Sarcastic birthday

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Suzanne thought it was absolutely brilliant of me to put books on a flash drive for Sun. She explained that Sun wasn’t as sophant (her word, not mine) as she might seem, more of a repository of information, but she was fairly intelligent. It was how she was able to connect Andrew being in pain to the fact that I was friends with Andrew, and that I would want to know that he was in trouble. Apparently some of Sun’s species had given some ‘wisdom’ to others in the past and it had made its way into mythology.
The key fact was that she was not smart enough to protect herself and her kind from the clever, organized poachers. With that information in mind, it was fascinating for me to think of how Sun took in and organized what she learned. It was almost as if she was a walking, talking library.
On the topic of tours, my first one went wonderfully, and I’m almost hoping Suzanne lets me do more of them. I know not all the tourists are going to be as awesome as these people were, but Suzanne gave me a lot of slack when it comes to dealing with them. She actually said that being a smartass is not grounds for dismissal, and that if I’m sarcastic or facetious to guests who are being ‘daft’ and they complain, she really doesn’t care. Is this the perfect job for me or what?
There were four guests in this party, two adults who were sisters and two children of one of the women, brothers aged thirteen and seventeen. The tour was a birthday gift for the older of the boys from his aunt, since apparently he was passionate about animal protection and conservation.
When they arrived at the front gate, I was sitting at Andrew’s desk, going over the booklet of information one last time. When the visitors pressed the button that sounded the alert buzzer, I tucked away in a drawer and let them in. I did have a cheat sheet with information about the animals on my phone just in case, a brief notation of each of them and which enclosure they were in, but I really didn’t need to use it.
Exiting through the front door, I saw them walk up the path toward me. “Hi, I’m Ripley,” I said, holding out a hand toward the woman closest to me.
She shook it firmly. “I’m Denise. This is my sister Carla and my nephews, Wesley and Jason,” she said, motioning to each of them in turn.
“I heard it’s your birthday,” I said to Wesley, giving him a smile. “You’re interested in animal conversation?”
“Back where we live, yeah,” he said, nodding. “The animals that you’ve got here are incredible. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Well, I can’t wait to show them to you,” I said. “Right this way.”
I led them on the path around the building, toward enclosure one. Despite the horrific memories of the animal killing Stanley’s friends, I knew it was just an animal, and I had to push past my feelings on what had happened. Keeping a small smile on my face, I motioned to the enclosure. “Fiercely territorial and amazing hunters, despite their large size, they’re arboreal and known to dart from tree to tree with barely a sound. This is one of only about two thousand left in existence.”
“Two thousand, three hundred and fifty six at last count,” spoke Wesley, his eyes on the trees.
I blinked, surprised and impressed. “Well that was fantastic. Do you plan on stealing my job when you graduate?”
Wesley looked at me with a grin. “Nah, everyone knows Suzanne only offers humans this gig. And I want to help animals like this one get off the endangered species list. The zoos are great for awareness and fundraising, but then the money has to go somewhere. I want to be doing the real work.”
“That’s really great,” I told him. “I wish you all the best in that career path.” At that, we saw the animal climb down from the tree, wandering a few yards from the tree line. This was because 90% of the time, when humans were at their enclosure and making noise, whether it was speaking to each other or calling out to the animal, it was someone bringing them prey to eat. Or, in my case, enrichment toys to play with.
“Whoa,” Wesley whispered.
“How close can we get?” spoke up Jason.
“The warding starts at the fence,” I told him with a small gesture. “So, just there.”
Both boys wandered closer and I glanced at their parents. It seemed that Suzanne’s zoo had a serious reputation for high quality invisible walls, because they didn’t look worried in the slightest about the boys being hurt or killed.
“They prefer dense forest as their home and have been known to make their nests in trees up to twenty meter in the air,” I continued. “And when hunting, they’ve been seen dropping eight meters straight down. They have incredibly dense yet flexible musculature, which allows them to tackle their prey without injuring themselves.”
There was more information about the animal that I continued to rattle off, though Wesley chimed in at certain points with the info I was about to convey. That was highly entertaining and very cool. When I’d been in school, I’d never met anyone who had my level of passion about endangered animals. I wondered if things were better where these folks came from, but realized that considering there were so few of these animals left, I guessed not.
The animal paced a little bit, seemingly waiting to see if we were the kind of humans that came bearing food, before deciding we weren’t and climbing back up into the trees as easily as I would climb some stairs.
