The rise of digital payment services is both a blessing and a curse, something one TikTok user discovered the hard way during a disagreement with a longtime friend.
TikToker Lisa, who goes by @leetheaquarius on the platform, was faced with the darker side of payment platforms like Venmo when one of her friends tried to use it against her, but she hit him with the old Uno reverse and won the exchange. She may not feel like a winner in the end, unfortunately, but at least the TikToker knows that she has plenty of people on her side.
It all started with a simple hangout at the bar. While there with a group of friends, Lisa’s buddy John — who is notoriously cheap — asked Lisa if she needed another beer. She happily affirmed, and he went up to the bar and purchased a beer for her, and one for himself. Later, he accompanied Lisa back to her place, where he proceeded to polish off her leftover chicken parm, blow through several White Claws, and dip.
It wasn’t until the next day that problems arose. John, apparently having missed the whole friends helping friends concept by a mile, sent Lisa a Venmo request for the cost of the beer. The TikToker, baffled by the move, decided to fight fire with fire — so she sent him one right back. Estimating the approximate cost of the food he ate and the seltzers he consumed — which totaled out to far more than a single beer — she breezily returned the exact same energy, and viewers were delighted.
John, however, was not. He started to unravel in the days following Lisa’s Venmo request, but didn’t fully dissolve into a furious man-child until he learned of her TikTok video. Despite her avoidance of any identifying information about him, apparently John’s cheap reputation precedes him. As a result, quite a few people in his life realized the TikTok was about him, and he proceeded to completely melt down like a overstimulated four year old.
Lisa detailed the subsequent tantrum via a followup video, in which she shared receipts showcasing why she made the decision to leave the TikTok on her page, but remove the John from her life. Initially, upon learning that John was upset over the TikTok, Lisa felt bad. So she removed the video, and sent over an apology. His response to her move made her rethink the entire decision, however, and ultimately urged Lisa to put the TikTok back up, and share John’s toxic behavior with the world.
Its not uncommon for friendships to end, though John and Lisa’s breakdown was certainly more dramatic than most. A 2009 study actually found that, on average, adults lose around half of their friends every seven years. And, since John and Lisa had been friends since they were 14, perhaps their time had simply come.
John certainly came in swinging, and fully prepared to leave their decade-long friendship in the rear-view. In a text thread between the former friends, John quickly goes from irate to outright menacing. Informing Lisa that she was “warned,” and that she will “regret” her decision to leave the post up, John quickly dissolves into childish threats. After calling a woman he considered his friend just days before “crazy,” John threatens to go to the cops, to create clap back videos of his own, and claimed that he’d already been in touch with a lawyer.
All over a Venmo request which — by the way — neither party paid. And if Johnny boy is too poor to pay for a single beer for a friend, just where is he getting this lawyering-up money? Its clearly an empty threat, and Lisa doesn’t entertain it for a second. Even when John threatens her with supposed “witnesses” who are going to testify against her. Its all far too hare-brained to believe, and Lisa sees it for the desperate lie it is right off the bat.
That seems to be the end of the John saga — at least for now. He’s backed off his harassment of Lisa, and she’s back to her usual TikTok fare, which largely hinges around her work as a flight attendant. She’s got the approval of the internet, plenty of TikTok strangers, and a number of her real-world friends, and with no John weighing her down, it seems life is looking up for the airborne TikToker.
