Rumors and gossip can cause a lot of problems in people lives, which is why they should be avoided.

What would you do if you had a friend who had bad rumors spread about her, but then she made up a rumor about you?

That is what happened to the student in this story, so instead of confronting her, she pretended she didn’t know who started the rumor and made her friend feel bad.

Check it out.

AITA for guilt tripping my friend instead of directly confronting them?

I (19F) have a roommate (20F) who, in October, had some rumors spread about her dating someone else while she was dating her boyfriend.

They were completely untrue and it really hurt her feelings, and she had to put in a lot of work to dispel these rumors.

She of all people should know how harmful rumors can be.

Then, in March, she started a rumor that I was dating my mentor (23M).

It was because he offered to drive me to a store that is out of walking distance to get something specific I needed for a project, and we ran into her.

It was an act of kindness as he had a car, and he needed something from the same store anyways.

The act of driving me to the store was fine, but the rumor caused a TON of issues and ended with me having to switch mentors and him having to prove his innocence to a research ethics board who also deemed the situation completely acceptable.

This rumor had a major impact on her life.

The new mentor I work for is also very nice, but the scope of our work is very far out of what I originally wanted to do and I’m upset that I’m not learning what I’d like to because my roommate decided to tell everyone we were dating.

I know she started the rumor because I know she has an affinity for gossip but also because she was behind us in the aisles giggling to her boyfriend and other people told me that they heard these rumors from her.

She asked about my work with that mentor today, and I told her the truth: “I’m not working with him anymore. Someone thought it was okay to spread a rumor that we were dating so I had to get switched into a different group and he almost got put on academic probation. I’m really upset that someone would say stuff like that and try to ruin his career and force me to work in a different group; I’m sure you get it after all those rumors spread about you.”

Good, she should feel bad.

I didn’t say it in an accusatory manner, I played dumb.

However, I heard her crying to her boyfriend about feeling bad about something and our other roommate (who is aware I know about who started the rumors) told me I was a jerk and petty for pretending like I didn’t know who started it all to guilt trip her instead of outright confronting her like an adult.

I want to let you all know: Regardless of if I’m TA, I’m not sorry.

It’ll be good to know if I am TA so I can decide if I confront her outright when I don’t renew the lease because of these interpersonal conflicts.

The right thing to do would be to confront her directly, but I have to admit, this was pretty funny.

Let’s see what the people in the comments think about it.

Yup, she did the right thing.

This person thinks she handled it perfectly.

Here is someone who says to cut that friend off.

This ‘friend’ messed with her education and his career.

This commenter says the ‘friend’ should be made to feel bad.

Rumors can be very destructive and need to be shut down immediately.

Spreading rumors about a friend is unforgivable.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.