As we moved onto enclosure two, Jason spoke up. “Are there any animals here we can touch or feed or something?”
I sighed inwardly before slowing to a stop. “Well, can you show me your hands?” Jason looked bemused, holding out his hands. “I mean…they both look like they’re in great shape. You can stand to lose one.”
The two women chuckled and Wesley smirked as Jason shoved his hands into his pockets. “Very funny.”
Grinning, I started walking again. “The animals here are all carnivores and all predators. You get to see them, but that’s it.”
“Alright.”
When we reached enclosure two, I started on my next spiel. “We’ve got three reanimated dead in this enclosure,” I spoke. They were just coming out from the trees as we arrived, presumably having heard our approach. “Marissa, Connor, and Bradley. They were donated by families who knew where they would be exhibited. Their next of kin, whoever they are, can’t stand the idea of putting them down. But we need to make sure they don’t have access to corpses, because one of them plus one corpse equals two of them.”
“They eat flesh though, don’t they?” Wesley asked.
I nodded. “Oh, yeah, but it’s from bodies that have already been dismembered. There’s no chance of them being affected by the transformation because it’s all parts.”
“Oh, got it.”
The creatures with blueish-white skin had superhuman strength, which is why they qualified for the security of Suzanne’s zoo. They also were likely the source of any Earth tales of people being brought back to life as zombies, specifically draugr, according to my research. They smelled like rotting flesh, so even as I kept talking about them and giving a background to the people they used to be, we were quick to move on once Wesley had gotten a good, long look at them.
“Enclosure four’s animal is a vampiric spirit. He’s a small, hairy humanoid creature with pointed ears. He wears a hat, and if he somehow loses it, he freaks out,” I said.
“They eat horses,” Wesley noted. “Also anything that gives them the chance to sit on it, usually catching them by surprise while they’re sleeping.”
The creature came out from the brush, giving us a suspicious look. He wasn’t in his humanoid form though; for some reason, he’d chosen to shapeshift to a dog.
I nodded. “Yep, indeed. Once the prey is dead, then he’ll eat it, and he has a voracious appetite. We have two wolves and two bears in the forest, which is one of the reasons I’ve got some self-defense items,” I said, patting my belt where my pepper spray (rated for bear) and my taser. “But the wards keep them out of this area of the zoo, so it’s really not much of a worry. It’s also a known shapeshifter, preferring the form of a dog, as you can see, as well as a cat, a snake, or even white butterflies, though the last one is rare.”
“The white butterflies are supposed to be a sign of good luck,” Wesley said, glancing to me. “Too bad we got the dog.”
“Yeah, otherwise you might be able to talk your mom into getting scratch-offs on your way home, huh?”
Wesley smirked at me.
The next enclosure was Spike, and he was waiting for us, dripping wet from having just emerged from the lake. I gave the introductory information about him, which included his propensity for eating animal eyes, nails, and teeth. “Recently, I’ve given him some enrichment activities, and I learned he likes artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts,” I said, taking a bag out from my cargo shorts. “Wesley, do you want to toss this bag into the enclosure?”
The boy’s eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. He took a look into the paper bag before wrapping down the top to make sure nothing would fly out. Then he chucked it underhand past the fence. It landed a few yards from Spike, who waddled over to it quickly and tearing the bag open, spilling out the prizes inside. As the animal ate the pecans and hazelnuts, Wesley asked, “How’d you figure out he likes those?”
“It’s not all about taste,” I told him. “It’s mainly the difficulty of getting them out of the shells. He’s used to having to work for the parts of his prey he likes the most, so this mimics that activity, and he enjoys the process. I tried a bunch of different foods to find a few he liked.”
“Cool,” Wesley murmured, staring at him.
We watched Spike eat until he’d finished and then he went back into the woods, leaving us to move onto enclosure five. Japanese camellia were plentiful here, a type of pink flower, and that was because they grew anywhere near one of his species made their den. “This girl spends most of her time in the lake also,” I said, as the creature made its way toward the fence separating us from it. “But as you can see, she’s just as curious as the rest about what we’re doing here and whether we have food for her. She eats fish mostly, but she also regularly gets live prey.”
This creature was a spider-like monster, having six legs with long claws on each, and the head of an ox with two sharp horns. She was capable of shapeshifting to look like a human, but I guessed that she wasn’t fond of it, since I hadn’t yet seen her in that form.
