When I think about the times I’ve been rejected, they typically range from “that was a bummer” to “fair enough.”
Which I guess makes me very lucky, especially by comparison to the tales of woe in this thread on Reddit.
What is the worst possible way to be rejected?
by inAskReddit
We’re all checking in at the heartbreak hotel tonight, folks.
1. The string along
Being led on or strung along when the other person is clearly over it. I am currently going through it.
We were seeing each other for about 3 months and then someone new entered her life. They began hanging out a ton, she was answering me less and less. I asked her about it, and straight up said “its fine if its over, but I don’t want to just throw us away over me being paranoid. So just be straight with me.”
Up until then she had been honest (or I think she was). So I believed her when she said she was just busy with the end of the school year, and he was just a friend.
Flash forward two weeks, we have spend max 2 hours in that same time. Hurts SO much worse this way. Like I wasn’t even important enough to dump. I was just gutted and left to bleed out on the side.
This is what people mean when they say they need closure. Just tell people what you need if it’s over. I just wish she had said “Look I want to see where things go with this guy. I am sorry but that means we are through.
– Gpotato
2. The confession
I was 12. All my classmates pushed me to confess to my crush, who was standing on the stairs.
Everyone was staring at me as I, in my prepubescent anxiety, managed to blurt out “I love you” while holding my arms up.
She put on the deepest expression of disgust I’ve ever seen, and I run away. Fun times
– thrashingkaiju
3. A moment for commentary
I have contradicting feelings about this comment section.
On one hand I would like to read other people’s stories and on the other hand I am enraged from all the ABSOLUTE BS people had to go through as teens.
– Kostas_the_goat
4. The double cruelty
well… I never thought I’d share this but..
I liked a girl in middle school.
confessed to her before going to a new school in a different state due to moving.
the day i told her she said ew thats gross, then started laughing.
a few months pass and i’m enjoying my new school and went to visit my grandparents, and i get a call from the same girl who said i was gross. she called and said she was sorry and wanted to give it a shot.
i said sure and lo and behold she starts laughing and said she can’t believe that worked, and started teasing me for believing that would happen or that shed want that.
– Silevence
5. A little d**th
Asked a girl for her phone number one night at the bar, she smiled and happily gave it to me.
Waited a few days and called it, turns out it was for a funeral home.
I d**d a little inside that day. 🙂
– i_iz_potato
6. The note
When I was in high school a girl I knew was trying to set me up with one of her friends who I was acquainted with. I was resistant because I was like 15 and never had a girlfriend before and was nervous. Eventually it got to the point where she straight up told me if I didn’t walk up to her right now and ask her out she was going to do it for me. I decided “Screw it” and walked up to her and asked her out. She initially said “Let me think about it” which I knew damn well was a no so I was pretty deflated.
Then the next day she comes up to me and hands me a 2 page note about how she was never going to go out with me and how I was ugly lmfao.
– D**dboy90
7. The casual connection
I used to go to a lunch counter near one workplace. There was a woman who I saw there frequently. I would occasionally make a joke or a comment about the weather. Like you do so it doesn’t get awkward with silence when a bunch of people are just standing around waiting for their lunch orders.
One time I went there, and she was there, and there was nobody behind the counter. I turned to her and asked when the guy would be back, and she blurted out, “I have a boyfriend.” I was surprised, she turned red and left without her order, and I had a crummy rest of the day.
Like, I get you felt threatened by my feeble attempts at a single human connection before going to my dehumanizing IT job where I talk to computers all day, but I was never attempting to make anything more than a casual connection. Now I get to get dumped when I wasn’t even asking anybody out and feel like it’s my fault.
– ishldgetoutmore
8. Pure confusion
So, here I am. A junior in high school. I got this mad crush on a girl.
One day at lunch I grow a pair and asked her to a ball my school was hosting. She said yes and I was over the moon!!
Later that day we were texting and she said that she forgot that she’s going to be out of town that day. And I told her it was no biggy, I’ll just bring my friend who’s homeschooled.
A little bit later that day we were once again talking and I asked her out on a date. And that’s when she hit me with the, “Oh, I have a boyfriend. We could go as friends though”. Still f**kin confused.
