Today is a good day, I"ve worked more hours than usual so I’ve got a little extra money, and it’s a Friday so I get my check. I was at my mom’s house in Orangevale at about 6pm getting ready to have a party. My closest lifelong friends are coming overfor my birthday so the day is looking pretty great. I cashed my check and hid it in my room before everyone got there because I'm paranoid. Since I’m one of the only people in my friend group that had money I went all out for this party because I really wanted everyone to have a good time. Everyone got there and we were playing video games, drinking soda, eating delicious food, everyone was having a blast. I had 5 people over that night & me & my girlfriend were the hosts of the party and we live together currently. I’ve know everyone here for a couple years, although 2 of which I’ve known for 7 years.

Everyone passes out, wakes up, then most of the people went home. Everyone except one of my friends, Tyler, goes home but me and him keep partying for another day. We can’t remember the night before at all because everyone was up till about 6 am so everything’s pretty fuzzy, we only slept about 2 hours. Me and him hang out for the day then he leaves the next day. I do my usual cleanup of the house & chores so my mom doesn’t get upset with me, then as I’m cleaning my room I notice something. My money is not where I put it. I’m always paranoid of something like this happening because my house is the only one everyone wants to go to because we all have way more freedom and my mom isn’t strict about much, the only downside to having everyone at my house all the time is things can get stolen and the house gets a little trashed. The mess is never too bad but to think one of my closest friends stole my money?

It was especially hurting me to think about someone taking my money after everything I did for all my friends and all the money I had already spent on them for the party. I’ve never been as angry as I was when I thought about this. Just to be safe I flipped my room upside down trying to find it but it was nowhere. I think anybody in their right mind would be upset losing $400 so my girlfriend and my mom understood my frustration. I called and confronted all my friends to see if they knew anything or saw the person who took it but no one knew anything. This was frustrating me even more because no one at all was saying anything and that much money doesn’t just disappear into thin air. I trusted everyone at the party with my life how could they do this to me?

In a conversation I have with my mom and stepdad we pin point which one of my friends we think did it; Tyler. I never thought much of it but he was always sort of a mooch & he was the friends I’d known for the least amount of time. So in a fit of anger & not thinking straight I text Tyler accusing him of taking my money and threatening him and a bunch of terrible stuff I even message his sister so see if she saw him flaunting a bunch of money lately. Unfortunately, him and his sister deny everything, making me feel like a fool but I thought I knew he took it, because no one else there would’ve. I get tired of this & cut Tyler and his sister out of my life, and threw away some stuff Tyler had left at my house. I’ve never been as angry as this, losing $400 was not on the list of things I wanted to do.

It’s the next day now, my girlfriend had just finished her last day of school a day prior to the party. She always gets yearbooks and other school memorabilia, and on the day of the party before the guests arrived shed been looking at the yearbook. Today though, she pulled her yearbook off the bookshelf and I could see there was something in it dividing the pages, like a thick bookmark. So I snatch the book out of her hands and open it up and out comes my $400. I didn’t know how to feel, I had already made Tyler and his sister feel like terrible people and I told Tyler we weren’t friends anymore because he stole the money… but what do I do now? I had Tyler come back over so that I could explain everything & he understood. I guess that just goes to show you shouldn’t accuse anyone of anything, especially a close friend of yours, if you don’t know for sure that it was them.