I (19M) have a friend (20M) I’ve known since high school. We go out together a lot and lately he’s been trying to date more. Every time we go out he asks me to be his wingman.
At first I didn’t care. I’m pretty outgoing and I joke around a lot, so I figured whatever. But I’ve started noticing a pattern. When he talks to girls, he’ll basically throw me under the bus to make himself look better.
Like he’ll say stuff like “don’t mind him, he’s the weird one” or “he’s chaotic but I’m the normal one” or make up exaggerated stories about me. People laugh, but it’s always at my expense. I usually just awkward laugh it off in the moment because I don’t want to make it weird.
After it happened a few times, I told him privately that I don’t love being used as the punchline every time he wants to impress someone. I said I’m fine with normal teasing, but it feels like I’m there just so he can look better by comparison.
He told me I was overthinking it and that it’s just “social strategy.” He said every group has a wild friend and a grounded friend, and I just naturally fit the wild one. That honestly annoyed me.
Last weekend he asked me to come out again because he wanted to talk to someone he likes. I told him I’m good and I don’t really want to do the wingman thing anymore. He got irritated and said I’m not being supportive and that I’m making it about myself.
Now a couple mutual friends are saying I should’ve just gone and not taken it so personally because “that’s how guys joke.”
I don’t know. Maybe I should’ve just sucked it up. But I also don’t love feeling like I’m being used as a prop.
AITA?