One day, TikToker Paige (@paigestans1) was out having dinner with two of her friends. Halfway through, one of her friends noticed that two girls had walked up to a couple just a few tables down from them. The couple was clearly on a date.
Paige and her friends couldn’t hear the whole conversation, but they thought that the guy’s girlfriend must have found him on a date with another girl.
Paige and her friends wanted to make sure that they weren’t all ganging up on the girl who was out to dinner.
As more time passed, the girl was becoming visibly upset, and it was clear that something was wrong. She was eating her food and crying.
Eventually, she went to the bathroom. Paige decided to wait outside the bathroom for her. When she came out, Paige offered her a hug and invited her to sit at their table.
It turned out that the girl had been in an abusive relationship. They had been together for about seven months and were 28 years old.
The girl was from Orlando and was visiting a friend in New York. The guy she was dating was from Long Island. Paige and her friends helped the girl leave the restaurant with the other two girls, who were her friends.
“He was calling her horrible, horrible things, yelling at her on the side of the road, telling her she was a liar when he was clearly lying,” Paige recalled.
“It was like a scene out of a movie, and I was literally disturbed, to say the least.”
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While Paige doesn’t know what happened afterward, she hopes that the woman felt seen, supported, and strong enough to put herself first.
Many TikTok users shared their own experiences of their loved ones stepping in when they needed help.
“I remember being pregnant in a restaurant out of state with my abuser, eating dinner. A random girl came up to our table and said, ‘She is way too beautiful for you,’ and walked away. It was the best feeling. Girls’ girls all the way,” commented one user.
“I was once that girl, and if not for my parents and two best friends literally dragging me home on a plane, I wouldn’t have gotten out of it. Thank you for being that person,” shared another.
“I had a friend who saw this in me and intervened when she said she saw my light was snuffed out. She made me call my mom, who drove six hours the next day to me in a moving truck, helped me get all my stuff, and I got out of there. That was 23 years ago, and I still have nightmares about him. Thank you for being that friend to her, even if you don’t know her,” wrote a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
