Last night I was playing video games with friends, and went afk for about 20-30 minutes. When I got back, my friend asked me where I was.

I could have thought of the fact that he was concerned and wanted to make sure I was OK, and could have given him some level of reassurance. But I didn't, as he never communicated to me that he was concerned. Also, I did not want to say what I was doing, but it definitely didn't involve anything destructive. I become mildly embarrassed and tried to make it into a joke to ward off my embarrassment, saying "I vanished," and he asked me a couple more times, but for some reason I still didnt pick up that he was concerned so I didnt give him a proper answer. (In hindsight, it sounds more concerning, though I was trying to be humorous but I think it fell flat.) In response to me not saying where I was, because again, I was embarrassed, he just... went silent. I picked up on this and tried to talk to him, and when I said his name he said "hm" in an annoyed tone. I said something like "Is there anything I can do to make you stop being mad at me?" but he still didn't respond. At that point, I realized I was actively making it worse so I didn't know what to say and just kind of stopped talking a lot. Luckily the other friend was there so they still played, but gradually I started to think he was giving me the silent treatment on purpose and started to feel anxious and frustrated. I got the vibe that he was going out of his way not to speak to me to punish me for not telling him where I was, and just ruminated on that and gradually got more and more angry, but didnt show it. Eventually, he went afk to use the restroom and as he did, I mentioned to my friend, "I dont really get why he's ignoring me on purpose, its pretty hurtful and Ive had bad experiences with the silent treatment"

As I said the last part, the silent friend came back and said, "You know I can hear what you said just now." For whatever reason, I started to feel rage, and instead of taking space for myself until I cooled down, I rather aggressively said "I know you heard me. What the fuck do you have to say about it, huh?" 

He then went quiet for a minute, and started crying, saying he was concerned about me and thought I was doing something bad. I felt like shit when he started crying, and talked it out calmly with him where the miscommunication was after that. But still, I've learned that its extremely important even more for me to take space for myself when I feel rage, instead of being impulsive.