She Just Found Out That Her Best Friend Is Dating The Girl Who Bullied Her Ruthlessly In High School, And She Can’t Understand Why, Because Her Friend Was Completely Aware Of How Bad Things Were
Back when this girl was 16 or 17, she was ruthlessly bullied by a girl in her class named Elly. At that time in her life, she was struggling to make any friends in school, and so Elly thought she was easy to pick on since she really didn’t have friends.
For the last 2 years of high school, all of her classmates began avoiding her, and it made her completely sad.
The only person who did take a stand against Elly was a guy named Mike. Mike kept standing up for her, and it then made Elly take her bullying down a notch.
Instead of outright bullying her, Elly then picked up a new tactic: accusing her of manipulating Mike. With this new tactic, Elly did influence her classmates to continue to isolate her.
“Mike and his small friend group were positively the only friends I had in my class and actually made the rest of high school somewhat bearable,” she explained.
“They introduced me to some video games that I’d still revisit from time to time till this day, so we bonded a lot over that. They helped me a lot to take my mind off school stress but kinda went our separate ways after that.”
When it came time for college, she and Mike ended up going to the same place, which was a 4 hour’s car ride away from their town.
As soon as she hit college, it was a blank slate for her and a new beginning. She started to make friends, she did well in school, and all along, Mike helped her grow.
“I met new people through him as mutuals, and we studied together a lot, and eventually we became super good friends,” she said.
WavebreakmediaMicro – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“Part of my ‘journey’ was to get over all my past hurt with my bullying, and Mike helped me a lot in that regard too. I unloaded a lot to him, and that’s why he was super supportive and helped me shape myself throughout college, and again, I am forever grateful to him for that.”
She has since graduated from college, and she was so happy with how much she had grown as a person that she chose to keep living where she had gone to college.
She loved the area, and she was worried that if she returned to her hometown that her past would catch up with her again and make her feel bad.
As soon as she revealed to Mike that she would be staying in their college town, he was sad to see her do that, as he was moving home.
Despite going separate ways, they have kept in touch over the past 2 years. Although she and Mike are busy with their own lives, they talk at least once every single month, and when she does return to their hometown to visit her family, she spends time with Mike too.
One month ago, she let Mike know that she would be coming home in November, and he said he wanted to have some kind of reunion of their high school friends while she was in town.
She was thrilled to reunite with her friends, and then Mike let her know that he had one big surprise; he would be bringing someone special to their little gathering.
Well, the person that Mike wound up bringing was the last person she could have expected to be there too.
30 minutes into their lovely gathering had started, Elly, her high school bully, walked in. She was floored to see Elly, who was making her way over to the table she was at.
Now, she has not run into Elly since high school, and she was able to move on from Elly’s bullying to the point where Elly never crossed her mind when she did go to college.
“She sat down with us, and Mike began explaining that they have been dating for the last 2 years, and they celebrated their anniversary a couple of days ago,” she continued.
“I don’t know what came over me that evening, but I honestly felt numb for the rest of it. Eventually, Elly started to engage in small talk with me on the side while the others talked about hometown nostalgia and whatnot.”
Elly informed her that she was the last person from high school to know about her relationship with Mike.
Elly then realized she was pulling back from the rest of their friend group that evening, and Elly said that she was sorry for how she behaved in high school and that she would like to start over new with her in their adult years.
Elly mentioned that she would text her later to talk, and then she walked off. 20 minutes after speaking to Elly, she came up with a reason to leave on the early side.
She did say goodbye to every single person in the room…except for Elly and Mike, as she was too emotional.
Several hours after her departure, Mike texted her, asking if she and her family were alright, as she used her family as an excuse to leave.
She couldn’t bring herself to reply to Mike, so she didn’t. 2 days after Mike sent a text, Elly messaged her on social media asking if she was alright.
A few hours after Elly’s initial message, Elly sent her a super lengthy note apologizing once again for high school before insisting that she understands if she wants a break from her.
Elly’s message did seem pretty heartfelt, but she didn’t respond.
“I have absolutely ZERO idea why I’m acting like this,” she added. “I thought I’d spent all that time healing and moving on from my past and was all over it. She does sound like she’s changed enough, and I’m willing to build that bridge maybe in the future, but I could have never expected that she’d reenter my life in such a way. Dating a close friend??”
“Maybe if it was a more neutral situation, I’d be less confused? This feels SO embarrassing to be giving ‘silent treatment’ like this, especially since everybody else seems like they’ve grown up and moved on. I feel childish and like I’m throwing a tantrum over nothing. I don’t know how to engage with both of them now, and I need an outside perspective on this. Am I crazy or overreacting or something?”
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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