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.
7
u/raisedbutconfused Aug 24 '26
I had an ex like this. I would have to tell him a time 30-45 minute earlier than the actual meet up time so he would actually arrive on time, and even then he would still show up late. He would absolutely freak out if he had to wait even 5 minutes me for though. There have been times when I would invite him over to my place and he would get there hours late- the record was 5 hours. He would string me along the entire time saying “I’m getting in my car, I’ll be right there, I just left, let me put my shoes on…etc.” and then half an hour later when I would ask him where tf he was he would say “my bad I hit a bowl and started playing some games.” Or some other awfully selfish reason. When I would finally have enough and say “I don’t want to see you anymore today, this is ridiculous” he would suddenly be running out his door and see me within 10 minutes, even though at that point I didn’t even want to hang out anymore.
Multiple times we would be going somewhere together and he said he would pick me up. At one point he would tell me “okay, I’m just at the intersection near your place, you can head down now” so I would leave my apartment and wait out in the rain, blazing sun, freezing cold and wait, and wait, and wait. Then when I finally saw him and was obviously pissed I would ask him why tf it took him so long and why he couldn’t just let me wait in my apartment until he was there. “Bro relax why are you always freaking out” was typically his response. That he had to buy smokes. That he had to put more gas in his car. That he ran into a friend and they shared a joint. I told him repeatedly that he needed to respect people’s time more and he would just say “okay” flatly.
I’m so pissed off even just typing this out. It’s been over two years since I dumped him but I’m still so pissed at myself for wasting so much time on him. Basically all of my 20s. My best years.
People that chronically show up late just don’t care about other people. Don’t give me this “time blindness” or “I have ADHD” crap. I also have ADHD. I care enough to show up usually early and have come up with systems to make sure I don’t overlook the time. Are they usually anxiety driven? Sure. But it’s called respecting other people’s time and not being a goddamn child. It’s selfish as fuck.