14 Real Stories That Are Too Cringey to Be True

From awkward miscommunications to totally embarrassing moments, these 14 real stories will have you squirming in your seat. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, and you’ll be grateful these things didn’t happen to you.

• Was walking with an ex through a park. Bent down on one knee to tie my shoelace and heard her gasp and say, “Yes.” I looked up confused, then both of us looked at each other horrified when we realized what just happened... © marcallanteart / Reddit

• I was in high school, and we had a prize-giving ceremony during school assembly. My name gets unexpectedly called out, so I make my way to the front of the hall to collect my prize.
  I’m almost at the front when I have a sudden crisis of confidence and think that I must have misheard them and there is no way they called my name, so I turn around, walk back to my chair and sit back down.
  My friends are looking at me and asking me what I’m doing and telling me to get back up there to collect my prize. So I get back up, walk all the way up to the front, and then have ANOTHER crisis of confidence and think that my friends must have been messing with me. So I turn around and walk back to my chair and sit back down.
  The hall is silent, and the teachers are on stage looking at me like I just landed from another planet. © Lignouserr / Reddit

• Dinner at my wife’s boss’s. All’s great—until I cut into my steak and realize it’s basically still mooing. I hate rare steak and start panicking. I didn’t know what excuse to use. Then, an excellent idea strikes.
  So when the boss went to the kitchen, I saw the open window across the table and thought, “Problem solved.” I launched the steak, but the window wasn’t open. It slapped the glass, leaving a trail. My wife’s boss rushed over, confused.
  I tried to play it off, but no one believed me. I wiped the mess, dusted off the steak, and ate it. The evening was awkward. This morning, my wife texted, “Good news, boss and I laughed at how funny you are.”

• My little village has a small annual dog show. We normally enter our little dog. This year she was unfortunately in season, so we didn’t enter to prevent any ’fuss’ from the other dogs but took her along to watch.
  Halfway across the park, she decided to poo, and I suddenly realized I’d forgotten a bag. There were loads of other people with dogs around due to the show, so I wandered away a little to ask someone for a bag.
  I turned back and to my horror, a lady was picking up my little dog’s mess. Not wanting to feel like one of those who don’t clean up, I ran towards her to advise her she didn’t have to do that because I was going to get it. Instead, in a sort of panic, I waved my arms and barked, “NO, THAT’S MY POO!” Please note that I did not say, “That is MY DOG’S poo.”
  She physically jumped, then turned a deep red. She sort of mumbled an apology, dropped the poo, and marched off with her dog. It was at that point that I looked to my left and saw my dog’s poo sitting a few feet away from the lady’s dog mess that she was attempting to pick up.
  I think about this at night sometimes. © Karl_Cross / Reddit

• My family went on a trip, and we rented a beach house. It was me, my parents, my 15-year-old sister, and my 12-year-old brother, and they also let me bring my girlfriend. Unfortunately, like most parents, they were NOT going to let me and my girlfriend share a room, so I got stuck sharing a room with my brother, and my sister and girlfriend each got a room of their own.
  Being a typical teenage boy, about an hour after everybody goes to bed I quietly get up and slip out of the room, so I don’t wake my brother, sneak down the hall in the dark to my girlfriend’s room, slip into bed and begin kissing her neck... IT WAS MY SISTER! For some reason, they had decided to switch rooms. © Dervrak / Reddit

• Was on an airplane years ago with my girlfriend and her parents. My girlfriend couldn’t get a seat next to me and sat directly behind me. During the flight, I thought I would surprise her and reached my hand back onto her knee. Slowly I kept extending it up her thigh until I heard giggling.
  Looked behind through the seats and saw that my hand was on the leg of the guy next to her. He saw my face and said, “I just wanted to see how far you’d go.” Of course, my girlfriend was in on it and started laughing along with the rest of the row. © nocturnalplur / Reddit

• Got on an elevator with a woman, and she had on these really nice boots, so I complimented them by saying, “Nice boots.” She cups her breasts and says, “Well, you’re not shy, thank you, they’re real,” and then immediately realizes I said “booTs.”
  Longest elevator ride ever. To this day, whenever I say boots in any context, I do so with a very hard, deliberate T. © paypermon / Reddit

