Rejection is the worst – but even among things that are the worst, there’s still something of a spectrum.

It’s one thing to experience the worst, it’s another to live through the WORST of the worst. Like the scenarios described in this Reddit thread.

What is the worst possible way to be rejected?
by inAskReddit

Get ready for cringe and heartbreak, it’s time to get rejected.

1. A rising of standards

Not a rejection but when we were in college a girl I had been friends with throughout high-school said “Ben I used to fancy you a few years back but my standards have gone up since then.”

She said that in front of all our other friends, fortunately I found the whole thing hilarious.

– Benjii_97

2. The Miami connection

Thought I was dating a guy for two years He would call me his girl to his friends and we would hang out everyday. “Hang out” being the key word here I thought nothing of it. We would be intimate, make plans, eat together, sleep together, go shopping together, exchange gifts, Valentines day he goes to Miami with another girl, I thought okay weird but I’m not going to be jealous. He’d make it up to me.

Turns out he didn’t make it up to me was acting weird and I looked in his phone and he got rejected thru text by the girl he took to Miami when he asked her to date him and think about the future and start a family and when I asked him why he lied about it he told me I was never his girlfriend and that I misunderstood our friendship and he was rejecting my advances for something more committed ?

So yeah my worst “rejection” up to date.

– f**kboyclown

3. Totally ignored

I was outright ignored. Just not a single thing said.

So I awkwardly never talked to them again because they didn’t seem to want to talk to me.

– PerpetuallyVerdant

4. The gross out

When the person acts like he/she just saw something disgusting.

Come on, first you just say “no”. If they insist, then you can do whatever you want, but let us have the chance to walk away with just a “no”.

– sormatador

5. Playground games

Being told to wait until recess for an answer to the “do you like me” question, waiting, then being told “h**l no” on the playground with a gaggle of sixth grade girls behind her.

I still carry the scar, thirty years later.

– JaeCryme

6. The rejection hotline

When I lived in SoCal in the early 2000’s there was a bogus phone # girls could give people who asked for their #.

An answering machine would then play a message saying ‘Sorry, you’ve been REJECTED. LOL’ And hang up on you

– HellaFella420

7. The laughter

Middle School, I had my friends, she had hers, I asked her, she said “No…no…”

My friends laugh, her friends laughed. But one of her friend said to my buddies, “Why you laughing that’s messed up.”

Thank you kind friend of hers.

– daehuac

8. The string along

Being led on or strung along when the other person is clearly over it. I am currently going through it.

We were seeing each other for about 3 months and then someone new entered her life. They began hanging out a ton, she was answering me less and less. I asked her about it, and straight up said “its fine if its over, but I don’t want to just throw us away over me being paranoid. So just be straight with me.”

Up until then she had been honest (or I think she was). So I believed her when she said she was just busy with the end of the school year, and he was just a friend.

Flash forward two weeks, we have spend max 2 hours in that same time. Hurts SO much worse this way. Like I wasn’t even important enough to dump. I was just gutted and left to bleed out on the side.

This is what people mean when they say they need closure. Just tell people what you need if it’s over. I just wish she had said “Look I want to see where things go with this guy. I am sorry but that means we are through.

– Gpotato

9. The confession

I was 12. All my classmates pushed me to confess to my crush, who was standing on the stairs.

Everyone was staring at me as I, in my prepubescent anxiety, managed to blurt out “I love you” while holding my arms up.

She put on the deepest expression of disgust I’ve ever seen, and I run away. Fun times

– thrashingkaiju

10. A moment for commentary

I have contradicting feelings about this comment section.

On one hand I would like to read other people’s stories and on the other hand I am enraged from all the ABSOLUTE BS people had to go through as teens.

– Kostas_the_goat

11. The double cruelty

well… I never thought I’d share this but..

I liked a girl in middle school.

confessed to her before going to a new school in a different state due to moving.

the day i told her she said ew thats gross, then started laughing.

a few months pass and i’m enjoying my new school and went to visit my grandparents, and i get a call from the same girl who said i was gross. she called and said she was sorry and wanted to give it a shot.

i said sure and lo and behold she starts laughing and said she can’t believe that worked, and started teasing me for believing that would happen or that shed want that.

– Silevence

12. A little death

Asked a girl for her phone number one night at the bar, she smiled and happily gave it to me.

Waited a few days and called it, turns out it was for a funeral home.

I died a little inside that day. 🙂

– i_iz_potato

13. The note

When I was in high school a girl I knew was trying to set me up with one of her friends who I was acquainted with. I was resistant because I was like 15 and never had a girlfriend before and was nervous. Eventually it got to the point where she straight up told me if I didn’t walk up to her right now and ask her out she was going to do it for me. I decided “Screw it” and walked up to her and asked her out. She initially said “Let me think about it” which I knew damn well was a no so I was pretty deflated.

Then the next day she comes up to me and hands me a 2 page note about how she was never going to go out with me and how I was ugly lmfao.

​ – Deadboy90

14. The casual connection

I used to go to a lunch counter near one workplace. There was a woman who I saw there frequently. I would occasionally make a joke or a comment about the weather. Like you do so it doesn’t get awkward with silence when a bunch of people are just standing around waiting for their lunch orders.

One time I went there, and she was there, and there was nobody behind the counter. I turned to her and asked when the guy would be back, and she blurted out, “I have a boyfriend.” I was surprised, she turned red and left without her order, and I had a crummy rest of the day.

Like, I get you felt threatened by my feeble attempts at a single human connection before going to my dehumanizing IT job where I talk to computers all day, but I was never attempting to make anything more than a casual connection. Now I get to get dumped when I wasn’t even asking anybody out and feel like it’s my fault.

– ishldgetoutmore

15. Pure confusion

So, here I am. A junior in high school. I got this mad crush on a girl.

One day at lunch I grow a pair and asked her to a ball my school was hosting. She said yes and I was over the moon!!

Later that day we were texting and she said that she forgot that she’s going to be out of town that day. And I told her it was no biggy, I’ll just bring my friend who’s homeschooled.

A little bit later that day we were once again talking and I asked her out on a date. And that’s when she hit me with the, “Oh, I have a boyfriend. We could go as friends though”. Still f**kin confused.

– Half-Leaf69

May our days of that kind of rejection be past.

What’s the worst rejection you’ve ever faced?

Tell us in the comments.