At some point in life, you may have found yourself in a situation where you were just being your regular self, and suddenly, you’re thrust into the role of the “bad guy” in someone else’s story. It happens, right? We’re going to explore a mix of lighthearted and more serious tales where ordinary people have been unintentionally painted as villains. Get ready to navigate the ups and downs of these intriguing stories, from the comical to the thought-provoking.
My ex had a very annoying habit of keeping in touch with her ex. I had a suspicion she was cheating so 5 months into the relationship I messaged him to ask him to back off (in a meaner way). Turns out I was the one she was cheating on him with. He had no idea I existed until I messaged him. Needless to say we both blocked her and moved on with our lives. We actually play Battlefield and Fortnite together regularly.
I saw an open spot at a very crowded bar and thought “SWEET!”. I went to go order and I right when I got the bartender’s attention I heard “Excuse me?”. I looked down and I was leaning over the head of a guy in a wheelchair, hence the open space at the bar. Drunk me didn’t put it together and said “Hey, what’s up?” Then put my order in. When I sobered I realized what a horrible thing I’d done. My heart is pounding typing this up.
Right now my girlfriend’s parents think I’m the villain because I’m encouraging her to go further and live her own life.
She is a high school dropout working retail. Her parents want her to just stay in retail and live at home.
I’m helping her study for her GED, and to start hiking with me, which is boosting her self-esteem. I’m even paying for her to take the test. Will be helping her pay for college too.
Her parents keep saying I’m going to lead her into drug and alcohol abuse, in using her, I don’t care for her, etc. They want their little girl to stay in their basement, working retail and sitting around playing video games.
I’ve stopped trying to make them like me, and they know if they forbid her from seeing me she will just move in with me.
Apparently, I have ruined a lot of family holidays and special events when I can’t magically pull a table for 10+ out of my a** when they walk in without a reservation at peak dinner hours.
A year ago today I was interviewing for a job. I was in the lobby making small talk with the receptionist. It was her birthday and also happened to be my friend’s birthday. She told me what she was doing for her Bday. I don’t remember exactly, but her BF was taking her to dinner. I piped in with….” my friend’s husband is taking her to the beach for the weekend.”
Huge mistake. I immediately noticed a change in her posture. She hated me instantly. She has hated me ever since. I have always been nice to her, and have no idea how to change the situation. Wish I could. I get that I was an unintentional one upper at that moment. Heck, I’ve always even been avoiding anything that might seem like braggadocios around her.
Last year I backed out of my childhood friend’s wedding (I was Maid of Honor) because she was expecting her bridal party to spend a small fortune on her “elopement”. With us buying our own dresses, jewelry, paying our way to where she was getting married (an 8-hour drive for us because flying would have been double the price), splitting the cost of the lodge she wanted us all to stay at, going out for a wedding brunch after the ceremony, and going to a spa the day before the wedding I was looking at spending easily 2k (USD).
I tried to rationalize with her after she brought up brunch and the spa. I told her we were going to be in this gorgeous lodge with a giant kitchen so I offered the idea of us cooking for the newlyweds so it would be a more intimate and special meal post-wedding. She straight up turned bridezilla, said most of the people going (ie just the bridesmaids and groomsmen) weren’t “adventurous” eaters (why go out to eat than when you don’t know the restaurant menu???), and “she’s the bride, so we’re doing this.”
Noped the f*ck out of that and she hasn’t spoken to me since and I’m sure I’m the a**h*le in her story but whatever. Saved a sh*t ton of money.
When I told my younger brother that showering every other day did not mean every other Wednesday.
The kid thought he could shower twice a month.
My friend and I (both girls) had been single forever and it was something we bonded over. We were in different cities and she decided to visit. She brought her boyfriend over, presumably to show off.
I had gotten a makeover and therapy since the last time we’d met (I was the definition of a sad girl prior to that), and she immediately became convinced I was trying to steal her boyfriend. I had no such intention.
But it started becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy for her. Her bf and I had a lot in common which I kept trying to downplay, but she kept playing up. Like we spoke the same language, had several common friends, had the same food aversions, and we would be in the same city at the same time for work in a few months. She just kept growing more and more insecure. I heard her crying in the night.
