People Have Shared How Their Prom Nights Turned Into Horror Shows

"So I actually won Prom Queen, which was a huge deal for me because even now in college I'm the comic book/sci-fi show geek who wore a TARDIS blue dress to prom and did the drunk giraffe. There was this boy who asked me out, but I said no because I already had a plan to go with my date and my best friend and her girlfriend. So about 15 minutes before the prom king and queen were about to be announced, this boy comes up behind me with a swiss army knife and chops off half of my braid, which hung to about my waist! Now I still had pretty long hair, but I was totally humiliated and I was the laughing stock of prom: 'That geek who got her hair cut off!' I'm pretty sure the boy got expelled, and I still looked pretty fabulous, but I was definitely glad when I could make fun of everybody else at graduation via valedictorian speech." — Juliette on BuzzFeed

"My date and I went to prom early and then went to eat. We came back, but the school was closed. I had to pee. Badly. So my date drove me back to the football fields to use the outdoor johns. I got my dress hiked up and my hose hiked down just in time to discover a bat in the stall with me! I came out with my dress still hiked up. And guess what? A police officer has stopped by to check on things. My date took me straight home after.

Awkward doesn't even touch this one." — kymmacm on BuzzFeed

"We had our prom in our high school gym, like most small-town schools. And there was a tornado warning so everyone had to go downstairs and wait in the boys' locker room until it was finished. We all sat crammed in a smelly room talking about what we ate for dinner for the majority of our prom, and we only had maybe 45 minutes of not being in the locker room. So that was a great first prom experience." — alexandriah47155c5a7 on BuzzFeed

"Nothing was going to stop me from going to prom even though I got my appendix out the morning before and was discharged from hospital the day of prom. I was a little too excited *maybe a little intoxicated* and danced a little too hard... ended up popping my stitches and oozing bloody grossness all over my yellow dress!" — rowanb4b69cdf59 on BuzzFeed

"Worst things? Where to start? 1. My parents drove my date (who was 15 but lied about his age) and me to the prom, waited in the parking lot, and then drove us home. 2. My date looked like Mr. Monopoly complete with a top hat, coattails, and white gloves (but the other guys at my prom were dressed in zoot suits). 3. I realized on prom night that I didn't have any friends because they all (and most of those I spent high school with) avoided me as if I had The Plague." — joannem3 on BuzzFeed

"Thirty minutes into arriving, the Dean approached our table to let us know our limo had left us and all of our stuff was downstairs. Apparently... the limo driver was suspicious and searched through our stuff and alerted the school officials. We all had to go downstairs in the lobby and were questioned for three hours. The only reason we were allowed to finally go back and finish our prom was because half of the prom court was in our group and they needed to do the crowning. We only got one dance and had to fit 12 people in our friend's suburban to get home." — katiec94 on BuzzFeed

"We don't have prom where I live, instead there's a big grad dinner for all the graduating students and their families, with food, dancing, pictures, musical performances, etc, etc, and that's where everyone wears their fancy dresses. Well, maybe a quarter of the way through the grad banquet my dress ripped right. up. the butt.

And nobody had a sewing kit.

I will forever be grateful that that dress was lined." — mikhailah on BuzzFeed

"A guy from my school asked me to prom. I didn't know him very well, but he seemed nice so I said yes. Well, as it turned out, he was actually kind of a douche. He started getting so creepy; he had to know where I was and who I was with all the time. So by the time prom rolled around, I wasn't super excited about going. That afternoon while I was getting ready, he texted me and told me that he had a big surprise for me that night. So now I'm even less excited because coming from someone who was quite literally in love with himself, I figured he was going to do something super obnoxious like take his shirt off at prom or that my big surprise would be him groping me in the back of the limo. We go to dinner and it wasn't terrible, so I thought maybe I had overreacted about the whole situation. When we arrive at prom, we dance to one or two songs and then he says that he is going to get us some punch. Well, after he had been gone for 20 minutes I went looking for him. I found him partying with all of his swim team buddies and grinding all over some girl. After that, I might as well have just come without a date, because I didn't even see him again till the end of the night. Close to the end of the night, I went to the bathroom to freshen up and when I came out, I ran into my date who was looking for me. He then grabbed my arm and pulled me aside and began yelling at me because I apparently missed the last slow dance. Looking back, I should've stood up for myself, but I was just in total shock after being treated like that by someone that didn't really even know me. He stormed off back to his friends, and I tried to recover from what just happened. When the final song started, I looked for him, but after asking around, I found out that he had left with his friends and a bunch of girls. After that night, he texted me several times, and couldn't understand why I didn't have a good time and why I was mad. I then explained that it's not a whole lot of fun to just get left alone at prom. His response was that I didn't see." — sarahm410253ab7 on BuzzFeed

