Man Refuses To Walk His Friend Back To Her Dorm When She Felt Unsafe Because She Rejected Him Once
"I asked her out, but she just wanted to remain friends."
George Pak / Pexels The so-called "nice guy" has been discussed in popular culture for years now. He's the guy who acts kind and is "not like other men." However, in the end, he believes he deserves a relationship in return for his friendship.
A 21-year-old college student on Reddit has been accused of displaying "nice guy" behavior. After a girl he was "friends" with rejected his romantic advances, he proved that he was only a good friend when there was something in it for him.
He refused to walk his friend back to her dorm when she felt unsafe because she rejected him.
In his Reddit post, he explained that he's been friends with a woman named Annie for the last three years after they met during their freshman year of college. On a typical Saturday night, he, Annie, and some of their other friends would usually hang out at one of their friend's apartments.
"After we’re done, I walk her to her dorm first before heading back to my dorm," he wrote. "This has been the default and I never really thought too much of it."
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However, this changed about a month ago when he realized he had feelings for Annie and asked her out on a date. She just wanted to remain friends.
"It did not bother me too much, but I obviously wanted to cut back on our friendship a bit," he recalled. Still, they remained amicable and part of the same friend group.
"However I’ve stopped walking her back to her dorm, and just walk back to my dorm," he wrote. "The first couple of weeks, she did walk back on her own to her dorm. However, last week, she asked if I could walk her back because she was extremely scared walking alone at midnight, especially when she was drunk."
Despite his willingness to walk with her in the past, he told his friend that she should get an Uber or ask someone else because he was "too tired." The conversation became quite awkward, and Annie ultimately had to find another solution to get home.
It's understandable that he would want to take some time away from the friendship after being rejected, but a friendship shouldn't be conditional upon romantic interests and reciprocation.
There aren't any romantic or suggestive undertones to walking a friend home, especially if they're drunk and feel unsafe walking alone late at night. It's disheartening that once Annie turned him down, he suddenly stopped caring about her safety or well-being if they were not romantically involved.
Suddenly breaking his routine because his feelings were hurt disregards the genuine friendship that Annie probably thought existed.
From her perspective, it seems their entire friendship was based on the possibility that they could be romantic in the future, and now that a potential relationship is off the table, he no longer cares to be her friend.
People in the comments agreed that he was out of line for not walking his friend home.
"You were never her friend," one Reddit user insisted. "You don't even know how to be a friend to women. If they're not giving up something in return, other than platonic friendship, you can't even ensure she gets home safely. You ACTED like a nice guy. Men like you aren't safe."
"You made yourself out to be more of a reliable friend than you are because you wanted to date her," another user added. "If she is truly your friend, you would care about her safety enough to just walk her home."
"Not your job to walk her back, but makes it clear you were never friends, and you never cared about her safety," a third commenter wrote. "You just wanted the opportunity to be the good guy, so she'd go out with you. Now she won't; you don't care about her safety or friendship at all."
At the end of the day, if he needed space from their friendship to get over the hurt of rejection, then fine — he's more than welcome to work through his feelings. But that doesn't justify his actions and complete disrespect toward Annie. He blatantly showed that their friendship didn't mean much once his ulterior motive was void.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.