She was staying over with me, and he was with some family. She went out in the morning to get coffee, and I was taking a shower. The door was unlocked, I didn’t know that. I came out in my underwear and was applying moisturizer when her boyfriend walked in, and then she walked in a minute later.
She ran out crying, he ran out after her, and I was mortally embarrassed.
Apparently, that caused enough pain in the relationship that they broke up. So I’m very clearly the villain to her, but all of it was avoidable if she was less insecure.
I work in local print news. In 2016 Hurricane Matthew hit us and about a week later the river that runs through our county started flooding. It took several days but I think it ultimately crested at 28 feet.
All told, from the day the storm hit us til the day the water receded and roads opened back up the whole experience lasted about a month.
That’s a month of not getting much sleep, working six days a week, working some on your day off, not having much to eat because trucks can’t get to your grocery stores and I was of the mind “it’ll never hit us,” so I never went to stock up beforehand.
Anyway, in the middle of all this, I was out in a neighborhood that was half flooded. Like everyone on the left side of the street was mostly dry, with maybe some water in the yard or driveway, everyone on the other side had their car completely underwater.
I met this gentleman who had come back to check on his house with his wife. They had no power, but they were dry and happy about it. While I interviewed him he mentioned that he was in no rush to leave again. He’d been staying with his mother-in-law and she was driving him insane.
I quoted him on that, even mentioning that he was joking when he said it (cause he was). I thought it was a nice moment of levity in what was otherwise kind of a bleak situation.
His mother-in-law did not agree. He called me the next day and was clearly trying to dig his way out of the doghouse for that remark. I got an earful. Probably deserved it. When we later made a special edition with all of our stories and pictures from the flood, we took that line out of the story as a favor for him.
Sorry, my dude.
I’ve got a strange one. I’m definitely the villain in this guy’s story, but I have absolutely no idea how it came to be that way.
He was a childhood friend, not an awesome friend, but we were always very nice to each other and he was a neighbor, so we played together quite often. In high school, we didn’t hang out but again, were always friendly and nice to each other. Quite frankly, I think he’s a great guy and always have and I know for a fact I’ve never said a single bad word about him or done a single bad thing to him. That I’m aware of…
Fast forward 20+ years. I haven’t seen him or spoken to him, not even on Facebook. When one evening I bumped into him in line at the grocery store. Excited, I say, “Hey John how are you!” And he just gives me the most hateful, horribly angry, evil glare, shakes his head and storms away in disgust.
After that, I tried calling him and left him a very nice message asking to talk but he never responded. I sent him one message on Facebook perhaps a month later that was heartfelt and apologetic and asked him to please have an opportunity to speak about it. But again no response. Then (sounding now like some kind of high school stalker, I know) I asked a couple of friends that I knew he was still in touch with if they had any idea and not one of them did.
That was over four years ago, and to this day I have absolutely no idea. But it’s clear that I have done something, however unknowingly, to upset this guy greatly.
There has to be quite a few people out there in life that believe me to be a bad guy in their life story. Individuals sitting in jail have a lot of time on their hands and I’ve often wondered how much might be focused on me, especially those who believe that I wronged them in some way.
There are countless examples I could offer, one specifically comes to mind because I recently received a card from her. There was a woman in my city who I came to know over a few years and multiple arrests. I’ll call her Sarah, and unfortunately for Sarah, she had a name and date of birth that was easy for me to remember, 03/03/83. Whenever I saw her I could quickly run her, see if she had warrants — which she often did.
Over a few years, Sarah went downhill quickly and moved out of my city and I didn’t see her for a while. One night, I was dispatched to a gas station on a woman who arrived in a vehicle with her children. The woman was having difficulty walking, and talking and appeared intoxicated. The caller was concerned she was going to drive off.
I arrive and find Sarah passed out in her vehicle with one of her four children in the vehicle. We ended up arresting her for DUI and had her mother come to pick up her child. Sarah is really upset with me, she just got one of her four children back and now she has lost that child and is starting over. Sarah also can’t understand how she is being charged with DUI since she was parked and not driving. In my state, doesn’t matter. I take her to jail.