“She prefers the easy way of catching prey, so to speak, by hiding in the lake and pouncing when something comes for a drink of water,” I explained. “Apparently humans are some of her favorite prey. She has an advantage of being able to spit poison, which often hits her prey in the eyes. But it’s usually used in defense rather than offense, since it secretes a limited amount.”
“What kind of animal would even go after something like this?” Jason asked, staring at her.
“Never discount one of its own species when you’re thinking about what might attack an animal,” I replied. “There are places that are breeding all of the animals here, but competition for mates is common. That means an advantage in a fight, like poison or venom, can make or break who the winner is.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“It can’t spit past the warding, right?” Carla suddenly asked.
“Oh, no,” I assured her. “We’re fine. The wards wouldn’t let anything cross over.” She nodded, appeased.
The animal in enclosure six was the ginormous seal-hippo, Fiona, and she was looking at us as if she was imagining sprinkling us with herbs and spices and stuffing us in an oven. “This girl is one animal I’m going to work on enrichment activities for next,” I told them. “She prefers to feed on crayfish, though she’s happy to eat any humans that wander into her territory. She’ll even make a sound like a baby crying to reel us in. I’ve heard it a bunch of times.”
“Can you get her to make the sound?” Jason asked, perking up.
I grinned. “Not on command, sorry.”
“What enrichment are you thinking of trying?” Wesley asked.
“Possibly food placed in puzzle feeders,” I told him, “since she has claws that are pretty dexterous. Maybe a piñata made out of newspaper with flour inside, or a scarecrow that mimics a human.”
“Awesome,” he muttered.
After a little more educational tidbits, we moved onto Yui’s enclosure. “What is that?” Wesley asked, smiling.
“I got Yui the closest thing I could to a ping-pong ball,” I replied. “She quite likes it.”
“That’s so funny,” he said as she came out of the trees in her spider form. “I mean, the idea of her being a bloodthirsty hunter who seduces men to their deaths and eats them alive, but then on the other hand, she likes playing with something like this.”
“It is a little funny,” I agreed. “But when it comes down to it, all the animals here enjoy activities besides hunting.”
“She can shapeshift to look human, right?” asked Jason, trying to be casual about knowing something factual like his nerdy brother.
I nodded. “She looks like a woman from a region of Earth called Japan. And she’ll use strategies like holding out a hand to shake to get you closer. She tried that on me when I first got here but, as you can see,” I said, holding up my hands and waving them, “I didn’t fall for it.”
The boys both laughed as they got closer to the fence, watching her slowly pace near the trees.
Next was Sun, but she didn’t make an appearance as I spoke about her species. “Well…unfortunately we can’t guarantee that every animal comes out to say hi,” I sighed. “But…oh wait, here she is.”
The green lion with several horns and many eyes along her flank came out from the forest. “Hello,” she spoke.
“Hi, Sun,” I replied. “We have visitors.”
“What’s that?” Wesley asked suddenly, pointing at the small plastic bag that was still where I’d left it.
“Oh! That is Sun’s enrichment,” I said with a smile. “I put dozens of books on a flash drive and found that she can read them just like she’d read a shelf of books.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve read about anyone trying that before. That’s really cool.”
“The books are new and interesting,” Sun spoke, drawing our attention. “I’m grateful for them.”
I nodded to her. “You’re quite welcome.”
The next animal, unfortunately, wasn’t there, and we waited around for ten minutes as we discussed him. He was large and reptile-like with red eyes, with its hind legs and tail making him look vaguely like a kangaroo. Then, enclosure ten was a terrifyingly disturbing creature, the not-a-centaur with no skin, that I’d only seen a few times while walking my route. It gave a good demonstration of its ferocity, showing its sharp teeth and snapping at us a few times.
“I’m thinking of trying salt licks and other horse enrichment like a big bouncy ball,” I told Wesley, whose eyebrows went up at that. “Maybe give him more things to forage like scattered grains or a box filled with pinecones and seeds. Foraging is a huge part of a horse’s life in the wild, and humans have to do a lot of activities like that to keep pet horses busy. Of course, he also loves the little salt-water lake that was built for him.”
We spent some time looking at the animal before moving past our last stop, the empty enclosure of the animal was stolen. Carla glanced at me with a sad smile, knowing what had happened, it seemed. I gave her a nod as we continued on our way, walking into the office. “So, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!” I said with a smile.
