21 Unbelievable First Dates That Went Horr, Horr, Horriblyyyyy Wrong
We wrote a post about the most horrifying dates people have ever, ever, everrrrr been on.
There were a ton of shocking and baffling stories. Unfortunately, they inspired our BuzzFeed Community to share some of their worst first-date experiences. Like, "I want to retire from dating for the rest of my life" kind of experiences.
So, here are some people who've been on horrendous dates and lived to tell the tale:
Note: Some submissions include topics of sexual harassment, domestic violence, and racism. Please proceed with caution.
1."I met this guy at a bar (yeah, I know — great start). We exchanged numbers, and the next day, he asked me on a date. When it came time, he told me I needed to pick him up because he lost his license for a DWI. We went to a restaurant, which was nice enough. He got two drinks there, and I got one. He asked if I wanted to go play pool and get some drinks, and I said yes. While we played pool, he had three more drinks and watched a basketball game the whole time. We then went to a different bar, where he got five more drinks (I'd had maybe three drinks total by this time). He got so drunk and proceeded to tell me all about our future wedding and the song we'd dance to..."
"I told him I needed to go, implying that he needed to wrap it up so I could take him home. He said I could go and that he'd find a ride. Two hours later, while I was in bed, he called me asking for a ride home. Against my better judgment, I picked him up and took him home.
He was veryyyyy drunk.
Before he got out of the car, he kissed me sloppily and told me he loved me. The end. Of the date and any future dates."
—Anonymous
2."I’m a Gen X’er, and the closest thing to 'online dating' I had in the late-'90s was the wonderful world of AOL. I’d met this guy in a locally-based chatroom, and we hit it off. We exchanged pictures, and he was strikingly handsome. I (21F at the time) didn’t have a lot of dating experience, but he was a few years older than me and very patient. This endeared me to him more, and we went on our first date after about six weeks of regular online chats. We met at a trendy 'see and be seen' sushi restaurant in the heart of the city. He said he would meet me at the bar with a single orchid because it was my favorite flower. I come sweeping into the restaurant, heart all aflutter, and see this grey-haired man in a three-piece suit holding an orchid at the bar. He recognized me from MY pictures, and while he seemed familiar, he WAS NOT the same person in the pictures I’d received."
"I walked up to him and he blurted out, 'Please don’t be cross with me. I sent my son’s pictures. Otherwise, I knew you wouldn’t have anything to do with me.'
I smacked him in the face with the orchid and told him I’d rather date a significantly older man than date a liar.
I’m bawling my eyes out as I storm back out of this bougie restaurant with everyone’s eyes on me. I’m just thankful this took place long before camera phones. Never heard from that guy again."
—Anonymous
3."This isn't my story, but it put me off ever using a dating app. My friend signed up for several apps, and she was ready to get back into dating after a divorce and raising four kids. She went out for drinks with a guy and realized he was the divorced father of her daughter’s best friend. They had a good time, so they decided to continue the date by going to dinner. He asked if she would mind if he stopped and fed his dog. She went to his apartment with him. She asked to use the loo, and when she walked into the living room afterward, he was standing there buck-naked with an erection! She ran out of there and went home and deleted all of her dating apps."
—Anonymous
4."I was 17, 'pretty enough,' shy, and mostly 'innocent.' My older cousin set me up with a young coworker of hers whom she considered friendly and polite. He picked me up and drove very fast up a long hill on the wrong side of the road to his parents' home. They weren't home. He started prowling on all fours and making big cat sounds, then suddenly got up and turned off all the lights. Even though we were up a large hill in the boondocks, I ran to the door and tried to unlock it, but it had an extra lock. Then he came up behind me and put his hands around my neck. I suddenly took my power back and demanded he take me home 'right now.' He dropped his hands and quietly complied. I didn’t say another word to him but had a lot to say to my cousin. She was shocked. I wish I’d been a fly on the wall when she confronted him — I also wish I made a police complaint for his actions that night."
—Anonymous
5."This guy struck up a conversation with me when I was grocery shopping, and we exchanged numbers. We met up for coffee a few days later, and it was fine at first until he admitted he’d been casually 'stalking me,' waiting for the perfect moment to ask me out (I should have run then). He then went into a detailed description of everything he wanted to do to me sexually. I ended the date at that point and thought that was that. He texted me later, saying he had a great time and that for our second date, we should go get ice cream and take it back to his place so he could lick it off my body. I blocked him after that and thankfully haven’t seen him since."
