u/Automatic_Yogurt_515

I (19F) started talking to a guy through one of my seniors. My senior told me he was one of his friends and said he would be “perfect” for me, which is honestly the main reason I even replied in the first place. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have responded to a random guy.

We ended up talking for around a month. He was funny, sweet, very consistent, flirted a lot, initiated conversations, gave me cute nicknames, and genuinely seemed emotionally invested in me. I slowly started getting attached too.

At one point he told me that his ex had ghosted him 2 years ago and that it still affected him. I felt really bad for him at the time.

But after a while, I started noticing certain behaviors that confused me and made me suspicious that something was “off,” although I couldn’t explain exactly what. So I asked another friend of mine who has actually met him in real life multiple times.

That friend told me he has Down syndrome and is mentally challenged, and apparently several people around him already know this. Suddenly a lot of his behavior started making sense to me.

After finding this out, I completely lost romantic interest and started feeling guilty because he seemed much more emotionally invested in me than I was in him.

The thing is, I didn’t want to ghost him because I knew how badly being ghosted by his ex affected him. So instead, I politely told him that I don’t think I want to continue anything romantically and that I genuinely hope he finds someone amazing for him.

He took it politely, but when I told my brother about the situation, he called me an asshole and said I emotionally entertained him for a month only to back out once I learned about his condition.

Now I genuinely don’t know if I’m being unfair or if it’s reasonable to step away because I don’t think I can handle this relationship emotionally.

AITA?

I was 17 in 11th grade when I got into a relationship with a guy who was in his first year of college. At first, I really liked him because he stood up for me when some guys were bothering me, and I honestly thought he was a good person.

We dated for almost a year. Our relationship was very private — mostly because he insisted on keeping it that way. At the time I thought he was just a private person, but later I started wondering if there was another reason.

One day, one of his neighbors who studied in my class told me that he was doing drugs and was also dating a girl from his hometown at the same time. Around that period, I was already under extreme stress because of board exams and some personal issues, and hearing that completely broke me.

Instead of confronting him, I blocked him everywhere and never spoke to him again. I know that sounds harsh, but at that moment I genuinely didn’t have the emotional energy for a confrontation or another betrayal.

He did try reaching out multiple times afterwards through different platforms and mutuals, but I ignored it because by then my trust was already gone and I didn’t want to get emotionally manipulated or pulled back into the relationship.

Now, 2 years later, I told my college best friend about my first relationship and she thinks I was a complete asshole for ending things that way. According to her, I should’ve confronted him directly instead of trusting someone else’s word and ghosting him without closure.

Out of curiosity we checked his social media, and a lot of his reposts are about heartbreak and respecting someone even after they leave you. I also later found out through mutuals that he actually did do drugs, but apparently he wasn’t double dating me after all.

I’m not interested in him anymore and honestly think it was just a teenage attraction, but now I’m wondering if I handled it badly. I know ghosting someone after a year-long relationship is cruel, but at the time I felt hurt, overwhelmed, and too emotionally exhausted to deal with him.

AITA?

AITA for making a fake “astrology future husband” prediction for my best friend based on her celebrity crush?

So my best friend is OBSESSED with this cricketer. Like genuinely obsessed. She once cried because another celebrity gave him a flying kiss 😭

Recently we were sending each other those Instagram astrology/future partner prompts. I made one for myself in a cute PDF format and she asked me to make one for her too.

Now here’s where I might be the asshole.

As a joke, I subtly based her “future husband qualities” on her celebrity crush. I thought it would be SUPER obvious because the traits were literally giving “this is just your crush in paragraph form.” I genuinely expected her to laugh and go “bro this is literally him.”

Instead… she fully believed it was an actual astrology-style prediction and got REALLY happy about it.

Then she asked me to make another PDF about “what kind of wife she’ll be,” and I made that too with generic personality traits and she believed that as well.

Now I feel weirdly guilty because I never meant to emotionally manipulate her or make fun of her feelings. I thought it was harmless teasing between best friends, but now I feel like I accidentally played with someone’s emotions because she’s actually very innocent and trusting.

I don’t want to ruin her excitement by suddenly confessing “btw I made it up,” because it’s harmless and makes her happy, but I also feel bad.

AITA?