1. The Shot
My best friend and I were at a party. He didn’t drink because he was driving. At dawn, we headed home and got pulled over. I wasn’t bothered by a routine check, but my friend looked terrified and whispered that he secretly had a shot at the party.
When the officer came over, my friend handed him his ID but was visibly nervous, which the cop noticed. It turned out he had been drinking, and the officer tried to take the car keys. Panicking, my friend sped off. We dragged the cop a few meters, then lost him and sped away — I was yelling at him the whole time — until we lost control on a curve and flipped the car.
I broke my collarbone, he broke his leg in two places, but the saddest part was that the officer hit his head on the asphalt and died in the hospital a few days later. My friend got 15 years in prison.
2. The Nut
My boss went on vacation with his wife, who had a peanut allergy. They stopped at a roadside snack bar, informed them about the allergy, and ate their sandwiches. A few kilometers later, she started choking, and by the time he grabbed the epipen from the trunk, it was too late.
A few weeks after the funeral, he went back to the spot where she died and drove full speed into a utility pole. (The snack bar wasn’t at fault, and the bakery didn’t know the bread was contaminated with peanuts.)
3. Oh, Come On
In 11th grade on a class trip, I told my friend not to sneak out at night with the “bad boys.” (They were a ragtag group of troublemakers with no good influence.) He said, “Oh, come on, you’re just jealous because you weren’t invited…” That night, he tried speed for the first time. A few months later, cocaine followed, and from there, it was a downhill spiral. Years later, I ran into him living rough in the subway. He was happy to see me and asked if I could spare some cash.
4. Breaking Up a Fight
A small fight broke out at a club. I told my little brother not to get involved, but he insisted on helping. He broke up the two fighters just as one of his friends hit him in the head with a chair. He was in a coma for weeks. He survived but brain damage left him unable to move or speak properly since.
5. Warning Signs
My girlfriend, Panni, was crazy about a handsome guy we all knew had a bad reputation because his previous two girlfriends claimed he abused them. When he asked her out, I couldn’t talk her out of it — she was over the moon.
Just two months into their relationship, she got slapped but said, “It’s no big deal.” Six months later, she got pregnant and they married. The man ignored the child, but the beatings grew more frequent and severe. Eventually, Panni’s brother rescued her and the child, bringing them to Germany. We haven’t heard from her since.
6. Rock Bottom
My cousin, a 23-year-old woman at the time, hit rock bottom after losing her job and breaking up with her boyfriend. In this vulnerable moment, she agreed to a “sexy photoshoot,” where she drank a little to “relax.” It ended up as a porn scene that got leaked online and reached her family and friends. Since then, she’s had two suicide attempts and really started doing porn because she felt “it didn’t matter anymore.”
7. Sudden Outburst
My uncle argued with his pregnant wife. When she tried to grab his shoulder, he brushed her hand away. She lost her balance, stepped wrong, and he couldn’t catch her in time. She fell down the stairs. They lost the baby, divorced, and since then, my uncle has been drinking.
8. Slot Machines
My cousin was 15 when we vacationed at Lake Balaton. I invited her to go rowing, but the neighbor kid invited her to play slot machines. That day, she encountered arm-robbers and other gambling machines for the first time. Since then, she’s been addicted, never having a penny because she throws everything into the machines.
9. The Woman
I warned my friend that the girl who came over to chat at a party had a bad reputation. I remember her flirting, and me begging him not to take her home. They’ve been together for five years now. She constantly cheats and wastes money, is pregnant with their third child, and my friend works two jobs to support them.
10. Two Weeks
A colleague lent another colleague $8,600. Someone who never kept his promises but convincingly said he’d pay back $11,400 in two weeks. Of course, no one ever saw him again. He fled abroad with tens of thousands of dollars scammed from others. My colleague’s $8,600 would have been a down payment on a small house (this happened 18 years ago). After this, he completely fell apart: his wife left, he became depressed, and he’s been living with his mother ever since.