—Anonymous
6."I went on a date with a man who I met through a dating app. I quickly found out that he lied about his age — he was actually 10 years older than me, and he was recently divorced. He then took me to a gentleman’s club 30 minutes away. He kept saying, 'You’re like a sister [to me]' on the way there while stroking my leg because of how 'awesome I was' to agree to go see strippers with him. After the show, he drove us back drunk and speeding in his convertible. He was messaging other women on the dating app at the same time. He ended the night by saying, 'So I’ll be hearing from you again? Because I’m such a cool guy, and dates with me are the best.'"
7."I matched with a guy who lived four hours away, so we agreed to meet halfway, have a date, stay in that town overnight, then head home the next day. Now I’m very, very honest with my online pics and info. As soon as I stepped out of my car, he looked me up and down, frowned, and quietly said, 'Noooo.' The dude was far from an oil painting himself. We talked awkwardly for a bit and decided to get some food. It turned out to be a pretty dead down, and there was only a Subway open. So we ate at Subway. He had about as much of a personality as a wet sock. Then he asked if we could go look in some 'geeky' store, so we went. He then proceeded to flirt with a girl working there and told me how hot she was."
"Then we went to see a movie to kill time at a tiny cinema. After that, he told me, 'I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. I have to mow my lawn tomorrow.' I couldn’t even be bothered staying and drove an hour to my friend’s house overnight. He was a huge jerk, and I regret making the effort."
8."She arrived stoned an hour late to the bar and decided to get her nails done five minutes before the date. She talked about her life and problems without pause for the entire hour we were out (she was a 'daddy’s girl' with an internship at his company. Her bills were paid by her father, and she had no real problems beyond not getting enough spending money from her dad to buy her a Cartier bracelet). I decided not to text her after the date. Three days later, she texted me saying I was a sexist piece of shit for not continuing the conversation."
9."We matched on a dating app, and he kept messaging me persistently, but he seemed like a nice guy. So he picked me up and took me to a decent sushi place. The actual dinner went fine, aside from him being VERY nervous and visibly sweating. As he drove me home, he continually asked if he could come up to my room with me and literally professed his love for me. By the time we got to my building, I was ready to book it as fast as possible into the entrance door, which would lock behind me and he would be unable to enter without a key. This dude was literally screaming, 'I love you, please let me in!!!' as I politely but quickly went inside I blocked him immediately."
10."A guy picked me up on his motorcycle to take me back to his place. He pulled up to a shed by the house so I could get off, and he could store the bike, right? Wrong. The shed was his room (this could already be a horror story, but we’re talking worst date — not near-death experience). He invited me in where there was only one place to sit: a recliner, which he sat in. The only other place to sit was his lap, which he alerted me to. I chose a crate instead. He shared his airplane bottle of mouthwash-flavored vodka with me and, within maybe 15 minutes, said I looked like I wanted him to kiss me."
"What I wanted was to pee, so he took me to the house on the property (which was his mom’s). She was watching TV on the couch, and when I came out of the bathroom, he ushered me from the couch to sit and chat with his mom.
Shortly after that, I used our initial agreement to request a ride back home. The next day, I texted something about feeling we were incompatible and wishing him well. He said, 'Your loss.'"
11."I went on a second date with this guy. The first one was just a quick lunch, but the second date was an evening movie. After the movie, we went to his car (I had driven separately). We started kissing and maybe three minutes later, he asked, 'Do you want me to put it in?' I was initially confused by the question since it was so out of nowhere. When I realized what he meant, I said 'no.' Then he asked for a blowjob instead. When I said 'no,' he said, 'Okay, how about just a handjob then?' I said 'no' again, of course. He then said, 'Okay, well, I’m going to have to go home and finish this myself. I have it down to 10 minutes.' I promptly got out of the car and was so glad I drove separately! The next morning he had the nerve to text me and ask me out again?! What an idiot."
12."I went on a date, and things went well for the first half. But, after an early dinner, things went downhill quickly. We chose a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I had never been to that one, but the reviews were good, so I was excited. He ordered, then I ordered. I ordered partially in Spanish because the waiter asked me something in Spanish. My date: 'Wow, your Spanish is good for a white girl!' Me: 'I'm not white :).' Him: 'What?! I feel catfished right now!' Me: 'What?' Him: 'I don't date outside of my race, and you deceived me, making me think you were white like me. You are ethnically ambiguous. I feel taken advantage of.'"