Sarah fights the charge. The attorney files motions, but she refuses to plea, and can’t reconcile in her mind that she is charged with DUI despite not driving and that perhaps I treated her unfairly. Sarah moves out of state and hires a pretty decent attorney who continues to fight the charges. Both trials are set for last month. About two weeks prior I came into work and records tell me a woman came in and left a letter for me. It’s a Hallmark “Thank You” card from Sarah. Written inside, “Thank you for saving my life.” I checked the court records and she straight up pleaded guilty to both charges, with no plea offering. I just checked her probation status and it looks like she is doing great on probation. Haven’t seen her since the last arrest.
So, I was the bad guy for a few years. Then turned good?
It happened in 5th grade and it still makes me feel bad. I had become rather popular in school. I had a group of friends and most of the other boys wanted to be in our circle. There was this other kid named Trevor. He kept trying to be friends with us and hang around with us. He wasn’t that bad but he just didn’t know how to react to things. He always was over the top or super talkative when something happened. I finally got tired of him and said something along the lines of, “Hey. . .no one wants you around.” It was during some event and most of the grade heard it and he pretty much got shunned.
We ended up moving an hour away for my Dad’s work before the end of the year. I still feel terrible about it. I never really found out what happened to him. I am not sure if I made him an outcast for more than that year, but I did at least make him an outcast for a few months. I just didn’t want him bothering us but I took it too far. I was a bad guy that day. I’ve gone out of my way several times since then to try to make up for it, even if it doesn’t have a huge impact. I am sorry Trevor.
Back when I was 20 (almost two decades ago) I started fooling around with a girl who’d been my friend for a few years. We started hanging out a ton and sleeping together for a brief period
Eventually, she confessed feelings for me and I told her that they weren’t reciprocated (I tried to be gentle, but in retrospect, I was a d*ck about it) and that I wasn’t interested in a relationship. She ended up transferring schools and moving across the country. We didn’t speak much after that and I quickly moved on with my life and essentially forgot about her.
A dozen years later we reconnected on social media and after chatting for a bit I discovered that I had essentially wrecked her. She had been in love with me and had figured I was “the one”. My rejection sent her into a tailspin and she’d transferred schools because her grades had dropped off a cliff once I shot her down. I apparently ruined certain foods and songs for her for years as they were things she associated with me (things which I sadly don’t even recall). Even her new friends knew about and loathed me sight unseen, I was the fabled “Minotaur11” who had broken her and whom all subsequent men were compared against.
Eventually, she got over it and is now happily married with a family, but it really shocked me to think I’d basically been a wrecking ball that had smashed through her life and it had taken her a good 5 to 7 years to put the pieces back together. Especially when, at the time, I was just a stupid young guy having fun and hardly remembered what we did together once she left.
In high school, my best friend called me and told me that his mother was pissed at me. I asked why and he said she’d told him that I had asked a girl to the Prom and stood her up. At that point, I’d never asked anyone on a date.
I asked him to put her on the phone and asked her where she’d heard that. She told me about the girl’s mother.
I called the girl’s mother. She told me she’d heard it from her daughter.
I told her I wanted to apologize to her daughter and she let me talk to her. I did apologize in case I’d done anything to hurt her or lead her on. She told me that the guy who had asked her out had the same first name as me. I guess everyone assumed the last name.
My cousin’s girlfriend had known me for all of 24 hours and confided in me about cheating on my cousin and how when my cousin was out in the field (he is military) another guy proposed to her and she said she couldn’t decide who she wanted to be with because the other guy made a lot more money. My cousin knew something was up, so he asked me if she said anything about any other guys…and much to her surprise, I told him! So now I am superb*tch. It has been about 3 years and she still hates me. His Einstein self-married her a year later. and these are the days of our lives.
One of my wife’s ex-bf has apparently been obsessed with her since they broke up. We ran into him at the store one day. He didn’t know we had gotten married. He punched me and screamed at her that a psychic said they would get back together.
I asked 4 girls to prom, they all said yes, and I wound up pawning 3 off to my friends so they’d have dates too. They all bought their tickets and got their dresses already so they couldn’t back out easily.