“That was the coolest birthday present I’ve ever gotten,” Wesley said, looking to Denise. “Thanks so much, seriously.”
“It was my pleasure,” she said with a nod. “I’d never been here before, and knew I’d find it fascinating. Thank you for the educational aspect,” Denise said, glancing at me. “I learned quite a lot.”
“Happy to hear it,” I said, returning the nod.
As I escorted the guests out of the zoo and locked the door behind them, I reflected on how much I’d changed. The first time I’d seen Yui’s tarantula form, I’d nearly passed out from fear. Now here I was, walking tourists around like it was no big deal. Humans really can adapt to anything, it seems.
That afternoon, Suzanne had texted me that she was coming by after my shift, and I met her in Andrew’s office, shutting the door to the security room behind me. “How’s Andrew?” I asked first thing.
“He’s doing well,” she said with a wide smile. “Back on non-hospital food. He’s allowed to order food on his phone, and to hear it from him, that’s the best news he’d received in a long time.”
I chuckled. “I guess some clichés are true for a reason.”
“Indeed.” She took a breath. “All right. Ripley…I would like to discuss something with you.”
My face went slack at the serious tone in her voice. “I’m not… Am I being fired?”
“What? No!” she exclaimed. Then she chuckled softly. “No, it’s nothing like that. Just, here, let’s have a seat.” Suzanne walked over to the couch and sat at one end, and I took the other. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve kept from you, that I wanted to keep from you until you found your sea legs here.”
“Well…I have,” I said with a nod. “So, what is it?”
Suzanne took a breath. “I knew your mother.”
The words hung in the air for a moment before making their way to my ears. It was a perfectly logical sentence, and yet it didn’t make any sense. “What?” I finally managed.
“When you graduated college, I decided to move the zoo from Italy to within driving distance of your home,” she said softly. “Near enough to your town that you’d see the advert. We ignored any other applicants and I hoped you’d apply. Actually, I expected you’d apply. Not just for the money, but considering the field you wanted to go into. As soon as I’d found out your major, I knew.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up a hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How do you know Patricia?”
“She owned the zoo before I did,” Susan explained. “Fourteen years ago…she was working to track an injured animal that we could bring into the zoo and she was killed by poachers.”
My heart calcified in my chest and a lump lodged in my throat. As my breaths became shaky, I stared at her in shock. “She…she’s really dead?”
“You suspected?” she asked softly.
“It…” I swallowed hard. “We had her declared legally dead after…I don’t know, seven years I think. My dad wanted to go after her for child support, but the police said…they said they couldn’t find…” Tears came to my eyes and I blinked them back before I met Suzanne’s gaze. “She owned the zoo?”
Suzanne nodded. “It was her baby, you’d say. When Patricia passed, I inherited it, which we’d discussed beforehand, a legal just-in-case that I never expected her to need. I’m under the impression that you were told she went to Africa for her photography career, but she was in fact going to remote areas back in my home world almost every time.”
“But I-I saw the photos,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re telling me she put on a show of getting pictures that someone else took for us to see every time she visited? Did my dad even know?”
“I suppose that’s an accurate way to put it, putting on a show. And no, your father was never told. It’s not the way of things to tell humans unless it’s necessary. I won’t bore you with the details, but us and humans, we’re distant relatives, so we can still have children. But it wasn’t planned. Your mother fell in love with your father despite herself; she hadn’t meant to find love. Then she became pregnant with you and…well, the rest is history.”
“I think she had a different definition of love than the one I have,” I said tightly. “You’d think she’d have put her survival as more of a priority. Put being with the man she ‘loved’ as a priority. Her kids needed her. I needed her. She signed up when she became a mom. She could’ve screwed up all the time but she couldn’t even manage that one job: be there. When I was in the hospital, I kept thinking, ‘Where is she?’ and now you’re telling me that she put these animals above being there for her kids, and this whole time she’s been dead.”
“The hospital?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Never mind,” I said tersely, averting my gaze.
Suzanne hesitated before she nodded slowly. “I’m sorry for your loss, and not just for her death, Ripley,” she told me. “Patricia was…well, a ‘free spirit’ would be putting it gently. She always assumed the world would be there for her whenever she needed it.”
Staring at her for a long moment, I shook my head. “Why? Why come here and hire me?”
“I thought that would be obvious,” she said, smiling. “Your mother was so passionate about this place and once I found out your college major, I figured you would be as well.”
