendship with this guy, so it’s safe to say the joke didn’t land.
But using it to toy with him is cruel.
JFC.