"I did all the planning, booking, etc. Second day there, she tells me, ‘I’m not as attracted to you as I was two years ago, but I guess I’ll have to settle.’ She acted shocked I dumped her the day we got back, even told her friend she was surprised I didn’t propose to her in Japan. I’m with someone now who makes me feel appreciated.”

"I told her that since I’d last seen her, my dad had sadly been diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s and how hard it was on our family. She, with a completely straight face, told me that the devil had given my dad Parkinson’s and he must be a terrible person. We haven’t spoken since that day.”

"I couldn’t lie in bed every morning because I was working two jobs to bring in income after he was laid off and refused to apply to any jobs that were ‘beneath him’.

"I finally got my shit together and started changing my habits and losing weight. A spinning teacher that we both loved said to me in passing one day, ‘You’ve lost weight, you look terrific, good for you.’ My friend got this sneer on her face and said in a really nasty voice, ‘Yeah, don’t you think she’s too thin?’ I was not, but I knew that our friendship was not going to survive this shift; this would always come between us.”

"I was upset, understandably so. My partner exploded on me one night, complaining about how I was sad and upset over my son and how he was too stressed from work to deal with my emotions.

‘Your son is not a real man because a real man doesn’t call his mother to say he’s scared and worry her like that when he and you both know to expect his life could be on the line when he signed up for the service.’

He then proceeded to say horrible things about my son’s wife and my other children. My heart dropped, and I knew right then that this man didn’t have any love nor respect for me.

My son is OK, but is still deployed and serving in that area.”

"Much later: My friend came to me with the same down-on-his-luck body language and passive personality he had when he showed me how little food he had. Told me he had to sell his Xbox 360, and he needed at least $80. I talked it over with my wife; it set us back a bit, but the $80 didn’t make us miss any bills.

The next time I see him, he holds out a pre-order receipt for the Xbox One and wiggles it back and forth, doing a little ‘I’ve got a newer one than you!’ song.

If he wanted the money for a game system, I’d have helped out. He made me think his kids were going hungry. I don’t like being lied to like that.”

"Uh, sorry that the health and safety of myself and my soon-to-be-born baby trumps being a ‘warrior’. She had no idea what my doctor and I had discussed as options or why that was chosen for this birth. All she wanted was to pass some sort of smug judgement because she had a VBAC.”

"A few years later, I moved in with my girlfriend, who is now my wife, and when I told him we were engaged, he said, quote, ‘I never thought you’d sell out like that.’ I was like, ‘Ooookay, fuck you then.’”

Additional thumbnail credits: Olena Ruban / Getty Images