67 Times Friends Showed Up When It Mattered Most

In China, 18-year-old Xie Xu carried his disabled best friend, Zhang Chi, to every class for nearly three years so he wouldn't miss school, and both ended up as top students.

She has balloons waiting and a great conversation. I had a horrible week, the week before being shamed online, then losing my job, and I ended up in the ER CRT. Thanks, Barb, love you.

My single dad friend is always looking for things to do with his two young kids. I was making several batches of apple crumble for friends and family, so I thought I’d put together a deconstructed one with instructions as a fun hands-on activity for him and his littles. They absolutely loved it, and it made my heart so happy.

Last night, my friends threw me a surprise party and showered me with love. It feels really good to be genuinely happy and loved. I hope I never lose this feeling.

I guess Max thought about that and sent me this text.

This morning, he dropped by with DayQuil and 3 containers of my favorite recipe of Filipino sopas (chicken macaroni soup). He made it himself.

Now I can see us together every day.

We haven’t seen each other in over ten years, but we catch up from time to time. We share a birthday, so she was my ‘twin’ growing up.

Last night, my friends threw me a surprise 18th birthday party, and I don't remember feeling this happy. Here's one of the pictures from last night.

As the whistle blew, he walked off head down and upset. His buddy on the other team came over, put his arm around him, and they walked off together - turning that frown into a smile.

I was 15, living in Norway, and was really into computer games. I met a guy through Steam (a computer game platform) from Amsterdam. We became really good friends and would play games together almost every day or watch movies together over voice calls for a few years. Time passed, and we slowly grew out of our routine of playing video games. We continued to stay in contact through Facebook.

I ended up moving to the East Coast USA 11 years ago, and then moved to California in 2022. My friend's partner grew up in California, and I received news last Thursday that they had just arrived in California to visit her family. It turns out that they were only an hour away! After convincing my wife that I had to meet this guy, we planned a day trip to Joshua Tree. We met at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center. My wife and I arrived early, but as soon as he pulled into the parking lot, we recognized each other and waved as he was finding a parking.

The day was awesome! Meeting him in person was like hanging out with him virtually. Like we had been close friends forever. We toured Joshua Tree for 6 hours and then went to dinner. Sadly, he had to return to Amsterdam, but we will definitely meet in person again.

Came back to a clean house and fresh laundry and notes like this all over my room.

When I was younger, I was honestly kind of an introvert. I didn't really know how to have friends. It wasn't until I met Matthew. We would walk home together all the time, and my parents even let him stay the night all the time. They were excited that I had made my first real friend. We had so much fun. We played all kinds of games together all the time. He taught me how friendship worked.

One day in the summer. He asked if he could spend the night one last time. Confused I asked why he said last. Turns out he was moving away the next day. We had a huge blast and a night I'll never forget. We talked all night about our deepest thoughts. It was incredible. The next day, he moved. We had kept in touch over Xbox 360. We'd play GTA5 and stuff together. It wasnt until one day I saw on his Xbox series about section that he was switching to the PlayStation. And he was selling his Xbox. After that. I lost him. He never got back on. And I didn't know his new username. Weirdly enough. Even though we were best friends. Never asked for his last name. I might've once, but I obviously forgot. It wasn't until I asked a long-time friend to dig up some yearbooks that I found him. I have so much to thank him for.

Meet Maurice. He likes to peek out from under my sweatshirt to make sure I am having a good day.

I broke down after opening the mail. Made me smile hard my face hurts.

I’m pretty sure it’s actually only 4 years, but the fact that they did this on their own it pretty sweet.

I play on Xbox, but she doesn't know much about gaming. As a woman who's been struggling to make friends, her effort to give me a meaningful gift, despite her lack of knowledge, moved me. I will cherish this mug forever.

Just had my choir concert at my school. My best friend had his before mine, and when I was done with mine, he gave me flowers. He's my favorite person in the entire world, and I'm so glad he's willing to put in this type of effort just to make me happy. He knows I really love flowers, and I'm so glad that he did this.