"I got dumped on the way home from prom. I was still in my $500 gown, and the worst part was that we were still ten minutes away from home and he was driving my dad's car. When we pulled up to my house, I ran inside crying. He then had to walk to the door to hand my father the car keys." — lindseyk4710054f7 on BuzzFeed

"I dislocated my knee four days before prom. Three days before prom, my boyfriend (and date) broke up with me. I decided to go anyway, with my big old knee cast and everything. Five minutes before my group of friends and I got into the limo, my ex pulls up with his new date... my best friend. Worst Prom ever." — katiea47d3178d6 on BuzzFeed

"I was dating a junior my sophomore year. He was nominated for prom prince and obviously brought me as his date. The theme for prom was Arabian Nights. He ended up winning prom prince and was expected to dance with the princess. Well duh. They played "A Whole New World" for the royalty dance. He said they only needed him for a minute to take pictures. I was cool with it, cause I was happy he won. I waited right where he could find me. I watched him dance with her for the entire song and into the next one. Not once did he try to walk away and find me. He then failed to understand why I was so upset for the rest of the night." — izzyleew on BuzzFeed

"My boyfriend got in the hospital in the morning. When his mom called to tell me, I was just out of the beauty parlor and I ruined my $50 makeup... Then he finally got discharged from the ER, so we got to go, late, missed the picture taking and everything, and he got a hay fever after dinner, so no dancing, we went straight back home. He dumped me the day after. Pathetic." — karinee on BuzzFeed

"I got stood up. Yes, you heard that right. My whole family had come from out of town to see me off to prom. After my date was over an hour late and not answering the phone, we decided to call it and my mom's friend let me borrow her car to go by myself. When I got to prom, his friend told me he stood me up because he didn't like that I didn't tell people I was going with him. To make matters worse, he showed up and didn't even go to my school. It got even worse later on in the night when we ended up in the same car because my BFF was his cousin. Years later, he friend-requested me on Facebook. Denied!" — lyoung1124 on BuzzFeed

"My junior prom was stupidly complicated in a way that only a 17-year-old could understand, but it was pretty awful. I was dating a guy who was a senior at another school. We'd made plans to go to my junior prom and his senior prom a month later. I bought not one but two $250 dresses. I bought tickets for my prom, picture packets, and paid for everything. All he had to do was get his tux and his prom tickets. Then two weeks before mine, he told me we weren't going to his because it wasn't going to be anything special. I shrugged it off because my mom said I could always wear the other one for my senior prom (and I did). So this guy didn't go to my school and had only met my best friend. The day of the prom, things started to go wrong. My friend who was going to do my best friend's and my hair and makeup was late, it was about to rain, and I was very nervous because I wasn't really popular or anything. So fast forward. We got there and my boyfriend wouldn't dance with me. My best friend and I were just sitting at the table because we hadn't compared our dresses (she went home to change) and they were almost the same. And worst of all, my boyfriend had found a guy he knew from Hebrew school, who just happened to have been ditched by his date. So, naturally, being the gentleman he was, my boyfriend ditched me for most of the night to comfort this guy he had known when he was twelve. The junior prom is the prom pictured in our senior yearbooks. I'm only in like four pictures, and one of them is of me, that best friend, her date, and that boyfriend, sitting at that table. None of us look happy. Yep. That about sums up high school for me." — megans76 on BuzzFeed

"I was invited to prom as a sophomore by one of my older guy friends, someone who I'd known since elementary school but wasn't incredibly close to. After we took some really awkward professional pictures at the venue, a.k.a. the high school cafeteria, he ditched me for his ex-girlfriend for the rest of the night. Being only 15 and at least one class behind everyone else, I didn't know anyone and I didn't drive myself there so I had to awkwardly hang out by myself at a table until he took me home, early, because I had texted my mom about it and she called his mom and his mom yelled at him about it while we were still there. It was the first prom I went to and not a very good omen for the others I attended." — fizzgig on BuzzFeed

"I had a hugeeee crush on my best friend at the time of my senior prom. He agreed to take me to my prom because I had a crappy year and he didn't want me to miss out on my own senior prom. So he drove over an hour to go to prom with me, but I barely saw him. An hour into the night, he went outside to smoke a cigarette and wasn't allowed back in. He sat in the parking lot the whole time and was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time. He lied to her and said he was home and didn't tell her that he went to my prom with my group of friends. I was heartbroken because I didn't know he had a girlfriend and he wasn't honest with his girlfriend about it. I felt like a dirty little secret and was betrayed by my best friend. Our relationship hasn't been the same since and I don't think he ever told his (now ex) girlfriend about it." — bonniec433d361b8 on BuzzFeed

