Being too trusting can be so dangerous. You see the best in people even when they’re not giving you their best.

In this situation, a woman trusted her good friend with a precious possession, but she didn’t honor it.

Now she’s wondering if she’s being too harsh by demanding she replace it.

Let’s read the whole story and the comments.

AITA for demanding my friend replace a hand-painted, signed copy of The Song of Achilles my late boyfriend gave me

My boyfriend passed away about a year ago, and before he died he gave me this custom book of The Song of Achilles as a birthday gift.

It has hand-painted edges from an Etsy artist, and was signed by the author, he even wrote a note to me inside the cover.

My friend L knew all of this.

She’d been asking to borrow it for months and I finally said yes because I didn’t want to seem rude.

She was pressured to do it.

I originally recommended she maybe buy her own book but she got upset, saying I know she’s unemployed and she can’t afford to do that.

For reference she will not sign up for a library card because she does not have a driver’s license to get herself there.

After she kept begging, I got tired of it and told her it was sentimental and to please be careful with it.

Her friend broke her trust.

When she gave it back the cover had a faint coffee ring and she annotated the entire thing in bright purple pen.

Not smart or meaningful notes either, it was more like random paragraphs about her ex doodles underlines and random notes like “this part reminds me of me and Jason lol.”

She also dogeared multiple pages! I understand wanting to annotate a book but I just don’t think it’s ok with a book someone else is letting you borrow.

She also kept the book in the bottom of her bag where it was really beat up.

She confronted her friend about it.

I told her she ruined it, and she laughed and told me it’s just a book.

She said she “made it more special because it had notes from a friend and now it looks like it’s actually been read ”.

She also said my boyfriend “would have loved how passionate she was about it.” (he was studying for an English degree)

I told her that was completely out of line and that I wanted her to replace it.

But her friend doubled down on the disrespect…

She snapped back that I was being selfish and I only wanted money. She said the book is fine and I can still read it.

I said I didn’t care about money, I just wanted her to take responsibility or at least try to replace it.

She said that it wasn’t even available anymore and told me to “let it go.”

Now some mutual friends are saying I overreacted and that I’m projecting my grief.

AITA?

I feel like this is an understatement, but she needs new friends. No one in their right mind would think that book was a group project.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

A hot take.

Some people wouldn’t be so patient and understanding.

I agree.

Food for thought.

Yup.

More advice.

She invalidated her feelings, pressured her and disrespected something of sentimental value.

Yeah, this is not how a friend behaves.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.