Woman claps back after being ranked 'dumbest' in friend group, 'I saw his grades.' AITA?

"AITA for telling my friend I know I’m smarter than him academically after he ranked me the 'dumbest' in our friend group?"

So I (19F) have a friend (also 19M) who lies...a lot. Like, I’m not even exaggerating—he lies about random stuff constantly and forgets what he even said. He’s told people we’ve been friends for years longer than we actually have...

(Which makes no sense because they can just ask me), said he lived in a three-story house when he was in a double-wide, and even made up how much money he has. His lies are almost always easy to fact-check, and honestly, I’ve never judged him for any of that—I was raised not to care about superficial stuff like that.

But one thing that’s always been weird is that he loves to act like he’s better than everyone, especially when it comes to academics. In high school, he claimed to be on honor roll all four years, never failed a class, had a 4.0 GPA, etc. But I saw him taking credit recovery senior year, and one of my friends saw his grades on a teacher’s computer—and they were bad. Like, really bad.

I still never brought it up. I didn’t judge him, because we all struggle sometimes. In fact, I opened up to him once and told him I technically failed Spanish, but my teacher passed me in the end. He started making fun of me and calling me names, which I didn’t take personally because I know that’s just projection.

Anyway, fast forward to a recent trip to Walmart with our friend group, and somehow we start talking about academics. He decides to rank everyone from “smartest to dumbest”—and puts me last. That really annoyed me because I knew for a fact that he was failing and lying, and I’d never corrected him before. So I finally said, “I know I’m smarter than you academically, I’ve just never cared to correct you on it.”

He got really upset and hasn’t spoken to me since. Some of my friends said I was being mean, but others think he had it coming. So…AITA for finally saying something after letting him lie for so long?

Here's what people had to say about this one:

Dry_Response4914 said:

NTA. He sound immature and insecure. I disagree with you, though, I think he makes up all that stuff to make everyone think he's awesome and whatever. Ranking friends, especially to their faces, is a mean, toxic, shallow thing to do. I've been friends with people who did that and when I got older and looked back, I knew I should have gotten away from those people.

So, if he thought it was ok to rank everyone and inevitably putting someone last, why is he throwing a fit over it being done to him? Seems like he got a taste of his own medicine, and whoever from the friend group that says it was mean is a hypocrite.

DragonCelica said:

NTA. He doesn't sound like the kind of "friend" I'd want in my life. Your friend is incredibly insecure, and he's trying to hide it behind false bravado. His insecurities don't make his actions acceptable. He doesn't get to make himself feel big by putting you down. He also needs to be called on his lying, because it's going to really bite him in the a the older he gets.

Homologous_Trend said:

NTA. But lying constantly is not a minor or superficial flaw. It is usually a very, very bad sign.

Vast_Accountant_2807 said

You can’t be friends with anybody that is fundamentally dishonest. It’s not a cute personality trait. It’s a fundamental disregard for the basic necessity of friendship, which is trust.

3xlduck said:

NTA. You were just standing up for yourself. He's got severe insecurity issues. He actually needs to see a therapist because this kind of behavior is going to get him in all sorts of trouble in the future., friends, work, relationships, etc.

mathhews95 said:

NTA. But I'll tell you something: constantly lying about everything isn't superficial. This is mostly harmless -for now- but it has already created drama in your group. And it'll only get worse from here, I think.