To start off, I did initially meet them through a gaming Discord server when they were around 15/16, but I didn't speak with them privately and didn't really consider them friends at the time. At some point (around a year or two later, I think) they wanted me to teach them to play Destiny, so I invited them to a D2 server I was in so they could get help from other players, and I monitored everything I could to make sure no one was weird or inappropriate with them, even spoke to their parents a couple times. Around the time they turned 18, a group chat got made with them, myself, and a couple of my other friends (both my age, one I know irl) because the server kinda died and we still wanted to hang out. I was 24 or 25 at the time and didn't think anything of it, and started talking with them a lot more frequently, but as I've gotten older I've started to feel that gap a bit more and I wonder if something's wrong with me for befriending them in the first place. I didn't really intend to, I just wanted to look out for them and felt responsible for their safety, and the friendships just sort of ended up happening. Is that wrong? Should I have cut them off? I'm not sure what to do, but I can't stop thinking about it.
u/AdVegetable5795
To start off, I did initially meet them through a gaming Discord server when they were around 15/16, but I didn't speak with them privately and didn't really consider them friends at the time. At some point (around a year or two later, I think) they wanted me to teach them to play Destiny, so I invited them to a D2 server I was in so they could get help from other players, and I monitored everything I could to make sure no one was weird or inappropriate with them, even spoke to their parents a couple times. Around the time they turned 18, a group chat got made with them, myself, and a couple of my other friends (both my age, one I know irl) because the server kinda died and we still wanted to hang out. I was 24 or 25 at the time and didn't think anything of it, and started talking with them a lot more frequently, but as I've gotten older I've started to feel that gap a bit more and I wonder if something's wrong with me for befriending them in the first place. I didn't really intend to, I just wanted to look out for them and felt responsible for their safety, and the friendships just sort of ended up happening. Is that wrong? Should I have cut them off? I'm not sure what to do, but I can't stop thinking about it.