AITA for slapping my prom king in front of the whole school?
I (19F, 17 at the time) am looking for outside opinions on something that happened at my senior prom.
For some background, I was fairly well-known at my school because I was very involved in athletics. I was captain of the softball, basketball, and volleyball teams. Even though a lot of people knew me, I wasn't really involved in drama. I had a small group of close friends and mostly focused on sports.
Another important detail is that growing up, a lot of guys at my school would tease me. It was usually immature behavior, and because of that, my first thought whenever something embarrassing happened was that it might be some kind of joke or prank. I learned to ignore most of it and move on.
A few days before prom, I broke my wrist during a softball game. I didn't get a cast because I was still playing, so my wrist was wrapped the night of prom.
When prom came around, I was nominated for prom queen, which surprised me. I didn't think I fit the typical image of a prom queen, so when I actually won, I was shocked and excited.
The student who won prom king (I'll call him Chris) wasn't someone I knew very well. He was considered one of the more unconventional kids at school. He had long hair, wore glasses, and even showed up to prom in a Pokémon-themed suit, which I actually thought was pretty cool.
After we were crowned, we were asked to go to the middle of the dance floor for the traditional king and queen dance. Before the dance started, I clearly told Chris that my wrist was broken and that I could only use one hand.
He ignored what I said. Instead, he grabbed my injured wrist and started jerking my arms up and down while jumping around, even though a slow song was playing. I was immediately embarrassed and in pain. Being the center of attention already made me nervous, and having this happen in front of the entire school made it much worse.
I tried to redirect the situation by grabbing his hands and attempting to turn it into an actual slow dance, but he continued yelling, jumping around, and making a scene. The song lasted about four minutes, and after dealing with it for roughly half of that time, I reached my breaking point. I let go and slapped him across the face.
Afterward, I put my tiara back on, posed for the required photos, and left prom in tears.
Later that night, I opened social media and saw multiple videos of the dance being shared with laughing emojis and jokes about what had happened. That reinforced my feeling that it had been some kind of prank, although I can't know for sure.
Looking back, I feel conflicted. Part of me regrets slapping him because I know there were other ways I could have handled the situation. At the same time, I was in pain, publicly embarrassed, and frustrated that he ignored me when I told him about my injury.
AITA?
Posted Jun 3, 2026, 1:51 AM UTC