My (24F) gay best friend (25M) told me he was in love with me 3 days after my mom died. Then ghosted me.
My best friend (M) and I (F) met 4 years ago when we were both sophomores in college. He had just come out as gay and was in a relationship with a man at the time. When we met, it was one of those “how have I gone my whole life without you” kind of connections, like a missing piece in my life I had finally found, and by our junior year we were attached at the hip.
Each month that passed, it felt like we grew closer and closer. About a year into our friendship, I started regarding him as closer to family to me than a friend. We began spending holidays together, meeting and connecting with each other’s families, practically living together, with one of us crashing at each other’s places multiple times a week…we spent every waking moment together that we could. I felt a very intense connection with him, one that I’ve never felt with anyone before. I could never quite put my finger on why my friendship with him felt different than any other friendship I’ve ever had, but I always just chalked it up to being a soul tie type of connection, “my person.”
Naturally, I started to learn more about his life as our friendship progressed and got a lot of insight into his sexuality journey. I’m not trying to air out anyone’s private business, but it’s unfortunately vital context for the story that follows. He came from a family who was not very accepting of gay people. Being gay has been pretty frowned upon throughout his whole life. This has caused a lot of doubt, uncertainty, and questions for him and how he feels about men his entire life. His first relationships and sexual encounters ever were all with women. When he moved away for college, he came out to his family as bisexual. He was hooking up with both men and women for the first year of college, and then he met a guy he wanted to start dating. He then came out as fully gay to everyone our sophomore year and it was full steam ahead from there.
By the beginning of this timeline, I knew everything about him. I’d never been closer to someone before. We’d walked through life side by side even seeing each other individually enter and end romantic relationships with other people.
June 2025:
Our friend group took a beach trip. Ten of us stacked in a 3-bedroom condo on the sand for a whole week. We were obviously drinking and partying, so no one was sober. The night we went out to dinner particularly though, everyone was deep in the liquor. By the end of the night, my best friend and I were the only ones left awake. A few advances were made on his part towards me, I reciprocated, but stopped him right before he kissed me. I went to bed. The next morning I remember thanking God we hadn’t done anything because I could never jeopardize my friendship with him.
The weeks that followed the beach I struggled with having feelings for him. The advances he’d made had messed with my head and made me question whether I felt that way towards him. A mini-crush for him developed. But at the end of the day, I knew he was a gay man and that it would be selfish of me to ever pursue anything with him knowing I could never truly make him happy. I could never BE what he truly wants, a man.
So I took those feelings for him, put them in a box, wrapped a pretty bow on them and shipped them away, never to be thought about again. We continued as normal, but we were somehow closer than before. Our friendship had never been so close.
February 2026:
My mom passes away from colon cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 4 in 2020 and was given 5 years to live. By the grace of God, she almost saw that 6th year but she was taken from us this past February. It was like getting shot in the kneecaps. I was with him when I got the call that she had passed. He held me in those first few minutes in this world without the woman who brought me into it. A connection there are few words to describe.
He’d taken a leave from work to be there for me the week leading up to my mom’s death and the week following it. To just be there for me, and for that I’ll forever be indebted to him. But the choices he made following this have left me devastated.
Three days after my mom died, at 11pm one night when we were going to bed, he looked me in the face and told me that he was in love with me. He said that he first had feelings for me back in 2024 and since then he’s been spiraling about it. That he thought if he gave it some time his feelings would die down, but that they’d only grown. That I’m the love of his life and he’s never been more sure about anything before. It’s all he’s ever wanted.
I, of course, had a million questions. Questions about when and how this had happened, his sexuality, what it means for us and our friendship going forward. It was so left-field for me, I was so shocked, it was truly unexpected. Especially given the timing. He gave me satisfying enough answers where I trusted him and felt he was being truthful. He said he guessed it classified him as bisexual, which he stated isn’t “anything new” for him. Almost overnight we enter a full-blown romantic relationship. Our relationship prior had already been so close that the romantic side of it was the only thing missing. We start having sex within the week and soft-launching it to our friends.
The week after mom’s funeral, he asked me to be his girlfriend. I said yes. I couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect person to be with. My favorite person in the world, my best friend, is now my significant other. I was locked in. Even though I was grieving my mom, I had a really bright shining light in my life now. Something to look forward to, a future with him.
He began telling any and everyone in his life, including his family, that we were now together. He was practically screaming it from the rooftops. For three months, I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life, aside from losing my mom.
May 2026:
There was a bit of an energy shift between us that I had felt. Even just within our daily communication, something had changed. He started being slightly passive aggressive towards me which by the end of this month turned into full-on resentment. I won’t get into all the gritty details but he ultimately ended up facetiming me three weeks ago and telling me that he was gay and there was nothing either he or I “could do about it.” I couldn’t fathom what was happening and I didn’t really have any words. He was breaking up with me. My favorite person on this planet. And making me feel like I had done something wrong. He told me he just “wasn’t into women.”... Imagine how hearing that feels after just having sex with someone a few days prior.
Since then, three weeks ago, he has completely ghosted me. Unshared his location, won’t answer my texts or calls, punishing me for something it seems. But he’s making sure to still keep in slight contact with our mutual friends. He’s still gaming with one of them, sending them tik toks, sharing locations with them. All while ignoring me to the best of his abilities. I’ve tried to reach out and he won’t even let my calls ring all the way out.
To say I’m devastated by this is an understatement. Within a few short months, I lost both my mom and my best friend. I feel gutted. I’m so mad that he chose to tell me he was in love with me when he clearly didn’t actually mean it? That he chose to tell me at the time in my life that he did. That he took it back?? And discarded me, our relationship, our friendship, as easily as he did. That he let me fully fall in love with him and then left me. I lost two of the closest people in my life simultaneously. I’m gutted. And I guess I’m writing this to seek any kind of advice or opinions on this or what I should do going forward. Because I don’t know if I can handle the idea of never speaking to him or seeing him again. I already lost my mom, I don’t know if I have it in me to grieve him too. Any advice is helpful x