When I moved to L.A. my best friend had just gotten a DUI back home. He was a gay kid from a religious family so his life was already a bit rough. I was still home for the jail portion of this story, and was the only one there for him. I put money in his commissary account and paid for his collect calls every day, when I would excuse myself from work and go hide in an unoccupied office so he had someone to talk to while he was locked up.
After the DUI he had to move back in with his family and get a job he could walk to just to pay all the fines for probation and drug testing.
Every day during his probation he called me and I was there for him for moral support.
After his probation ended I let him move out and stay with me for free to start over.
After about a month he got a job as a cashier in some store. He'd pay rent, but then have to borrow money to live so the rent money was just going right back to him.
I was ok with all of this, because we were super close and I don't mind giving things to my friends. I was an only child and get really lonely so I really value having people around.
After a while he started stealing from me, although nothing major and I'd call him on it. He'd lie but it was just a weird part of our relationships. It'd just be a couple bucks here, a few cigarettes there, a nug of weed, whatever..
So after about a year he decides to move out, but doesn't have the up front money for an apartment. I loan him roughly $1000 with no set timeline to pay it back, as at that time I was in a position to loan it.
I end up leaving for work for about a year so I give up my apartment. Over the course of this year the money is never paid back. Not even a mention of it.
When I come back I need a place to stay so the plan is to stay with him. I arrive and crash on his couch for about two weeks. After two weeks he starts getting bitchy. It's subtle at first, but it builds... It builds into a blow up fight about how I'm "not contributing" (I was the only one who ever did any sort of cleaning). He starts in on rent... I say You still owe me $1K, why don't you take it off of that?
To which he loses his mind.
"How dare you bring that up! That was so long ago! We were such different people then! "
I don't know what to say and he just says "So this is it then. Pack your shit and leave your key."
And with that we were done.
But where was the backstabbing, you ask?
Well, we have mutual friends. A lot of them. Some of them he is closer to and speaks with more.
Every single one of them has heard a different version of this story, but the common thread that runs through all of them is that I never loaned him the money. He got the apartment all on his own and he owes me nothing.
He tells people that I took advantage of him, was abusive, and that I stole from him.
RIP that friendship 2006 - 2016