Friend turned weird and started rumours

[paulw]

I have a friend I used to be really close to until this school year, he used to get bullied sometimes and i always stood up for him and took a lot of heat for it but i always looked out for him, i even loaned him some money a couple of times and never asked for it back and stuff, i always tried to be a good friend.

Then this year we got put in different sets (he went in a lower set and i think he wasnt too happy, cos he always had a little bit of an ego, not badly, but i think he thought he was always the smart one which wasn't always true, but anyway no biggie i thought).

But things started to change and gradually he started to be kind of .... i dunno .... strange with me this year, and i could never figure why. There was odd little teasing and sometimes weirdly sexual comments or sometimes just being a bit mean or trying to provoke me. I just ignored it tho really.

But i just heard he has recently been spreading an untrue rumour behind my back about me and another boy at school and i can't understand why he would do it.

What would u do?
a) Confront him about it
b) Decide he's not worth it and give up on being friends
c) Talk to a mutual friend (there is a girl who is still ok friends with both of us who i think i trust enough) and see if i can get her to find out whats going on
d) ???

I dont really want to do b), i would rather fix it, and i think a) might make it worse. Are there any other good ideas?

Thankyouuuuu

[Foamy]

Try going through the friend but I don't think that she may know anything of use. I think it would be better to confront him, not harshly, but just saying something like "hey someone's saying things about me that aren't true do you know anything about this?" Or bring up that someone "allegedly" told you he was involved in the rumor and take it from there. I wish u luck with this situation and please tell me how it turns out. :)

[Abyssal Echo]

if he's spreading rumors he's not much of a friend.
Confront him then break the friendship.

[JDubs]

First do C, then do A, and if that doesn't work then B. do C first because when you confront him, you have to be fully educated on the situation. If all of that fails, then you have no choice but to move on. I've had to deal with that too many times, and up front it's the worst thing ever, but after the event, you realize the person maybe wasn't all you thought they were. Good Luck!