20 People Shared Embarrassing Stories That Can’t Be Told to Everyone

Perhaps each of us has a story that we can’t tell someone because we still feel embarrassed about the things that happened in it. All these small secrets are usually kept private until the moment we find someone trustworthy with whom we dare to share all our epic fails.

We at Bright Side wish every one of our readers could meet such a person. But until then, we’re publishing the stories of people who got into awkward situations and weren’t afraid to share them with the entire Internet.

• One time, a colleague and I were at a seminar. We were sitting in the front row and the lecturer was giving a long, boring, and monotonous speech. It was early morning, the weather was warm, and the sun was shining through the window right on us. At some point, I hear the phrase right in my ear, “Are you feeling really good or really bad?” I got up in shock and realized I laid my head down on my colleague’s shoulder — I was lying with my nose buried in her shoulder and smiling. I was having a dream about my husband. Everyone around was keeping silent and looking at me. Moreover, this colleague had a son born 1 week prior to this, which made me look even worse in everyone’s eyes. © Snail / AdMe

• I was singing along to my Spotify playlist during a boring meeting via Zoom. Turns out, I was NOT muted as I had thought. I could’ve crawled into a hole and never gotten out of it. © farts_n_darts / Reddit

• It happened a long time ago when I was pregnant. My husband and I dropped in a shop at the seaside and I saw a flounder fish. It was huge with spikes, and it cost a lot too. Amazed, I hugged my husband, tickled behind his ear, and murmured, “Shall we buy it?” At this moment, I realized it was not my husband. My husband was standing to the left and I hugged a complete stranger. © Oksana Zveryanskaya / Facebook

• Every morning, I run to the bus stop to catch the bus I need. Once, I left home, came to the side of the road, and a big chain of cars passed by me. One of them stopped. I thought a person might be working as a taxi and started to open the doors. The doors were locked. After the third attempt to open the door, the driver helped by opening it from the inside. I sat down and asked about the fare. The driver said, “No fare needed, I’m going there anyway.” Turns out, he simply stopped while I rudely attempted to get in the car. © Swan.videos / Pikabu
• I lived in Spain and had a car. But one time, it was in the garage so I took the bus. I got on the bus through the front door. There were many people on the bus and the front seat was occupied by a young woman who had the edge of the seat free (about 20 inches). So I sat next to her. I was feeling uncomfortable because of the lack of space and kept thinking the entire trip what a bad-mannered neighbor I had. She didn’t move a bit as I was trying to get more comfortable. The girls standing next to us were looking at us and whispering something to each other. We were going like this for several bus stops and she got off. At this point, I saw that there wasn’t much space left after she left. I looked back trying to compare my seat with the seat behind and realized it was meant for one person, not 2. I was ready to fall through the ground. © Iri Na / AdMe

• Once, I was standing on an escalator in the subway and felt someone behind me pushing me slightly. I instantly thought that was a pickpocket who got into my bag. I turned around and saw a man getting coins out of my wallet! There was nothing else in the wallet apart from coins. I thought, “What a miser!’ and grabbed my wallet. The man looked at me, frightened. Yes, his wallet looked like mine...also black and made of leather. Feeling ashamed, I could only squeak, “Sorry,” and rushed down the escalator. © Overheard / Ideer
• I remember that once, my bra strap fell out at a meeting with large international financiers. It wasn’t fixed properly and the adjustments were weak. It fell out and was lying on the gray carpet, white and with lace, as all the participants were saying goodbye to each other at the front door. I pretended it wasn’t mine. After all, it could happen to any woman. However, I was the only woman at the meeting. © Irina Bass / Facebook
• We had a car — a regular white Hyundai. Every time I would get into any white Hyundai that looked like ours, I’d have a serious face (I wasn’t able to distinguish ours). I saw many surprised eyes from slightly shocked to “Who the heck are you?” After this, the same thing happened when we bought a black car and it continued until my husband bought a big orange car. I could finally distinguish it from any angle in any parking lot. © Tatsiana Sg / Facebook

• At my friend’s birthday party, I was sitting opposite a guy with a huge tattoo from his wrist to his elbow. It was a portrait. I looked closer and said, “Wow, is that Marilyn Manson?” He says, “It’s my mom.” And I said, “She is a beautiful woman!” © Elina Kalashnikova / Facebook

• Once, when entering a museum of wax figures, I gave my entry ticket to a wax figure sitting at the entrance. Only later did I see the eyes of the shocked controller. He was sitting nearby. © Valeriia Zamishlyaeva / Facebook

• I was trying on a lot of different slippers, and when I finally found a pair that fit, I proceeded to put the other slippers back on the display. I managed to arrange them all except for one. So I was going around the shop trying to remember where I took this slipper from, and then realized the slipper I was holding was quite worn and it belonged to another customer in the shop... © purpleshirtbluepants / Reddit

• I was chatting with the frontman of an average band. He gave me their music so that I could listen to their compositions. I didn’t like them, except for one song. I answered, frankly, that the songs sounded mediocre except for the one. Turned out, it was the only song that was sung by a different person. © Lena Kiseleva / Facebook

• Once, my childhood friend, who I hadn’t seen in years, invited me to his birthday. Shortly before his birthday, I happened to break up with my boyfriend but I had already bought a present for Valentine’s Day. It was a photo frame with hearts on it. I didn’t have money to buy another present for my friend so I decided to insert our photo into the frame and wrote on the card how much I loved him (of course, I meant as a friend). So I get to the party and give him the present, and he introduces me to his girlfriend. Of course, everyone thought that I had just confessed my deep feelings to him. I have never seen so many people looking at me askew. Later, they got married and my friend still doesn’t know I didn’t have the money to buy him a present at that time. I still feel ashamed. © Overheard / Ideer

• I was replacing a teacher as a sub. So I get into the room, there are students in it, and I start the lecture: “Our subject is very important because the results will be indicated in the final project.” The students start to look at me with eyes full of horror. It doesn’t stop me and I keep saying similar phrases to them for the next 15 minutes. Then I see that absolutely all the students in the room looked shocked. I felt that something was wrong. Turned out, that those were freshmen and it was their first lesson in math. My speech for cynical graduates shocked them to the core. I snuck out of the room and headed to the graduates who aren’t afraid of anything. © Julya Fedorchuk / Facebook

• Once, there was a girl in front of me wearing a high ponytail. The ponytail was amazing but artificial. Suddenly she stopped, concentrated, and sneezed very loudly. The ponytail fell off. It would have been okay but the man walking nearby yelled in surprise and dropped his phone. I also got scared and yelled. The whole scene apparently looked horrifying from the side with the ponytail lying on the ground. © Yulia Romanova / Facebook

• When I was 18, a friend and I were interning as train conductors. Almost instantly, a line consisting of young guys appeared behind us. One guy was extremely persistent and was following each step. When I ran out of patience, I asked him to leave in an abrupt manner. He said, “Young lady, I didn’t come to you but to your friend. Let her ask me to leave if she wants to.” That was a punch to my inflated ego! Now the situation seems funny to me, and yes, I did learn my lesson! © Ella Bernstein / Facebook

• Once, I spent 5 minutes putting products into a cart and throwing odd stuff out of it until the moment I raised my head and realized that it wasn’t my cart. It was the cart of some man who was holding it at that moment. © Volto Servetta / Facebook

Will you tell us a story that you feel embarrassed about?