What would you do if you accepted a friend request on social media, and the person excitedly reached out to you even though you had no idea who they were?

Would you play along and pretend like you remembered them, or would you be honest and admit that you have no clue who they are?

In today’s story, the person who sent the friend request is a long lost former stepsibling, but the person who accepted the friend request isn’t exactly excited to hear from them after all these years.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

AITA for not apologizing when an ex-stepsibling reached out and I didn’t remember them?

My parents divorced when I (26f) was 2.

I have an older brother (29m) who shares in my misfortune with our parents.

The two of them could not stay single but never had a single healthy relationship and there were many stepfamilies throughout my childhood.

None of them were people I ever bonded with or thought about again.

None are people I would ever try to find or say were a part of my family.

They were in and out and that was the way it was.

She didn’t know the person who sent her a friend request.

A few weeks ago I got a Friend request from a girl and I accepted it because we had mutual friends (though none were people really it was mostly places that had accounts) and she quickly DM’d me with a lot of enthusiasm and I realized she clearly felt she knew me.

But I had no idea who this girl was.

After a I gently told her I wasn’t sure who she was she explained she was a former stepsibling and she remembered me and my brother and had always felt like we were the siblings she didn’t get to keep in touch with.

She had all these memories that I didn’t and my brother didn’t.

The stepsibling wants to meet up.

We vaguely know what she’s talking about but it wasn’t meaningful for us.

But she was also considerably younger than us at the time.

She found me faster than my brother and wanted a relationship and to meet up.

The former stepsibling clearly missed them.

My brother wasn’t interested and neither was I so I gently explained that we weren’t interested to her.

She asked if we hadn’t missed her too.

I explained we’d had a lot of different stepfamilies and hadn’t actually remembered her specifically when she reached out.

She found that difficult to believe and was clearly very upset.

Then she demanded an apology for not remembering her.

She’s wondering if she should’ve apologized.

I said I was sorry if she was feeling hurt but it would be better to stop the contact now.

She said no and demanded I apologize and that the two of us give her a chance.

Instead I removed her as a friend and moved on.

But AITA for not giving her the apology at least?

I’m not sure how old she would be exactly.

At least 17 but I’d be guessing closer to 19/20ish…

That former stepsibling seemed so excited to reconnect!

It’s kind of sad to crush her dreams, but at the same time, she also doesn’t have to pretend to miss someone she doesn’t even remember.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person can relate to how the stepsibling probably feels.

This person also feels sorry for the stepsibling.

Another person explains why she didn’t do anything wrong.

Here’s someone who can really relate to how she feels.

Just because someone misses you don’t mean you have to miss them.

It is a sad story all the way around, though.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.