How do you find friends that don’t end up hating and resenting you?

Hi everyone.

Since I was a kid, I struggled to make friends and was mostly by myself. I had a strange experience that the people I was friendly with would end up disliking and hating me.

An example was a kid that I knew since primary school. I was always friendly with him, but I made a big mistake by accidentally mentioning that I was not poverty-stricken like him in middle school. I never thought it was a big deal, but now I am sure he was very jealous, mad, or something. I assume it was something like how we lived in the same neighborhood, but I got all A’s. He was poor and did not get good grades.

Following that mistake, there were countless times when he spent time convincing me that he is actually richer and better than me. Some examples were his claiming that he probably has a bigger house than me and more money to spend on games. I remember how I would not even debate him because I never cared about anyone’s income, and I was just trying to work on classwork. Now, I realize how stupid the entire debate was because he was on our school’s free lunch program for low-income students, and I was not.

As I think more about my memories with him, it was him constantly mocking and insulting me while using me for my homework answers. I didn’t stop talking to him because I knew hardly anyone else, and he was in most of my classes. Thankfully I never saw him after graduation.

This kid was just 1 of many. I could never get people to like me consistently. I never knew what I did wrong. I was so nice and friendly with everyone.

Is there good advice for any future friends I may make as an adult?