AITA For Not Wanting To Fix A Friendship

Me (30M) and my friend (29M) have been friends since high school. We’ve seen so many sides of each other, so many ups and downs together. We even work together today because I got him a job here. He’s always sort have been that friend that has “fallen on hard times” and always needs a favor. His attitude towards everything is “the world is against me” and he likes to joke by constantly shitting on you and that’s so exhausting to combat!

The other day, at work, he’s laying into me pretty heavy. Every other sentence from his mouth is a diss or tease at me and it begins to get annoying. Now I’m a guy, I can handle jokes but at some point you gotta learn to chill. So, out of frustration I said “Hey people aren’t on that energy all the time.” very flat to show that I’m trying to be direct but considerate. He flips out and says “maybe you need to learn how to take a joke” and I sarcastically apologize for getting offended. After that he storms off.

Now I’m not too upset at this, I’m thinking that maybe we both just needed a little space because this isn’t worth 10+yrs of friendship. That was until I get on instagram and see that this guy uploaded like 5 posts of text to his story all subliminally calling me a “fake friend” and a “crab at the bottom of his bucket.” I can’t even count how many times I absolutely parted the sea for this man, and from one comment, all the loyalty and sacrifice I’ve made to help you now results in me being a fake friend. I wouldn’t even be so upset if we talked about it. I just think that as a man, going to complain on social media shouldn’t be the first thing you do.

When things like this usually happen, I always end up being the mature one to forcefully create an emotionally safe environment just to talk. (Pulling someone aside, making that phone call, etc.) This time, I really don’t want to. I’m 30yrs old and I don’t want to run around trying to keep people in my life anymore. If you want to leave, the door is open. I just want to know, AITA?

TL;DR: Best friend’s constant immature behavior and joking leads to me telling him “not everyone is on that energy all the time”. Friend takes huge offense to it, goes on a subliminal rant on social media about how I’m fake. AMITA?

Extra Lore: Back in HS we had a moment like this where I had to explain to him that everyone has a limit, and I want him to respect mine. So this isn’t brand new, it’s not like he just wasn’t aware that I have a reasonable fuse.