A hero to some and a villain to others, I guess.
I became the villain when I filed for divorce and exposed my (ex) wife’s cheating and general sh*ttiness to the world. Her whole family was shocked, dismayed, and sympathetic at first. After a few weeks of her telling them lies, I became the Great Satan.
Once my wife and I were waiting at an intersection, and there was a panhandler sitting on an overturned bucket holding a sign asking for change. I had a dollar and some change in my pocket, so I gave it to my wife and said “Give this to him”. She rolled down the window and held the money out to the guy, but he just sat there and said “Just throw it to me”. My wife said “Huh?” And he said, “I don’t feel like getting up, just toss it to me.” So, my wife took all the coins and stacked them up and wrapped the dollar bill around them in an attempt to make a tossable package.
Then, she tossed the package at the guy, and as he held out his hand to catch it, the package f*cking exploded and coins went flying all around him and the dollar blew away. He just sat there and shrugged at my wife, and the light turned green so I started to drive into the intersection. Then, in the rearview mirror, I saw that the lady in the car behind me had gotten out and was collecting the coins off the ground, handed them to the panhandler, and then gave him a “you poor soul” hug.
I realized later that to her it looked like we had callously thrown our spare change at this poor panhandler who had put his hand up to defend himself, sending change flying everywhere. I imagine she thought we were cackling with glee, Cruella Deville style, as we sped off after our disgraceful act. And she felt the need to comfort him after he had been treated so badly.
Little did she know the guy was just a lazy sh*t who couldn’t be bothered to get off his bucket.
My neighbours (a couple) who were complete a**h*les might I add kept reporting me to my landlady and every official department they could so I got revenge. after not being the bad guy at the beginning of the story in a self-fulfilling prophecy sort of way I did actually become the bad guy.
Basically when I moved in they were as nice with the only odd thing to transpire being that they made a conscientious effort to warn me about how horrible all the other neighbours were which struck me as odd as I had met said neighbours several of whom were family friends or associates that I had known for years anyway.
I ignore this comment and after asking about them find out that they are former alcoholics who terrorised the neighbourhood for years with all sorts of antics and have basically been engaged in a dispute with half the street.
Being older now I guess they have settled down and deserve a second chance so continue to be nice. It started slowly but escalated fast this is a small list of what they did
Reported me to my landlady because my dog was barking all day. I didn’t have a dog.
Reported me to the police because the back of my friend’s car who was visiting for coffee was blocking their driveway. (a) they still could drive out (b) police were highly annoyed at them.
Stole items out of my recycling bin, I still don’t know why
When I finally got a dog they threw bits of meat into my garden which smelt odd and I assumed they were trying to poison her.
Told my landlady and police I was a drug dealer??? I was a law student and getting my house searched was super fun.
Anyway up until the last point I had remained calm anytime they confronted me or did some stupid sh*t I either ignored it or politely said if you have an issue I will be happy to discuss it. I think because I wouldn’t start an argument it pissed them off.
But it was the last sh*t that made me so annoyed as a law student this accusation could have cost me my future career. Of course, no drugs were found but people always think there’s no smoke without a fire.
So I started off small throwing eggs at their windows, throwing my dog’s poo into their garden in the dead of night left weird voodoo dolls hanging from their trees. I played loud music and banged the walls. At this stage, they had burned their bridges complaining as no one believed them so I was Scott free to be as bad as I liked
I did this for 6 months until they moved out. I am most definitely the bad guy in their story and you know what I couldn’t be happier.
I am a recovered alcoholic. I guess the light got switched on for me when she told me she wanted to split up and she gave me three days to get out of the house. So, naturally, I read her email to find out more. She told one of her friends, ‘The nightmare is finally over’.
You do a lot of self-deluding when you’re an alkie. I thought we were desperately in love. That email was the ultimate wake-up call.