“Did you know that I hate her?” At that, Suzanne’s expression froze on the edge of shock. “She…she left us,” I whispered. “Didn’t tell us who she was or what she really did for a living and gave us no closure. And even when she was here, it was just visiting. Her real home was her work. She could give me all the presents she wanted, but even when she was here, half the time she was still on her computer doing work. It’s not like that stereotype of never making it to my tennis practice or something; it’s that it always felt like she was only partially here, even when I was sitting next to her. I don’t even know if I appreciate her turning me into a wildlife fanatic because it…it…makes me feel like I’m close to her in a way that’s just infuriating. She loved the animals more than she loved us.”
“Oh, Ripley-”
“Don’t,” I said, shoving myself to my feet. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she said quietly. I pursed my lips. “I was going to say that I’m sorry that was the case. Your mother was…flawed, just like any other person. She had two loves in this world: her family and her work. And often, her work overcame her, her zeal for environmentalism getting in the way of being a good mum. She left your father trying to fill the role of two parents, holding your family together. You and your brother and your father, you all deserved better than that.”
My lower lip quivered but I bit down on it hard. It would’ve been a lot easier for me if she’d been speaking from a place of clueless reassurance about all this. But everything she said was making sense and that meant I didn’t have someone in front of me to be angry with.
“Why didn’t you tell me when Andrew hired me?” I sighed, sitting back down on the couch.
“Well, like I said, I wanted you to find your sea legs,” she said with a small smile. “I didn’t want the truth affecting whether or not you wanted to work here, whether you wanted to stay here after finding out about what the animals are. It would’ve complicated things, the emotions you’ll have to work through now that you know the truth. Whether or not you decide to give another tour, you also know what they’re like. That’s the benchmark I wanted you to reach before you found out about who you are.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Who I-” My face went slack. “Wait.”
Suzanne nodded slowly. “You’re only half human. Your brother too.”
The room seemed to tilt on an axis for a moment. “That means I’m also half…what?”
“We call ourselves Eldritch, these days,” she replied.
My eyes bugged out. “What?” I exclaimed. “So you’re all, like, gods or something?”
Suzanne burst out laughing. “Oh no, goodness, no,” she chuckled. “It’s just a word. We live in a very different world from this one, and a few generations ago we discovered the word and it made its way into our lexicon. But it does mean you can see all the animals. Indeed you did, on the tour you gave.”
“Wait, no, I had the glasses that…” I stopped. “Did those glasses do anything?”
She gave a sly smile and shook her head. “Not a thing. You made incredibly quick progress, and then when it came time for the tour, all you needed was to expect to see the animals, and you did.”
Genetics. That’s what Andrew had said during our interview, that part of how many animals you could see was determined by genetics. I guess having a mother who was originally from the other dimension gave me all the genes I needed to see everything here. “Could I…visit your world?” I asked tentatively. “You said that my mom took photos of the animals there. Could I…” My voice trailed off, not even sure if or how I wanted to finish that sentence.
“Those who are half human, especially those who are raised on Earth, don’t come visit,” she said gently. “I could show you some photos of other animals, and I could loan you as many books as you’d like, but it’s simply not a place where you’d be safe.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning into the couch cushion as I pictured the animals in the zoo. “Yeah, actually that…makes sense.” I paused. “So, what now?”
“It’s up to you,” she said. “I wanted to wait until I was sure you were comfortable with your position here, and then put the ball in your court. And so it is. What do you want to do now?”
What did I want to do? It wasn’t that difficult a question, just a deep, serious one.
I wanted to thrive, as the animals did. This is my enrichment now, working at an incredible, wonderful, terrifying zoo. The experience so far hasn’t been perfect, and I know there are risks, but life isn’t about staying safe. It’s about learning new things and making a difference in the world. And, if you’re lucky, having a job that’s something really special.
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THE END
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Hey, it’s me. It’s been a while since we last saw each other, I hope you’re living your best life and that your friends and family are well.
Last time I tried to reach out to you I still wasn’t thinking clearly, I wasn’t being entirely honest when I was asking for closure- I’m sorry. After the breakup, I was still healing, hoping in my heart that if I gave us a little bit of time and space, we would meet up, work things out and get back together. I had the best intentions at heart and I just hope you know that.
I still have so much that I want to say and I wish I could say it to you without anymore miscommunication and fumbling on my words so here it goes.
