What would you do if you bought a concert ticket for a friend but they didn’t want to pay you back right away?

A 19-year-old student says she tried to do something nice by grabbing Ariana Grande tickets for her group of friends—but it’s turned into a financial and emotional mess.

One friend couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay her back despite weeks of reminders and multiple chances to make a plan.

Now, she’s considering selling the ticket to someone else.

Read on for the story.

AITA for selling the concert ticket I bought my friend because she can’t pay me back?

I (19F) recently bought Ariana Grande tickets ($103 each, CA) for myself and 3 other friends who were planning to attend together.

Friend 3 was iffy about paying me back because her initial budget was $80-90.

F3 asked if she could pause paying me back bc she didn’t have $105 to give me. She had >$1k in her spendings this July, and I know that she spends $20 lunch daily.

We had a plan established since the presale was announced, so I don’t understand why she wasn’t prepared to pay?

Another friend wanted the ticket.

I offered for her to pay me $20 for 5 months… she said she could TRY to do that.

I bugged her about paying me multiple times, and she said she’d pay me when she got home. I never got $20.

Yesterday, one of my friends who lives in CO was unable to get tickets, and I told her that I had a ticket that was still unpaid for. (One of the first things I told F3 was that I’m reselling if she cant pay, but i didn’t explicitly tell CO i was reselling).

CO offered me $200 for the ticket, (i wont upcharge her) and I told CO I’d likely sell the ticket if F3 is unable to pay/provide me an explicit payment plan.

F3 still wants the ticket.

I text F3 telling her I’m uncomfortable with her owing me so much money without telling me how she’s paying me back.

She misunderstood me on receiving payment and took it personally like I’m choosing CO over her (context F3 and I are bffs). we went back and forth for 5 hours.

She kept contradicting herself, saying she could pay me $50 now and $50 next month because she doesn’t want to see herself spend $100 in one sitting since she feels bad spending $100 in a day.

This keeps getting more ridiculous.

I asked her where the $50 is coming from since earlier she told me she even have that money, and she ignored that. I kept asking her for an actual payment plan I could trust her to do but she kept dodging my questions.

I ended up telling her that because she couldn’t give me a definitive answer, I felt more comfortable taking CO’s upfront payment.

She called me unfair because I gave her a day to pay, but we had this planned for like 3 weeks.

Her thing about not paying me the whole amount I paid for tickets is that she doesn’t want to see $100 come out of her bank account when I spent $400+ on tickets?? (i’m a student, unemployed, and partially paying my own tuition)

The drama continues.

Anyway, I just want opinions on what I should do or say to her. This is still going on, and I completely understand where she is coming from too emotionally, but I’m confused.

Currently, her last message says she’s confused about me selling the ticket because she told me she could pay me back (but when i asked her countless times how shes doing that she failed to answer and her response to her “payment plan” changed everytime i asked)

F3 is going bc of FOMO, she doesn’t like Ari&her new album which the tour is centered around.

She’s not sure what to do.

While i believe she’d eventually pay me back… I also believe she’d cut corners to pay me back and just delay the payment in general.

I spoke to friend 2 about this and she agrees, but i just still feel bad and don’t want to lose a friendship over this.

AITA?

Reddit largely sided with the ticket-buyer, labeling her NTA.

Commenters said she gave her friend plenty of time and flexibility, and that it’s not her job to bankroll someone who refuses to commit to a payment plan.

Friendship or not, money owed is still money owed—and she had every right to sell the ticket.

Like, there is just something not right about this.

It’s not cruel to set boundaries—especially when the price of friendship starts costing you actual cash.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.