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My Best Friend is still friends with the person who SA'd me. What should I do?

A few months ago my friend at university set me up on a date with a friend of her's and unfortunately he assaulted me on the date. I won't go into detail of what he did, but I told my friend and she was horrified and very upset at what he had done and says she feels guilty for setting us up. The problem is that she is still friends with this person (I understand that that is completely her choice and I have no right to dictate who she can be friends with especially when she has known him a lot longer than me). She openly talks about him in conversation and invites him to events that we go to, and I try my best to avoid him and I don't say anything because I don't want to cause any issues within our friendship, and i know how difficult its been for her to navigate this stressful situation as she has told me this. Her friendship with him is also one of the reasons i haven't reported the assault, i really dont feel like i can deal with that process right now. She also tells people about what he did to me referring to me by name, especially when we make new girlfriends, to warn them of his behaviour. It's incredibly uncomfortable when i then have to meet these people because they now know something so personal about me. Its getting to the point where I don't know how much longer I can stay in the friendship with her because of this, her telling people makes me uncomfortable but she justifies it by saying she's just looking out for people, which I get because the thought of anyone going through what i did is extremely upsetting for me to think about. It's currently summer and I will be going back to uni in a few weeks and I feel really terrible because I love our friendship, she's on the same course as me but for my own mental health and trying to deal with the situation and heal, I really don't know if I can remain friends with her and continue to act like I'm not incredibly hurt by how close she remains with him, or pretending like im not terrified everytime im in the same room as him. I really don't know if losing the friendship with her and our closeness is worth it, the thought of not having her as a friend is the whole reason I've remained with her throughout the past few months after the assault. I've had a few other friends out with the situation tell me that I should cut her off and that they don't understand how she can remain friends with him after what he did and I'm starting to see their point of view. I guess I would just like some outside opinion on the matter and any advice would be greatly appreciated. thank you x
Original post by Anonymous
A few months ago my friend at university set me up on a date with a friend of her's and unfortunately he assaulted me on the date. I won't go into detail of what he did, but I told my friend and she was horrified and very upset at what he had done and says she feels guilty for setting us up. The problem is that she is still friends with this person (I understand that that is completely her choice and I have no right to dictate who she can be friends with especially when she has known him a lot longer than me). She openly talks about him in conversation and invites him to events that we go to, and I try my best to avoid him and I don't say anything because I don't want to cause any issues within our friendship, and i know how difficult its been for her to navigate this stressful situation as she has told me this. Her friendship with him is also one of the reasons i haven't reported the assault, i really dont feel like i can deal with that process right now. She also tells people about what he did to me referring to me by name, especially when we make new girlfriends, to warn them of his behaviour. It's incredibly uncomfortable when i then have to meet these people because they now know something so personal about me. Its getting to the point where I don't know how much longer I can stay in the friendship with her because of this, her telling people makes me uncomfortable but she justifies it by saying she's just looking out for people, which I get because the thought of anyone going through what i did is extremely upsetting for me to think about. It's currently summer and I will be going back to uni in a few weeks and I feel really terrible because I love our friendship, she's on the same course as me but for my own mental health and trying to deal with the situation and heal, I really don't know if I can remain friends with her and continue to act like I'm not incredibly hurt by how close she remains with him, or pretending like im not terrified everytime im in the same room as him. I really don't know if losing the friendship with her and our closeness is worth it, the thought of not having her as a friend is the whole reason I've remained with her throughout the past few months after the assault. I've had a few other friends out with the situation tell me that I should cut her off and that they don't understand how she can remain friends with him after what he did and I'm starting to see their point of view. I guess I would just like some outside opinion on the matter and any advice would be greatly appreciated. thank you x


Yh I agree with your friends to cut her off for sure. she’s warning the girlfriends about his behaviour so he isn’t even trying to change and she’s still friends with him Yh that’s a no. It doesn’t matter how good the friendship is I’m sorry to say she shldnt do that defo drop her. Distance urself for sure I mean I wldnt even let her be friends with me again that’s so *****y. imo remaining friends with her devalues what happened to you cuz it seems to them that ur okay around him if ugm and maybe he might think that u arnt that bothered idk (sorry I wrote this super tired )
Stay away from her and cut off ties. She seems like a horrible person. No explanation from her can justify her behaviour and in my eyes she’s just as bad as the man who assaulted you because she’s willingly associating with him KNOWING what he’s done.
Reply 3
I'm so sorry you went through that and I hope things get better for you.

Regarding the 'best friend', the very first moment she brought him up in conversation in a positive light or invited him to an outing, you should have cut her off. There are no excuses for that. None. I don't know how she can sit and joke around with someone who does that. That's absurd. How does she feel comfortable being friendly with him especially while you're right there? I don't understand.

Also, she's going around telling people about what you went through. That's not her story to tell and that's a boundary she shouldn't be crossing. Her actions don't align with those of a best friend who should care about your feelings. I know it's hard ending friendships but this is not the type of friend you should keep around. Please, cut ties with her so you can heal properly.

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