NTA.

It can be a funny/mean joke if made once by someone who you’re close with. After that it’s pretty not cool.

I was working at a diner in the middle of nowhere when I was 16. We had a lovely guy in his mid 20s who was new to the area who would come in for breakfast and eat at my counter on weekend days. We would chat about life, had similar hobbies and interests, and genuinely had nice chats while I re-filled his coffee and brought him his eggs.

My fellow waitresses always joked that he only came in for my shifts, but...whatever. If you don’t know anyone in a small, conservative town filled with old people, it makes sense that you might try and make friends with your local waitress.

One day, almost a year after meeting (after I had brought him alcoholic drinks several times, which wouldn’t have been allowed since I was underaged, but I worked for people who didn’t care about things like liquor permit regulations) he asked me if I wanted to go see a movie.

I nicely let him know that I was 17 and a date would be inappropriate, but that I enjoyed his company and wouldn’t mind bringing him along as a friend as a group hangout with my friends that varied in age from 17-25 to a movie.

He politely declined, and seemed shocked that I was underage. You could see that he felt very weird about it. I tried my best to reassure him that it was fine, and that I truly did think he was a nice guy that I would love to have as a friend, and that it was an honest mistake that anyone could have made.

But I worked with a lot of fellow waitresses who were in Their 40s+ who witnessed this and couldn’t let it go.

They would remove me from my station, say nasty things to the guy, call him a pedo etc And just generally be nasty until he finally stopped coming around for breakfast.

To this day I still feel bad about that and wonder how he’s doing. It was such a mean thing, and he was such a nice guy. Nobody deserves to be vilified when they are acting in good faith, and I really do hope he found some friends.

My coworkers were horrible in the guise of being protective, but nobody should be treated that way for an honest mistake.