Friendship and finances rarely mix well, especially when one side has questionable intentions.

What started as a casual night of celebration quickly turned into a cold calculation of who owed what.

And somehow, the numbers just weren’t adding up.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

AITA for hesitating to pay contribution for my apartmentmate’s friend’s birthday party that I was invited to last minute?

My apartmentmate called me at 8:30 PM (liquor store closes at 9 PM) to arrange some drinks for his friend’s birthday party, which he invited me to last minute.

He assured me that he would take care of the expense.

I ran through the snow trying to get to the nearest liquor store.

The rest of his apartmentmate’s friends spared no expense for the party.

His friends brought two XL pizzas, nine dips, two four-packs of Red Bull (250ml), a single bottle of Budweiser, and three packs of chips to our apartment.

But then came an unexpected expense.

We enjoyed the night, and after two days, he asked me to pay my contribution for the party.

I asked him why I would contribute to his friend’s birthday party and why I wasn’t informed beforehand if that was the case.

Then came the gaslighting.

He told me that it should be common knowledge to contribute to a party and that, by asking this question, I was showing how pitiful I am.

(I didn’t get any shifts this week, and he knows about it.)

But they would never do something like this to him.

I reminded him that I had also thrown birthday parties for him and our other apartmentmate, yet I never asked for a contribution.

And the price the apartmentmate quoted was not adding up at all.

After he successfully emotionally blackmailed me into paying my share for the party, he told me that even after subtracting the cost of drinks, the total cost of the snacks was over $200.

Let’s think about this for a second—two XL pizzas, nine dips, two four-packs of Red Bull (250ml), a single bottle of Budweiser, and three packs of chips.

How much could it really cost?

Realistically, below $90.

Of course, he had an explanation at the ready.

When I approached him about it, he said that his friends might have bought the snacks from a convenience store, which could be expensive.

(The pizzas and dips were from a fast food chain.)

When I asked him to call his friends to confirm the exact amount he spent on each item, he declined.

Now they’re wondering where they all went wrong to end up in this situation.

AITA in this situation?

(P.S. He still hasn’t paid me back for the drinks.)

Sounds like plain highway robbery!

What did Reddit have to say?

As far as this commenter is concerned, the attendee in question has already paid their dues.

This apartmentmate is just plain unreasonable.

The apartmentmate may have thought he could take advantage, but from now on, he’s cut off.

If their apartmentmate takes them for a fool, it’s high time they prove him wrong.

A party should be thrown to celebrate, not to cash in.

The only thing more inflated than the snack prices was this apartmentmate’s sense of entitlement.

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.