Friendships require some effort to flourish.

If a friend ghosted you, ending the friendship, how would you treat them if you ran into them years later? Would you be friendly, rude, or pretend they didn’t exist?

This woman had a friend for seven years, but their friendship ended when her friend ghosted her after making plans together.

So when they bumped into each other, she pretended she doesn’t exist. Now, she’s wondering if that was the wrong thing to do.

Check out the full story below for all the details.

AITA for literally pretending my old best friend didn’t exist when she tried to say hi to me after ghosting me years ago?

This happened about a week ago, and I’m still turning it over in my head.

“R” was one of my closest friends.

A few years ago, she completely disappeared on me.

We’d been best friends for seven years.

R said she was too broke to go shopping with this woman.

One day, she said she didn’t have money to go clothes shopping with me.

I said it was fine. We can just hang out together before we started our new jobs, I added.

I asked if she wanted to come around my house or if she wanted me to come to hers.

She found out R had other plans with other friends.

She never replied.

The day we were supposed to hang out came and went.

And then, I saw afterwards she had been out drinking with other friends, so she obviously had money to spend, just not with me.

She was hurt.

I stopped trying after I saw that.

It took me a long time to accept it, and it hurt in a way I still don’t think I’ve fully processed.

Although I have friends, I didn’t let myself get that close to anyone again.

That was four years ago.

She accidentally bumped into R.

Fast forward to a few days ago, I saw R. Ironically, it was when I was out shopping with other friends.

She waved at me and smiled like nothing had ever happened. She acted like we were old mates bumping into each other.

It wasn’t like someone who I genuinely loved as a friend.

Her other friends were polite, but she ignored R.

My other friends said hello, being polite and all. They knew her from high school, too.

But I didn’t move any closer to her or say anything.

I literally pretended she wasn’t there.

I talked over her asking what we had all been up to these years.

I said I was hungry, and that we should go to get pho before the wait time got too long.

Then, I looked right through her and I walked past without saying a word.

Her friends thought she was being overly dramatic.

Now, here’s where I’m wondering if I was the jerk.

A few friends said later that I was too cold to her.

They said what I did was overly dramatic. It was years ago. They said that maybe she had her reasons for ghosting.

I should be the bigger person, according to them.

She doesn’t know if she did the right thing.

But honestly, I don’t think I owe someone grace because they couldn’t even give me a goodbye to a seven year friendship.

AITA for being petty and pretending she didn’t exist?

Was she too cold to her former friend, or did she deserve to be ignored?

Let’s check out the comments of other people on Reddit.

Here’s a valid point.

This person gives their honest opinion.

R doesn’t matter, says this person.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

And lastly, a short and straightforward comment.

Stop ghosting if you don’t want to be treated like a ghost.

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