Is OTHER wrong in the post ? POST : One of my good friends from high school recently reached out to me for money. He told me he needs to pay $300 to his mom every month and he wasn’t going to be able to come up with the money in time. (There deal was he pays $300 and she pays for school). 

My friend and I haven’t spoken in months before this. Our mutual friend and I hang out all the time despite the distance between us. We were a trio in high school and the loanee has been drifting apart since we all went our own ways since graduation. 

I went full on into owning a business while they went to school. I make a good living and they know that. I don’t believe in loans. I would rather either give the money with no return or someone earning it. My friend has worked many fast food jobs for as long as I can remember. I know he makes enough  to pay his mom and probably didn’t manage his finances enough this month. He was saying that he was planning on using his tax return to pay her but it hadn’t come in yet. He promised the minute it came in he’d pay me back. I interpreted that as “I over spent this month because I was expecting my return but it never happened so now I’m screwed”. 

I didn’t want to “reward” poor money management skills so I offered him a job. 

It’s was really simple stuff and I offered to pay him directly at the end of the week so he can pay his mom. I was 100% going to be overpaying but I wanted to give him a chance. 

I also gave him the option that if he came up with $150 I’d match the rest and he wouldn’t owe me anything.  

He told me that I wasn’t 	being a good friend. That I was trying to “make a lesson out of him”. That he came to me in his time of need and I’m just trying to get him to work for me. I was offering $300 to be a glorified receptionist cause we are entering a busy period in my business. I was really frustrated that he felt that way. 

I told our mutual friend and he brought up that he probably asked me because it was less embarrassing than asking his new friends he made in school. I just felt used, like I was a bank account for one of my good friends. I just feel like his pride won’t allow him to tell his mom he fucked up. They aren’t a family in rough financial times, I know she’d understand. 

AITA here? Him and his girlfriend seem to think so. My girlfriends neutral cause she thinks I should consider our past and understand. I just feel like we’ve been drifting apart and the first time we’ve talked in months is about a loan. I don’t want to track down the money and get it back. Should I just give it to him? Just feels like there’s a price tag on our friendship now. 