How To Recover When You Text Something Excruciatingly Embarrassing To Your Crush

There are two types of people in this world: Those who take screenshots of text conversations to share with their friends, and those who lie about taking said screenshots to share with friends. We all do it. But sometimes our thumbs work a little faster than our brains and, well, that screenshot lands in the wrong thread. Like, it sends itself straight back to the person whose convo you'd screen-captured in the first place. What's that? You want to fall into a volcano now? Yeah. But you can recover! Here's exactly what to do when you text something embarrassing to your crush — be it a screenshot of your conversation, a copy-and-pasted paragraph detailing your date night, or a picture of their own face.

Oh yes, that last one happens, too. Story time!

A couple of years ago, I'd fallen into the terrible habit of drunk-texting a guy I was low-key high-key obsessed with. He'd posted an especially tasty thirst trap one day (that boy had found his light), which I'd found while drunkenly scrolling through Instagram in the back of a cab. Naturally, I took a screenshot and sent it to my friend with the text, "THIS F**KING KILLS ME."

Only, I hadn't sent it to my friend. I'd sent it to (drumroll, please!) him.

WHERE WAS THE NEAREST VOLCANO?!

In between heavy breathing, shrieks of terror, and assuring the cab driver that I was A-OK (I was, in fact, not A-OK), I sent a series of text messages that definitely did not help my case.

"OHMYGOSH NOOOOOO"

"Did not mean to send that to you!"

"Shhh, you're sleeping! This is all a dream!"

"ZzZzZz!"

He laughed it off, but I'm sure those "Haha"s were tinged with fear and concern, and our flirtatious late-night exchanges ended shortly thereafter.

But this article is about solutions, you guys, not horror stories! So, instead of doing any of the things I just mentioned (shrieking, heavy breathing, sending ALL CAPS messages), here are three ways to recover from an embarrassing text. Because we're all in this together.

Use it as a chance to flirt unabashedly.

If you're taking screenshots of a conversation with someone, you're probably pretty into them, no? (Why else would you feel the need to share and analyze their text like it's Ode on a Grecian Urn?) So don't try to concoct some terrible excuse about your phone's software spazzing out or thieves stealing your phone, sprinting down the street, and sending embarrassing texts out of criminal spite.

Instead, brush it off confidently and coquettishly, and shoot them a quick, "Whoops! What can I say, just trying to show my friend how cute you were..." Maybe throw in that emoji with its tongue out, for flippancy and good measure.

Ain't no thang.

Laugh it off.

Next to internal screaming, I think this is the most common method for recovering from an embarrassing message — make a joke of the whole thing! Send a quick "Welp, did not mean to send that to you! Excuse me. Seeing myself out now," and leave it at that. If the message was inoffensive, they're probably laughing it off themselves and will appreciate your cool, calm, and collected approach to this slip up.

Just come clean.

All right, worst case scenario: You've sent a message that was unambiguously about a person to that very person, and it didn't paint them in the best light. Just come clean! Acknowledge your mistake and sprinkle in a few apologies, like "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I did not mean to send that to you, and I shouldn't have even been sending it in the first place..."

Then use this as an opportunity to address your concerns and see how they handle the situation. Yes, fine, they'll probably be offended (and rightfully so, I guess), but if you guys can turn this into a productive conversation, then your accidental message-sending will have been for the better! If they act like a fool or a tool, they're not worth the trouble, anyway.

Alternatively, scream into a pillow for a while and shake it off. You've made it through worse, am I right?

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