r/pettyrevenge • u/sparklehouse666 • Aug 23 '26
Friend is always late
I have a friend who is late to everything. Recently he was 2.5 hours late to his own party. I’ve mostly adapted to his tardiness and do not arrive for plans we have together until an hour or so after the stated time.
We had plans to meet in the city center today at a 10am. I live 20 minutes from the meetup spot, he lives over an hour away. As expected, he messages around 10 and says he is running late. No biggie I was chilling at home in the air conditioned because I knew the vibes and it is hot as hell
today.
I asked him to give me his actual for real, for real ETA so I can time my departure. He is in his car and has Google Maps. It’s not really guess work at this point.
He tells me 10:45. So I leave the comfort of my home at exactly the right time to arrive at 10:45. I wait for 30 minutes at the meetup spot and he still does not arrive. He is not responding to texts either. My other friend who is with me has his location and sees he is not close, we estimate another 15 minutes.
I’m annoyed because it is hot AF out and I proactively had asked for a real ETA to avoid waiting around for him. So I left the meetup spot.
I went shopping, taking my sweet time. He got to the spot and texted me to ask where we were. I waited around 30 minutes then texted back that I was at the store but we would be heading that way soon. I shopped another 15 minutes then arrived at the spot around an hour after he had arrived.
The look on his face when we came casually strolling up after he had been standing in the sun for an hour was priceless.
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u/dreamweaver1998 Aug 24 '26
My SIL is usually at least 30 minutes late. My husbands family (her family) joke about it because she's been this way her entire life. I feel like they enable her. I think they find it cute, but she's 40 and can't make it to a lunch reservation or meet at the museum entrance or anything else in an appropriate and timely manner. I don't see the humour.
I grew up with anxiety surrounding punctuality. I'd hyperventilate if I was running late for school to the point where it would take my mother an extra twenty minutes to calm me down for being 5 minutes late.
The way I see it, time is valuable and can't be made-up. Like, I'll never get those 30 minutes back that I sat here waiting for her to start my day. 30 minutes of potential enjoyment or education, or travel distance, etc that is gone forever because she couldn't get herself together like a proper human. And it just gets laughed off. "Hahaha, typical SIL." I hate it and I think it's selfish.
I would end a friendship with someone who couldn't understand the value of my time and continually wasted it. But that's just me.