English wasn’t my first language, and I misunderstood the writing assignment from my 6th-grade teacher. I don’t remember what the prompt was, but I ended up writing a piece about fellow classmates that no one liked. Sadly, the teacher decided that I should read mine to the class in order to practice speaking and correct any mispronunciation. I ended up insulting the kid in front of the whole class for what felt like a good minute before the teacher realized what was going on and stopped me. I realized after the fact that I was the a**h*le in that story, but never had the guts to apologize. He ended up moving the following year due to bullies and family issues. Although this was the only incident between him and I, he probably viewed me as the French douchebag that publicly insulted him.
I sent a Christmas card to a guy who had a crush on me when we were in high school together. When I sent the card I was still in school and he was in the Marines, stationed somewhere near the Mexican border. I hadn’t heard from him in a while and just wanted him to know that I still thought about him and wished him well.
Turns out he was in a pretty intense relationship with a woman out there who had found some letters and notes and whatnot of mine that he had kept and she was PISSED about it. He had to explain that nothing really happened between us, he was with her now, he had no feelings for me anymore, etc., and she accepted it.
So here comes my Christmas card a few months later and she was not happy, to say the least. I wasn’t exactly sure why she thought some 15-year-old girl who lived almost 3,000 miles away was a serious threat to her relationship, but apparently, she hated my guts. I was the home-wrecker that was going to take her man away and I didn’t even know she existed.
I have no idea if they’re still together. He got in contact with me after the Christmas card episode just to let me know why he had gone radio-silence for so long. The last thing I heard, they were trying to get pregnant. That was probably 20 years ago. I recently tried to find him on fb and it looks like he’s married with kids. I did not try to friend him.
I am that one awful roommate who stole somebody’s pet.
I got a kitten, roommate wanted a kitten but couldn’t afford the $100 to get one. That should’ve been the first red flag but whatever. I got her a kitten for her birthday.
She then proceeded to lose interest and not give him attention or take care of him. When the kittens got ear mites, I paid the $300 to clear them up. I paid for her cat’s food, water, litter, licensing, vaccinations, neutering, and microchip. As a result of all that, everything was in my name. I made sure the babies always had food and water and clean litter. I trimmed their nails. I bought the toys, the cat tree, etc.
Well, my roommate was from out of state and took the kitten home with her over winter break. She didn’t stay on top of the cat’s nails. He’s polydactyl and two of his toes are half-formed—they grow between his thumb and the first toe, but they are just claws and not a full toe. Anyway, if you don’t stay on top of trimming them they will grow into his paw pads. And so I then paid the vet bill to treat his ingrown/impacted nails. Also when she came back this once sweet cat was straight-up mean. I’m not sure how he was mistreated, but I’m pretty sure he was.
When the lease was up, I was moving in with my boyfriend. I moved my clothes and cat first and had been gone for about a week before coming back for the big stuff and to clean.
Her cat had been without food and water for at least four days. The litter box was filthy. Just completely neglected while I had been gone.
So in that first load that had my bed, TV, Xbox, and other expensive stuff, we stole the cat. Took him in the cat carrier (pretty much the only thing related to him she bought) and took him to my new place to be with his kitty sister. This happened first thing in the morning, maybe 8 a.m.
At 4 p.m., I got a text from her asking if I had taken her cat carrier. It was another hour before she even realized the cat was gone.
She came unglued on me and a**aulted my boyfriend and me when we came back for the last load. But I can’t say I feel bad about stealing that sweet kitty.
This was all almost two years ago and the little orange dude is back to his sweet self. He’s my bud and he loves to lay on me and make bread. He’s also best friends with our one-year-old lab.
I lived in a big house with 4 other roommates when I was younger, 2 of them were girls.
I was the a**hole in every guy’s story of him trying to get laid at our house. Sometimes we’d invite everyone back to our place after the bar and these would sometimes be creeps who wouldn’t leave my female roommates alone when they’d come back to our place.
So I was the a**hole in their “trying to get laid” stories, because my roommates would ask me to tell them to leave in secret, and after a few more beers I’d be “ALRIGHT DUDE, TIME FOR YOU TO LEAVE.”
Sometimes, these guys would say they didn’t know where they were or had no way to get home. I’d be like “I don’t care, dude, time for you to leave, you should always have a backup plan when you go out to party.”