"After I finally found the right dress, all it needed was a few alterations to be perfect. The bust needed to be taken in, so the seamstress had to adjust the hooks on the back. Instead of using metal hooks, she used little thread loops. On the day of prom, all three thread hooks ripped and I had no way of keeping my dress on. After about 20 minutes of panic and holding back tears, my dad decided to sew me into the dress but we didn't have a thread that was strong enough. Being a resourceful outdoorsman, he got his strongest fishing line and a fish hook and sewed the dress right up. It wasn't great, but it worked and the dress stayed up. All the while this was happening, my date kept texting me complaining about how late I was for pictures. Let's just say the combination of his attitude and the fact that my dad had to cut me out of the dress ensured that my date definitely didn't see any action on prom night." — samg446853773 on BuzzFeed

"The junior class had planned a really lovely outdoor prom. I saved all year for the perfect dress and shoes, to get my nails done, to have my nails done. This was my senior prom. I wanted it to be perfect. The whole week of prom, the weather forecasters were predicting terrible weather, but the organizers were none too worried. Turns out, the weather people were right. As I was getting my hair done, the skies opened up. But not just in the way the weather had been predicted. Worse. And I was in a windowless salon inside the mall, so I had no idea what I was walking out to. As I paid for my hair, a woman came in drenched. I looked wide-eyed at my stylist, who handed me a plastic bag for my head. But that wasn't even the worst. It stormed all day. We headed for our prom location expecting to find an erected tent over our location and instead found a deserted place. The security guard told us everyone had moved to the high school gym. We got there to find everyone was actually in the cafeteria, grumbling because the caterers decided the drive wasn't worth it, the school security guards refusing to open the vending machines, and a classmate's DJ relative frantically setting up his equipment. On top of that, the AC was turned off, so it was hot. No food, no drinks, and sweltering heat made for a [bad] night, so we left 15 minutes after our arrival. The following Monday, a large group of seniors asked to be refunded. An editorial was written in the school paper by the teacher who led the junior class chastising us for asking to be refunded for a 'lovely evening.' A second editorial was written by a senior that blasted said lovely evening. The senior class received $10 per ticket back. Tickets were $70 each. Worst night ever." — InsomniacPrincess on BuzzFeed

"Well, first of all, my ex-bf asked to take me to my senior prom. I was nice since we were still friends and agreed. The thing is we were long distance, so after leaving prom we went bowling with the group till about 2:00 a.m. Keep in mind, we had changed into normal clothes. Then he asked me to drive home since he was tired — no alcohol was involved, I promise. I did, and I lived in a small town about 45 minutes away. So about 5 minutes from my house, we get pulled over by a cop. I didn't even have a license yet just my permit from Iowa before I moved. He has an Iowa license, an Iowa license plate, and we're in Illinois. We have to get out so they can search the car, and he takes a breathalyzer all while thanking the cops for being so thorough. In the end, they let us off with a warning — but it def made for a memorable night." — Cmarsigl on BuzzFeed

"That was the night I realized I didn't have any friends in high school. I spent $200 on a dress and spent all day getting my hair and nails and makeup done — just to attempt to dance by myself and then sit at a table by myself and then go to the school-hosted post-prom party, again by myself, showing up 45 minutes before anyone else because I didn't have anyone's house to go to where I could change out of my dress. I would have just gone home but I didn't want my mom to see how much of a social pariah I was. High school sucked." — toric495324c30 on BuzzFeed

"My junior year, I went all out: an expensive dress, limo, dinner at a really nice seafood restaurant... Little did I know that was going to be the night my body decided to become allergic to shellfish. I had shrimp for dinner (I LOVED shrimp and never had a problem eating it before) and shortly after I started to feel sick. I shook it off though because hey, it was prom! When we arrived at the convention center I started to feel worse, my stomach hurt, and I was starting to get really warm and itchy. As I started to scratch my neck, I felt a lump about the size of an egg at the base of my skull. It was also at about this point that all of my friends noticed that I was the color of a tomato. It all went downhill from here. I developed hives so bad that they covered my entire body within minutes and shortly after I started having trouble breathing and my face started to swell. All of this happened in the entryway to the ballroom where everyone had to go to hand in their tickets and get pictures taken. Suffice to say, I had a pretty hefty crowd (practically the entire junior and senior class) watch as I blew up like a red balloon and had to be carted out on a stretcher in front of everyone. When I got to the hospital I got to have my beautiful, expensive dress cut off of me and I spent the rest of the night hooked up to IVs as my friends danced the night away." — elizboom on Jezebel

"As my Prom approached (we had a junior prom, but no senior prom) I knew I wasn't going to find a date. I didn't have any real crushes at the time, and the boys that had crushes on me never spoke up — so I watched as one by one my friends bought tickets two by two. But I was going to be damned if I wasn't going to go to the party all my friends were going to and wear a nice dress! I'd go by myself — most of my friends were going to go with other friends anyways, so I'd just hang out with them and have a great time (not many people remained coupled all night — we were all more free-form party-goers.)