– Half-Leaf69
9. A rising of standards
Not a rejection but when we were in college a girl I had been friends with throughout high-school said “Ben I used to fancy you a few years back but my standards have gone up since then.”
She said that in front of all our other friends, fortunately I found the whole thing hilarious.
– Benjii_97
10. The Miami connection
Thought I was dating a guy for two years He would call me his girl to his friends and we would hang out everyday. “Hang out” being the key word here I thought nothing of it. We would be intimate, make plans, eat together, sleep together, go shopping together, exchange gifts, Valentines day he goes to Miami with another girl, I thought okay weird but I’m not going to be jealous. He’d make it up to me.
Turns out he didn’t make it up to me was acting weird and I looked in his phone and he got rejected thru text by the girl he took to Miami when he asked her to date him and think about the future and start a family and when I asked him why he lied about it he told me I was never his girlfriend and that I misunderstood our friendship and he was rejecting my advances for something more committed ?
So yeah my worst “rejection” up to date.
– f**kboyclown
11. Totally ignored
I was outright ignored. Just not a single thing said.
So I awkwardly never talked to them again because they didn’t seem to want to talk to me.
– PerpetuallyVerdant
12. The gross out
When the person acts like he/she just saw something disgusting.
Come on, first you just say “no”. If they insist, then you can do whatever you want, but let us have the chance to walk away with just a “no”.
– sormatador
13. Playground games
Being told to wait until recess for an answer to the “do you like me” question, waiting, then being told “h**l no” on the playground with a gaggle of sixth grade girls behind her.
I still carry the scar, thirty years later.
– JaeCryme
14. The rejection hotline
When I lived in SoCal in the early 2000’s there was a bogus phone # girls could give people who asked for their #.
An answering machine would then play a message saying ‘Sorry, you’ve been REJECTED. LOL’ And hang up on you
– HellaFella420
15. The laughter
Middle School, I had my friends, she had hers, I asked her, she said “No…no…”
My friends laugh, her friends laughed. But one of her friend said to my buddies, “Why you laughing that’s messed up.”
Thank you kind friend of hers.
– daehuac
16. The ex arrives
I went to a bar with a girl that I had met at work once. We had really hit it off from day one and so we had decided to go get drinks, but the whole day she was just…off. Like, she wasn’t rude or anything, she was just acting weird. When we got to the bar we basically sat in awkward silence until- who would have guessed it- her ex shows up.
He comes over to the table, introduces himself to me and then starts talking to the girl and she immediately stops acting weird. And then he left. And then she started acting weird again.
Eventually, she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. She was gone for a while, so I turn around in my seat and look toward the bathroom and there she is, sitting in her ex’s lap, making out with him.
– unusualinsomniac
17. The laughter
In middle school my friend wrote a letter to his crush asking her to a dance.
Dropped it on her desk and then left because he was nervous.
As we walked outside we watched her through the window reading it, laughing, and then getting a bunch of her friends to come over and they read it together laughing their a**es off.
– wooztheweb
18. The crazy tunnel to crazy town
I knew a girl once. She had a crush on me since we were 8. I was home from college and ran into her.
We chatted a bit and then she started crying and telling me how she always liked me but I always ignored her. We did talk quite a bit throughout our school years, but she never mentioned being interested in me.
So I asked her out right there, and she said no and went down the crazy tunnel to crazy town about how I was only asking her out to have s** with her. It was weird. Glad I dodged that bullet.
– Spider-Ian
19. Preemptive strike
Preemptive rejection. I’ve had it happen a couple times. Both times were with women/girls who were part of a circle of friends.
I never showed any interest in either, but, somehow, they both felt the need to say, out of the blue, “I’ll never sleep with you”.
It’s all good – things evened out.
– Squigglepig52
20. The secret apology
My son is in second grade.
Earlier this week he asked a girl out and she said “NOOOO!!” and her friends laughed and said “REJECTED!”
I felt bad for my little guy, but I told him to keep his head up.
The next day she wrote my son a card telling him he was brave and asked if they could still be friends.
