Carrie and Joe cancel on their friend’s birthday to go to a concert, then Carrie gets furious when the friend asks for space instead of accepting an immediate gift drop-off: ‘We want to bring the present NOW!’

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Feb 2, 2026 10:00 AM EST

Some friendships are like bad board games: everyone starts out having fun, but eventually someone flips the table and claims it was your fault for not enjoying the chaos.

Take the case of a group that used to gather for tabletop nights until one guest's partner turned out to be less "quirky" and more "human tornado." She had a special talent for derailing plans, making tone-deaf jokes, and treating other people's boundaries like suggestions.

Advertisement
  • Woman wearing glasses looking down in front of a bookshelf
    via Kelly Sikkema

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • How dare you ask for space after we cancelled on your birthday last minute? We want to bring the present NOW!

    My husband and I host a tabletop game on a semi-regular basis. Until a few months ago, that included "Joe" and his girlfriend "Carrie." Before I go into what happened, let me give you a little background.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704

  • When the host had to cancel a game night after a rough week, including a last-minute birthday snub by the couple, she politely asked for space. The response? A dramatic text explosion, complete with ChatGPT-assisted drafts, accusations of being “aggressive,” and demands for the present to be delivered immediately, as if birthday feelings could be FedEx’d.

  • My husband and I tried our best to be kind for Joe's sake, but Carrie is a difficult person.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • She thinks she is entitled to say and do whatever she wants, regardless of the consequences, without comment.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • At one point, my husband said it's important to consider how our actions affect others, and she responded "That's your opinion." In the tabletop game we were playing, whenever we started strategizing, her character would get bored and wander off to get attention by doing plot-derailing things like breaking the law in front of the town guards.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • One way to ensure she brought something up all the time was to say no. She often brought up playing at their house, which was 30 minutes out of the way.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Woman standing indoors with bookshelves, looking to her side
    via Kelly Sikkema

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • She convinced Joe to go on a divorce show with her (no, they've never even been engaged), then kept suggesting my husband and I could also get on TV and make a few hundred bucks, and she couldn't understand why we weren't interested.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704

  • It’s not just about the cancelled plans or the late arrivals. It’s about the way some people treat friendship like a performance, where every slight is a personal attack and every boundary is a challenge to their ego. The host wanted a little space, a moment to breathe, but instead got a lecture about how “unfair” it was to feel hurt. The grand finale? The girlfriend walked away, declared herself the martyr, and demanded her partner take sides. The friendship with the partner also crumbled, because no one has time for people who weaponize grace while expecting zero accountability.

  • Worst of all, she often made tone deaf "jokes" about topics multiple people in the room had trauma with, including reproductive health, rape, and dead dogs (the last one being its own special story).
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Now, Joe was never the most punctual person in the world, but Carrie magnified that. They asked us to move the game to a weekday evening, so Carrie could have the weekend for her occasional freelance work as a clown.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Even with the move, they frequently cancelled with little notice, often because Carrie had whoopsie planned something and forgot to put it on the calendar again.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • When they did show up, they could be over an hour late, always for very important reasons like she really wanted McDonald's instead of the pizza we'd already ordered.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • It became such an issue that we moved the start time later. So, naturally, they started arriving later.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • A couple weeks before my birthday, I texted the group saying I had made plans for the weekends before and after the actual day and invited the group to join either.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Joe and Carrie were going to be out of town both weekends, but, at their suggestion, the group planned a low-key game night on my birthday, which was a Tuesday.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • The Saturday before, Joe cancels. Why? He just remembered he had concert tickets that day. He was sorry.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Carrie said it's not my fault I don't even like rock concerts let's move to Monday.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • As they knew, hubby and I had limited to no reception over the weekend. So even if I had wanted to coordinate rescheduling, it was too late.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • I wrote "I'm celebrating my birthday on the day I was born with whoever wants to join." That Tuesday, another friend got sick, and we ended up cancelling the night altogether.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • For this and various more serious, unrelated reasons, that week was really rough. Hubby and I decided to cancel our next game night, saying I was still feeling raw about everything and wasn't up for hanging out just yet.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Everyone else said they understood and take care. Carrie asked if they could still bring me a present.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • I said I appreciate it but just needed space for the moment She EXPLODED. I got a lengthy text about how she doesn't like the way I've been speaking to her.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • They had gotten the tickets months ago, it was an honest mistake, and "acting like we've done something wrong is not okay." She said my texts were aggressive and made her feel scolded, that I should have sent her a personalized message if I had a problem, and that I have no right to have a problem anyway.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • At one point, I mentioned how deflating it can be to clean and prep a house only for people to cancel, so she suggested they "help" by hosting the game at their house.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Oh, and by the way, they'd like to come by really soon with the present. The present got brought up a lot.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Later in the conversation, they accidentally copy/pasted the full dialogue with ChatGPT they'd been using to write to us.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • She defended this by saying she was just using it to make the conversation less emotional... We could see she had written things like "add in that I won't monitor her feelings." I really did try to smooth things over, but, ultimately, she decided to walk away from the game.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • She told Joe she was going to show grace by stepping aside, so that he could maintain a friendship with us.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • All she asked was he make it clear that he agrees we're being unfair, she's done nothing wrong, the problem was my trauma, and he was not going to tolerate our calling her rude or insensitive.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Well, graceful as that was of her, our friendship with Joe has also ended. Tl;dr Ex- friend's girlfriend went apeshit, because I wasn't gracious enough when they last-minute cancelled on my birthday to go to a rock concert.
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704
  • Don't dip your dick in crazy, kids!
    via Flimsy_Tooth1704

  • Sometimes, the healthiest move is to just let the game end. Not every group needs a dramatic finale or a last-minute present drop-off. Sometimes, it’s better to close the book, walk away, and find friends who don’t treat your feelings like a plot twist.

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

boyfriend friendship bad friend best friends friends girlfriend friend mean girls Party
Scroll Down For The Next Article