• I went to fetch my ex in the airport, she didn’t know I was coming to fetch her. As every passenger came out of the gate, there were only two people left waiting, me and another guy, so we started chatting a bit. We laughed at how slowly the luggage was coming out from the conveyor. He then went to the side and took a seat.
  My ex then came out of the automatic sliding door, and she saw me with a big smile on her face. When she walked towards me, she then saw on the side there was that guy whom I talked to earlier. It was her new boyfriend. It was straight out of a movie. © MurrayleoSMG / Reddit

• A guy at a call center I worked at came in to work one day, and one of the girls who works there said, “I saw you do a really nice thing this morning and treat that tramp a cup of coffee at the bus station; that was a really lovely thing to do.” To which he replied, “I didn’t buy a tramp a coffee this morning, I was having breakfast at the bus station with my dad.” © Ro5s / Reddit

• I was at a friend’s place with a few of us there. A guy I didn’t know all that well was bragging about his amazing new phone camera (this was in the days when there were very noticeable jumps in camera technology on phones), so he was scrolling through images.
  He had taken pics in a supermarket of a colorful aisle to show the contrast, and there was this figure in the bottom corner, looking like a random person had noticed him taking pictures and tried to duck out of shot while pulling a really weird face. I said, “Pity the weirdo didn’t get out of shot.” He said, “That’s my missus.” © KingDebone / Reddit

• I was eating pasta with a first date. I sneezed with half a mouthful, and a spaghetti came out of my nose and just hung there. I shook my head a few times, thinking it was my long hair, until I realized.
  As he sat there with his jaw in his lap, I attempted to nonchalantly pull it out with my cloth napkin. I did it, but I gagged the whole time. He said he’d call, but he never did. © Unknown author / Reddit

• A guy asked me out for dinner after a literal run-in at the mall. He slammed right into me. He immediately said I was really pretty, and asked if he could take me out. I was flustered, flattened, and flattered, so I said yes.
  We went to a pub-type place to grab food. He was actually pretty charming. We had agreed to split 50/50 before we sat down to avoid the awkward pauses at the end of a meal between strangers. That’s fine with me, it didn’t really raise any alarms.
  However, we ended up splitting nachos. We may have finished half of the whole plate. The convo was pretty decent. He was a bit boring, but nothing to hide in a bathroom over.
  Once the check came with the waiter, he pulled out a piece of paper, a pencil, and a calculator, and announced that I would be paying 63% of the tab because I ate approximately 13% more nachos than he did (even tho we barely finished the plate). The waiter snorted, and I was mortified. I left 10 dollars on the table and got out of there as fast as I could. © Spawned2 / Reddit

• I was doing orientation for my college. I wanted to meet the dean of my department and make a good impression. I walk into his office, and he is bent over behind his desk looking for something.
  I introduce myself and stick my hand out to shake his hand. He sits up, and he has no arms. I look at him and look at my hand, and I am freaking out. It felt like my hand was out there for an eternity, and I did the only thing I could think of to do.
  I ran my hand through my hair and tried to play it off. He never said anything and just started talking to me, but I felt like I was actually going to die of embarrassment. © C******listichokie / Reddit

• My flight was mostly empty, however, there was a new mom onboard. She was carrying her infant daughter, a soft-sided dog carrier, plus a diaper bag, and a purse. No stroller in sight. We land, and I make my way to the bathroom.
  As I’m washing my hands, the new mom enters. She’s flustered and exhausted. I look at her and say, “Can I help you? I’m a mom myself, my son is actually 5 weeks old.”
  Without warning, she thrusts her infant to me, turns around, and promptly drops her pants with the restroom door open and goes to the bathroom. I quickly averted my eyes and entertained the infant. © ladybirdvuitton / Reddit

Amidst the laughter, one thing becomes clear: life has a way of throwing curveballs that leave us speechless. These true stories will make you question the limits of human strength and luck. Discover the heart-stopping moments that defied all odds, and prepare to be amazed by the resilience of those who faced the unimaginable.