SO I summon up all my courage and pluck (I have lots) and went up in line all by my lonesome in the cafeteria, cash in hand, to buy my single prom ticket. AND DISASTER ENSUED. The ticket sellers had no idea what to do, the Prom Committee got involved, I couldn't buy my ticket, and the next day in the morning PA announcements somebody actually got on to say you couldn't buy single prom tickets, only pairs. I didn't get it. I had the money, I wanted to go, what the hell, right?

So I go home and explain what happened to my mom and dad. I am merely perplexed and annoyed, but Mom (an old-school feminist and all-around awesome lady — also a class A squeaky wheel) was INCENSED.

SO, basically, this ended with my friends and I watching in awe as my mom literally blew past security and secretaries, threw open the door to the principal's office, and very loudly gave him a piece of her mind (which you could hear echoing down the hallways — there was quite the crowd at the end of it!) It was a moment I will never forget — she was amazing. She gave a whole speech that incorporated the Bill of Rights, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Eleanor Roosevelt as well as some choice cursing — she became a hero to my friends that day and solidified her position as Most Amazing Woman in the Universe for me that day.

End result — I went to prom. The School Committee and Superintendent of our town handed the principal and Prom Committee their [butts] on a platter, and now all prom tickets are always sold as singles. And a lovely time was had by all!" — anonymous on Jezebel

"My boyfriend had just broken up with me before prom, so my best friend's brother offered to take me, because his girlfriend didn't want to go, and he felt bad. On the day of prom, his girlfriend decided to be jealous. We proceeded to our hotel for the after-party, and it only got worse. Because my date's girlfriend came, I had to sleep on the floor. This guy who goes to my school passed out drunk on the floor next to me. He was so drunk [that] he peed himself, and the pee migrated to me. Yeah. I was peed on. At that point, I just went home, threw away my dress, showered three times, and stayed home the rest of the weekend." — Alyssa on Refinery29

"I was in a prom group of 50, split into two large limos. I wore a floor-length, teal, chiffon dress (yikes). The first group's limo never showed up, so they were driven to dinner by their parents. Since the first group didn't get to hang out in the limo, they got to dinner first and were done earlier. Little did we know, they ended up taking our limo to prom, leaving us stranded at Union Station in D.C. for two hours. The limo finally came back, with a broken window and enough time for me to make the last 30 minutes of prom. Oh, and it was pouring rain — I got soaked. We ended up just taking a lot of pictures, so my prom photos basically consist of me and my group of friends outside the train station and various landmarks in D.C." — Cate on Refinery29

"We had a karaoke contest at my senior prom. Everyone convinced me to sing. That was fine and dandy because I'm not a horrible singer, but I have really bad stage fright. When I went on the stage and opened my mouth, I projectile vomited everywhere. I got it all over my principal and her husband. I don't think I'll be in any more karaoke contests for a while." — Symphony14 on BuzzFeed

"I was stoked for my junior prom. After months of strategic seduction, the guy I liked told me he'd go to prom with me. My dress was backless, so I wore this weird bra... Halfway through our first slow dance, I had butterflies because I knew this was our moment. He leaned down, and I was ready for that kiss. He whispered in my ear, "Dude, your bra is showing really bad." It turns out that the sweaty dancing rotated my bra 180 degrees! I ran into the bathroom, threw it away, and cried for 45 minutes." — Christine Tezak on Facebook

"Before my junior prom, my friends and I went to a Hibachi-style restaurant. I ordered sushi 'cause I thought it'd be easy to not get on my dress. Little did I know that this sushi would give me food poisoning, and cause me to have explosive diarrhea in the limo on the way to prom. My dress was ruined and the limo smelled terrible." — Callie King on Facebook

"Someone stepped on my foot with a stiletto heel during prom. I felt a bit of pain but couldn't see it because of my big dress. I walked over to first aid and they told me to sit down. I finally saw the cut on my foot and a large blood clot coming out. Not being good with blood, I fainted. While they put an oxygen mask on me, a very concerned principal came over and repeatedly asked if I was on [something]." — jamiek4124cafa7 on BuzzFeed

