When you’re young in your 20s, you’re still navigating how to treat others, and especially in a living situation. It’s all new. You’re on your own, trying to suss out a new life with others your age.

So tripping through awkward or embarrassing situations is just part of the game.

But what about when someone tries to purposefully embarrass you in front of other people?

Well that’s something entirely different. And that’s where this story is headed.

Come along wontcha?

AITA for not giving my roommate a tampon and telling her she can no longer use anything I own?

For context: I (25 F) live with roommates, all are female. We’ve all gotten close in the two years we’ve lived together, except for one roommate. (We’ll call her Emma, 23.) It’s not that I dislike Emma, but we’ve never meshed as well as my other roommates have.

The other day, Emma called us all out to the living room where she was folding her laundry. She held up a pair of underwear and asked if it belonged to any of us, and I recognized them as mine so I said yes. I apologized for the mix up, and she immediately started yelling at me about how disgusting I am and how she wanted to “light herself on fire” after touching them.

That’s quite the reaction.

The embarrassment OP had was off the charts, and Emma decided to make it even worse.

Since I live with all girls, this happens all the time and none of us ever get weirded out by it. I cant even begin to count how many times someone’s bras, socks, underwear, etc. have gotten mixed with my laundry by mistake.

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but I realized they were actually an old pair of period underwear that had (i cannot stress this enough) MINOR blood stains on them from years ago when I first got my period.

Emma again decided to loudly announce how gross she thought I was and how I should be ashamed for not throwing them out, and tried to get my other roommates to look and join in on her outburst.

Her roommates saw what was happening and did the right thing, tried de-escalating this awkward situation.

Thankfully I live with some awesome girls, so nobody even batted an eye despite me being absolutely horrified that someone I live with would do something like that. Everyone was quick to reassure me that it’s no big deal and it happens to all of us. They tried to tell Emma to chill out but she wasn’t having it. She just went to her room and slammed the door.

It stayed tense in the house.

Til one encounter when it was just the 2 of them home.

For the next week, Emma didn’t speak to me. She would loudly talk to all of our other roommates with no problem but the minute I tried speaking to her she would just walk away. A couple days ago I was laying in bed and Emma was the only other person home.

She knocked on my door and when i opened it, she sheepishly asked me for a tampon, saying she woke up from a nap and bled through her shorts. How ironic. I laughed and told her no. (I didn’t have any left, and I knew our other roommates had some somewhere so its not like she had nothing.)

You’d think maybe Emma got a clue after this last situation where she found herself in need again?

Yesterday, she asked all of us if she could borrow a shirt because her clothes were in the washer. We all said no, and I even said I wouldn’t want her to “light herself on fire” after touching any of my “nasty” stuff.

She rolled her eyes and gave me a half-a**ed apology, and I told her I don’t want her touching or borrowing my stuff if that’s the way she acts about a natural bodily function that SHE ALSO goes through.

Now it’s just downright awkward in the house, and she’s wondering if she’s actually in the wrong.

She called me childish and said she didn’t see the big deal. Now there’s this weird, passive aggressive vibe every time we’re in the same room, and I’m wondering if I should just apologize or not. I talked to some friends, and they said I’ve got nothing to apologize for but I’m wondering if I overreacted.

So AITA?

Folks were clamoring to let their 2 cents be heard.

No one was feeling Emma here.

Especially this person, who had some post-game words she would have used.

Another person pointed out that she was clearly never in the wrong in this story.

One Redditor was beside themselves, especially considering hungry dryers and all.

While one commenter would have really let Emma have the stone cold cat treatment.

Karmic justice 101!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.