I was the oldest in this house. My roommates who became good friends of mine looked at me like I was their a**h*le older brother who’d throw people out when they couldn’t.
I broke up with my boyfriend who was incredibly in love with me (2 year relationship in high school) and a year later my family sued him for 6 digits.
So during our relationship, we got into a really severe car accident. He was at fault, I ended up in the ICU for several days and have permanent organ damage (as of yet hasn’t affected my quality of life). It was really, really bad. He was uninjured and incredibly upset over it, really sweet and genuinely good guy. I recovered, and a few months later I broke up with him for other reasons.
Well, his insurance didn’t pay my very expensive medical bills. My parents were struggling and they ended up suing his family’s insurance for the absolute maximum that the insurance would be required to pay without making his family have to pay out of pocket. His insurance would provide their lawyer. His family was very poor and we didn’t want to punish them, we just wanted his insurance to pay for my bills. We refused to sue for more than that maximum despite our lawyer telling us we could’ve won more money. The lawsuit unfortunately can’t say we were suing his insurance company, and we weren’t allowed to contact them. So they get served papers telling them his ex-girlfriend was suing for a helluva lot of money they didn’t have.
Well. We won. I got a couple thousand dollars in pain and suffering that went towards my rent, the rest of the money was used for medical and legal bills.
When I met my boyfriend (now husband) 7 years ago we had a mutual good friend who lived in California. After about 2 years into our relationship, he moved back to our state and moved in with my boyfriend and my boyfriend’s mom. Everything was good until we decided to move into a place together. At first, we tried to get a place with all 3 of us but local rental agencies wouldn’t take us seriously at all due to our friend’s lack of hygiene, lack of job and bad attitude so we decided to get a place just my boyfriend and I. We told him our decision and my boyfriend’s mom offered to let him continue staying with her until he found his own place since she considered him family. Then it gets weird. I got a call a week later from my boyfriend that our friend is drunk at 1 pm on a weekday saying I’ve been bullying him behind his back. I go over and ask him what he’s talking about and he just cries and tells me it’s nothing I’ve said or done it’s just a “feeling” he has. He begged my boyfriend to dump me that day but nothing happened. Fast forward another few weeks and I get yet another call from my boyfriend that I need to go stay with his mom. My boyfriend and I had to take shifts sleeping over at his mom’s house because our friend would come home absolutely trashed and scream in the shower in the early AM about hurting her and how it was supposed to be a compliment. In the end, we had to lose one of our closest friends and I ended up the villain. He says if I wasn’t around none of that would’ve happened and I’m the b*tch who stole his best friend.
My new husband left a few months after we married without reason or notice. I was devastated but I kept my sh*t together for my daughter’s sake. A few months later he decided he made a huge mistake and wanted me to give him a second chance and I refused. I’m now reminded almost daily that I should be the better/bigger person and “do the right thing” and give it a second chance. Fun times.
I have a work colleague who is super into football (Soccer). He absolutely hates the team I root for. It goes to the point that he rather have my team lose than his team win. I am more of a casual person regarding that topic, but I truly enjoy annoying the heck out of people so sometimes I try to pass the idea that I am a fanatic too.
One day he left the computer unlocked during lunch. I took it upon myself to use his Outlook to register his email on my team’s website.
He ended up receiving my club’s newsletter for 2 weeks. I also turned on notifications on the browser for my club’s website.
Despite working in IT he couldn’t turn it off.
It went to the point where he stated that if he found out who was responsible he would break that person’s hands.
He even involved our superior, who laughed it off and walked away.
After he calmed down I admitted it was me and apologized. He hasn’t talked to me since.
A friend of mine and I went on a couple of dates. I wasn’t feeling it, so I called it off, but he had fallen hard. I tried to be as transparent and thoughtful as I could, but it’s never an easy situation; I’m sure I didn’t do everything right, but I tried. Around the same time, he had met the woman who was to become his wife and he leaned on her a lot when he was struggling with getting over me.
Her side of this is that I am an evil, toxic person who led him on and crushed his heart and I did it all on purpose. I went out of my way to get him to fall in love with me because I liked the attention and I want to keep him as a backup plan for when (not if) my boyfriend breaks up with me.