"Then he proceeded to go on some racist rant about my 'looks' — I was shook. I got up and literally walked out of the restaurant, tipping my waiter on the way out.
I know racism exists, but the anger in his voice is something I had never experienced before."
13."I met a guy on Bumble, and we texted back and forth several times. He seemed easy to get along with. I agreed to meet him for a date. I got to the restaurant before he did and decided to grab a drink at the bar while I waited. As I was doing that, a platonic guy friend of mine came in, and we were chatting just as my date arrived. I introduced the two of them, explained who my platonic friend was, and how we knew each other, and then we went to our table. He proceeded to talk about himself pretty much the entire time, which was already starting to turn me off. But then he turned nasty, and he got angry with me for 'flirting with a guy' when I was on a date with him. I literally got up without a word and left. Hard no."
"That night, I texted a different guy I knew about some tickets my date had offered me, and complained about the date and the struggles of online dating.
I thought this guy was still married, but he let me know he had gotten divorced.
We've been married for five years now!"
—Anonymous
14."Some weeks ago, a guy I was talking to on Instagram invited me to have a drink. It was pretty boring, and all I wanted was to leave and watch a movie on my sofa, but the absolute worst part was when he told me (in a good mood) that he accidentally KILLED HIS CAT. He told me that like it was funny. When he was about to return from vacation with his family, he was putting away his belongings in a trunk and his cat got in when he wasn't looking. Fast forward some months, he opened the trunk and found his cat's skeleton, and he recognized him because of the collar. He was pretty amused when he told me this..."
15."I went on a first (and last) evening date years ago. I wore a long black summer dress, and as he and I walked along the Seaport District in Boston, the sun had set. The sky became dark, and the street lights were spaced apart. As we walked through a dark little stretch, he casually said that if he pushed me into the water, no one would notice. When he asked to see me again, there was no second-guessing that hard 'no.'"
16."I coincidentally went on a date with a woman who worked in the same field as me. She knew of my boss and went on and on about how hot she was. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I worked for my mom's company, meaning my date was actually talking about how hot my MOM was for the entire date."
17."This was a while ago when I was still in college. This guy I had a class with asked me out to hear a Celtic band that was going to be playing on campus. First of all, he kept calling me Kathy. There’s nothing wrong with that name, except IT ISN’T MY NAME! I corrected him twice, and he still called me Kathy. After the concert (which was really good btw) we went out for a drink. He told me he thought he was becoming Buddhist against his will because he felt like he was slowly breaking the bonds with the physical world and moving to the spiritual world. He thought this 'was a shame' because he really loved the physical aspect of life. He creepily winked at me, then nudged me. Yuck! I told him to go find someone else to experience the physical side of life with because it wasn’t going to be me!"
—Anonymous
18."First, she said, 'I’ve dated men, and I’ve dated women — I guess I can check 'nonbinary' off my list!' This was in reference to my gender identity. Then, after I’d made it clear that I was not interested in sex until we knew each other better, we were watching movies at her house (she lived with her parents). Her parents came home early, and she went to talk to them, and I heard her say, 'You weren’t supposed to be home. I’m trying to get some.' I left and ghosted her."
19."This was a blind date (me: 28M) set up by a friend who’s an actor. This woman was in his improv class. I had to travel all the way from Brooklyn to Hoboken, NJ, where she lived. This was an hour by train. I got to the restaurant first. A woman comes in, and I think it’s her. I wave her over. She walks up to the table and says, 'You don’t look like Jon Stewart! You’re not even attractive!' Without saying a word, I got up and walked past her. Apparently, she had a crush on Jon Stewart and my friend said we look alike. Other than being Jewish, yeah...I'm not Jon Stewart, lol."
—Anonymous
20."At first, this date went well — we had some good conversation until he asked me my ethnicity. I explained how my mom is Anishinaabe, and his response? 'That's awesome. I've always wanted to have sex with a Native American woman.' I paid my half and left. I had to block him on every social media platform because he wouldn't stop harassing me."
21.And finally, "This date explicitly told me after I ordered my first drink that he wouldn't pay for my drinks unless I went home and slept with him after. I didn't drink any of my drink, immediately went to the bathroom, and I had to pass him on the way out, so I went up to him and told him I was leaving. He then proceeded to try to walk me to my car..."
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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