This turned out way longer than I expected. My friend is a mayor asshole who basically gaslighted me and never ever considered he was doing a super shitty thing.
It started as a "joke" for him, but it quickly got extremely creepy.
My asshole friend, my best friend and me were hanging out as usual, when I suddenly get a text from an unknown number pretending to be the girl I started to date some time ago. I thought it was a joke from a cousin or my friends, so I started to play along.
Then they started hinting at our location, and me and my best friend suspected foul play from Mr. Asshole, so we confronted him. He got super serious about not being the one sending that shit, but he never showed us his phone. Since he is always on his phone anyway, we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it could be some funky Whatsapp stuff with our location, which was worrying, so we turned it off.
The messages kept coming, and each time more personal. We confronted him again, as we were driving around afraid to even stop anywhere. We wasted HOURS trying to escape this mystery hackerman maniac, and he kept sending general directions. Shit like "behind the cementery," "close to the highway," "near the plaza." I almost shit my pants when one car appeared to follow us for a good half hour. My best friend probably wasted 20 bucks on gas, and we only went to our houses because it was like 3 a.m. and we were exhausted.
Things cooled off for a while, and I decided that it was indeed a joke, although a bit scary one. My asshole friend denied it, swearing he would never do something like that, so we let that be.
But Mr. Asshole had more in store for me. I got a text days later, talking about the girl I was dating and what I should do to get her. The messages kept coming from different numbers, too, so shit got creepy. More and more personal details kept pouring from those messages, including descriptions of shirts I was wearing (of course my friend would know, but at this point he had swore he was innocent about a hundred times.)
It got to the point that I was BEGGING him to confess, just to put this thing behind. I would've taken it as a joke at this point, although I'd warn him it wasn't in good taste and could get someone in trouble. But he kept denying it, again, and again, and again.
For another week the personal messages kept coming. I was convinced someone had access to my Whatsapp or phone messages, and I asked my friend AGAIN to confess, because I would need to take the phone to the police if this shit continued.
HE DENIED IT. AGAIN. And AGAIN. While the messages kept coming and they started to get to me. I'm the kind of person who tapes my laptop's webcam and he knows it.
The only other people that could know as much shit as the mystery texters were my best friend, Mr. Asshole, my dad, mom and sister, and none of them would do this shit, for obvious reasons. I believed Mr. Asshole was a friend and he would confess to it by now, we've been through hard shit together. When anonymous phone numbers called him to threaten his life I was there to help. When his psycho ex who got involved with dangerous people tried to fuck him up we were there for him. We had been friends for almost ten years. He swore and swore he was innocent for the millionth fucking time while the messages continued.
I got paranoid. I texted the girl that some weird shit was happening. I texted all my family, I was about to smash my latest model phone my aunt gifted me when my sister passed away because my scumbag, piece of shit friend didn't admit he sent those texts, and because I, being a naive imbecile, trusted him. Fuck me, right? Who trusts their second closest friend like that?
Everyone played it off as me being paranoid, and/or blaming Mr. Asshole. Of course, it was the obvious thing, except that he kept swearing he was innocent, that he would never do something like that. And I believed him, again, and again, and again.
The only girl I've ever dated, the only woman I thought could possibly be interested in me, started to make fun of me behind my back, because fuck me for trusting my good friend, right? My best friend was convinced it was him, and he was pissed too, but this shit was targeted at me, not him, for some bizarre reason. I had never done anything to hurt or offend Mr. Asshole. He knows I'm loyal to my friends and I try my hardest to be a good friend. I got into a fistfight once with a guy who wanted to fight with my best friend. Mr. Asshole was literally there when it happened. What kind of reason would he have to fuck with me this much? I couldn't even come up with one. It made no sense.
Turns out all he wanted to do was get back at my best friend because he "photoshopped" a creepy ghost in one picture. That was it. A petty revenge, aimed at our friend.
He fucked my mind, he almost made me destroy a precious and pricey gift from my family, he made me lose whatever chances I had with the only woman I've been romantically interested in my life, all because he wanted to play a joke on my best friend. What the fuck.
He admitted being the one two days before I planned to turn my phone to the police, and only because he moved out of state. He never apologized. He doesn't even think it was a big deal. The asshole probably expects me to show up at his wedding all smiles congratulating my awesome friend.