"The day before prom I needed emergency surgery for an infected lymph node. I planned on wearing a white dress to prom and begged my mom to let me get a spray tan the night before my surgery. After the halter stickers were removed from my arms, my spray tan came with it. I had white blotches all over my arms and a large bandage on my neck where the stitches were. I was so stressed out that I grew a stye in my eye. But I worked it as best I could — I even wore my hospital bracelets. My prom night was interesting, to say the least." — Erin Farrell on Facebook

"Halfway through the night of my senior prom, I broke out from head to toe in a rash resembling the chicken pox. It turned out to be a rare side effect of having mono, which I didn't even know I had. At the end of the night, I was planning on losing my virginity to my boyfriend and all I could do was cry because of how I looked." — Sam Sachs on Facebook

"The dance itself was great! I had a really pretty dress and was there with my boyfriend of nine months. After the prom, he drove me home, and I told him I loved him, which we had been saying for a while. He responded with, 'I wish I felt the same,' and then I started crying. My boyfriend started crying and then he left." — Ann Marie Itamura on Facebook

"My sophomore year, I went to junior prom with a guy I wasn’t officially dating yet. We were making out at our dinner table while everyone was on the dance floor. All of a sudden, he felt what he thought was my hand rubbing his head — and when he realized he was holding both my hands, he turned around and his mom was standing behind him. She was the one rubbing his head. She immediately pulled him out of the prom to yell at him for not inviting her to prom pictures. I was mortified. The principal of the school even came up to me to ask if I was okay because I looked so flustered. It was horrific." — Fiona on Cosmopolitan

"I was hooking up with my prom date in the backyard of the house we were partying at after the dance and the cops showed up. We were hooking up on one of those swing-sets people have, on the platform on top. The platform was exposed. Naturally, everyone ran outside to get away so they didn’t get caught by the police, but here I was, trying to put my clothes back on in front of everyone." — Kelsey on Cosmopolitan

"After prom, my date and I went back to his house — just the two of us. We somehow ended up hooking up in his hot tub, but never managed to get fully undressed. The next day I came home in wet clothes, and my parents took my phone away for not coming home the night before. [And then] my dad decided to read my texts. He saw every one about our hot tub hookup. I was mortified, and soon grounded." —Lexey on Cosmopolitan

"After prom, my date and I went to a bonfire at a trailer park where they threw so much wood into the pit that they created a fire that was unsafe and terrifying. While everybody was trying to put out the fire my date decided to go into these trailers and steal people’s shoes, and then had me drive her out of the trailer park as everyone was dealing with the fire. I had a major crush on her (she was a senior and I was a freshman) so I had no problem being her accomplice while she enacted this trailer park shoe heist." — Garrett K. on Mashable

"My first prom I actually went to was as a junior in high school (around here it's usually just seniors that go) but I rounded up money from all my pals and their dates and we actually got a limo. So we are going out to eat and we make it 75% there, and we get hit by someone running a red light. So we missed the reservation time at where we were supposed to eat, didn't get the full time we expected in the limo, and got to the prom later than we wanted to. It was funny afterward (we were all okay), but it was one of those 'it just had to be today' kind of things." — reinwall on Reddit

"Had a huge crush on one of my friends who asked me to take her with less than a week before prom. My best friend at the time had also invited me to their pre-prom dinner.

Turns out my best friend had been dating this girl for a couple months without making it public, and I hadn't told him who I was taking. Needless to say, we were all pretty shocked and in very different moods after everything came out.

The girl I had been crushing on for some time was using me to make my best friend jealous. She wouldn't even dance with me at prom — ended up pawning me off to her dateless friend. In her failed attempt to win my friend back on Prom night, she feigned illness and had me drive her home before the post-prom party.

My buddy was pretty upset because he obviously didn't want this girl around, but since nobody knew they had been dating he didn't blame me.

Overall it was a pretty awkward night." — D-V10US on Reddit

"My boyfriend's best friend was working on his Jeep, and I stopped over to drop stuff off before I got ready... and his friend ended up slicing his leg down to the bone, and my boyfriend had to rush him to emergency an hour before pictures were scheduled. I had to leave to get ready, and we ended up being late for pictures." — Julia on Facebook

"My fake eyelashes weren't staying on, so I thought my fake nail glue would work. I ended up gluing my eye shut and had to cut off my real and fake eyelashes. The glue stayed on my eyelid until after graduation the following month." — Jamie on Twitter