– jred250
21. The note
In 6th grade, a very overweight and shy gal wrote my older popular brother, an 8th grader, a love note. We congregated in the gym before first bell, with grades separated. 6th graders were opposite the side of 8th graders. She was sitting directly opposite of him on the first row, he was on his first row. I watched as he took the note out, then ripped it apart and dropped it on the ground, all while staring directly at her.
This gal continued to mildly stalk my family, and in high school told everyone her and I were dating. I never spoke to her once in my life.
– amu_munchauzen
22. Parental rejection
I was the first in my family to graduate college and was incredibly proud of myself for making it despite my limited resources and having to work my way through school. My father told me he wouldn’t come to my graduation. Said it really wasn’t that big of a deal.
I still remember the phone call and just sitting in the grass in the common area sobbing while people walked past.
Rejection by a parent is something I don’t wish on anyone.
– catchmeatthebar
23. The jazz club stranger
I went on a first date with a girl.
We had a nice dinner and really seemed to be hitting it off. We decided to visit a jazz club after dinner.
Some guy started flirting with her when she was on her way to the ladies room. It continued when she was on her way back. Dude then posted up nearby and just kept looking at her and winking at her while she was sitting at the table with me.
She excused herself and went over and started talking to the guy. I was hopeful that it was a “What the f**k is your problem, dude?” conversation. But no. Soon they were laughing and joking and exchanging numbers.
When I decided to call it a night, she thanked me for dinner and said she was going to hang out a bit longer.
– DickySchmidt33
24. The stand-up routine
Getting stood up.
Sitting at a bar alone, all dressed up, waiting for him to arrive.
He never showed
Maybe he saw me and was disappointed and left?
Maybe he just ghosted for no reason?
Who know but it was humiliating.
– Dive-kite-cat
25. Religious hypocrisy
My first boyfriend in high school told me I wasn’t religious enough to date him and broke up with me. He did this after church before we left the building.
Pulled me aside in a conference room like we were having an evaluation meeting.A few months later, he was sent home from a school trip for having s** in the bathroom.
My first thought: I guess she was “religious enough” for him.
– Crafty-Arachnid6824
26. Eewww
I was in middle school and these group of girls convinced me to ask out a guy I like because they said he liked me back. They helped me get all dressed up and look nice. Then at lunch time, they brought me to him and as they stood around and watched me, before I could even say anything the guy completely rejected me in front of everyone.
And everyone started laughing at me. One of the girls said out loud, “ewww why would he ever like you, no one does”.
Middle school was not a pleasant time for me.
– projectglue
27. Cruelty is the point
Anything making it personal really.
We talk about lack of empathy but it seems the opposite.
If you didn’t care what the other person felt your rejection would be boring if you want to enjoy the fact that you caused them pain you make it personal.
– n_eats_n
28. But still, ouch
Dude I know knocked up his girlfriend that he had only known for three months.
He was a real loser with none of his c**p together, but he still impulsively asked her to marry him.
She bluntly told him she was getting an abortion, and she never wanted to see him again.
Obviously she was right, but still, ouch
– Brocky70
29. Absolutely vicious
I went to a club with my friends and this guy came over to our group to ask my friend’s cousin if she wanted to dance. She yelled “OMG! EW! NOOOO” loudly and put her hand up to block him.
It was the most vicious rejection I’ve ever seen to a guy who was being super nice about it. I already have a hard time approaching girls and that s**t always plays in my mind to this day when I’m trying to get myself to talk to a girl.
– Thaichi23
30. OOF
A friend from work. Hanging out for a year or so. One night something happened and it was unbelievable. Next morning she says, ‘Well, we’re not going to do THAT again”. OOF.
Happy ending – Hung out as friend for another year. Then she moved 100 miles away. Couple of months later she invited me to visit to go to Disneyland with her and her sister’s kids. I was basically the ‘dad’ to help with the two boys. Of course I went.
After that, started visiting her every couple of weeks. Finally one night ‘it’ happened again. And here is the obligatory — We’ve been married for 21 years now.
– GodNamedBob
I guess not all rejections are created equal?
What’s the worst rejection you’ve ever received?
Tell us in the comments.