When I first met you at the coffee shop, I was taken aback by this gorgeous girl who was funny, a little shy, hardworking and caring. I believed that you were exactly the person I was waiting for…and you were absolutely worth the wait. I couldn’t wait to see you again, when we met again my feelings for you grew stronger, I still remember you hiding your face in your scarf, I thought it was so cute and I was falling for you more and more.
I still remember our first kiss like it was yesterday, I eased into you, I felt secure feeling you close to me it was like a dream.
The next date was also incredible, meeting your friends was also great they’re such amazing people and I hope they’re well by the way. Walking around the town, seeing all the Christmas markets, grabbing a drink at that arcade bar, you whooping my ass at table hockey, and who could forget about that mini pouch of Tropicana at the pizza place (didn’t need a glass for that one haha). What I remember the most was how you cuddled up to me on the way back in the train.
Before we knew it, I made us official the next time we went the dessert shop. I was awkward as hell haha but it was the best decision of my life because it led to so many amazing memories I will cherish forever on top of the ones I just listed:

⁃ You meeting my parents- I felt so much pride and I was so glad when my parents loved you ⁃ Coming round on Boxing Day- it was an amazing day ⁃ New Year’s Eve- welcoming the new year with you, hoping our relationship continued to grow ⁃ Our games of Bowling- you really whipped my ass ⁃ Our games of mini golf- always loved them, you won the best of 3- fair game ⁃ Valentine’s Day when I gave you that bracelet and that cheesy card haha, you gave me a lovely picture of us both and a lovely meal ⁃ The meals round mine- dad makes amazing pizzas ⁃ That night at the bar- I’ll admit cocktails are great 

And the night I’ll never forget. I feel like that night, I’ve never been closer to you, our lovely meal when we were laughing together like there’s no tomorrow, having a drink at bout to show you some moves. Going back to the room, was the strongest I felt for you, that moment we shared together was beautiful and that was when I was truly in love.
I still felt so strongly for you, I missed you every day on that trip to and I thought of you each day. Coming back, everything changed and I felt like we were drifting apart. I was blaming myself so hard for what happened on my Birthday seeing you hurt- I felt like I was to blame. I still do now.
The day we broke up, still feels like a bad dream, it hurts knowing that’s reality. It hurts more knowing I was fighting for us whilst you were drifting away from me, it broke my heart, I felt like you gave up on me. I know we agreed but honestly I wasn’t happy, I thought ending things amicably was better for both of us but I guess it only really helped you. I’m not blaming you, that’s not fair to do that, you had your reasons and I understand completely why you weren’t happy with me no more.
The reasons why we didn’t work out: the communication, not understanding your job and the fact we weren’t moving forward. I’ve had time to self-reflect and I now understand why I was the way I was.
I was always hard on myself when it came to, well everything namely my job, my college work, my future, etc. I always questioned whether I was doing enough, whether I’d reach my full potential and being afraid of making mistakes. Those insecurities invaded the relationship and it’s why sometimes my communication was poor and why I sometimes was silent. It’s cause I stressed myself out over something that wasn’t a concern. That’s also why I would forget things or struggle listening, since I let that go I’m now much better.
When it came to your job, I did understand that you had to work different shifts compared to my job and I knew that. I guess because I stepped up on my communication I guess I was expecting more from you whether it was unrealistic or not.
Now I won’t lie, I guess I was also dissatisfied with some things with you and I felt frustrated at times.
I knew that you were awkward with physical intimacy and I understood. I did try my best to still show you my affection and make you feel loved. I felt rejected at times whenever you would shrug me off when it came to hugging or holding hands whether it was in front of my parents or even between us, when you didn’t reciprocate, it left me feeling uncertain at times.
Your sarcastic sense of humour did sometimes rub me the wrong way, I guess I just didn’t understand the jokes sometimes or I didn’t see it as such.
I did think sometimes you were a bit selfish too, like on your Birthday weekend. I did feel left out and like you didn’t really want me there, I absolutely understand your family should be your priority but I felt like you made it my responsibility to secure my place there and I felt it was unfair. I always considered you for every plan I made whether it was my Birthday or a future holiday.
Introducing you to my parents was also a huge step for me, I did that because I was sure about you. When you didn’t do the same despite everything I did, I felt like you were keeping me at an arms length and like you were trying to keep me out of your life.
Maybe you were also a bit unforgiving towards my struggles with listening. I reckon working around loud machinery all day, every day has affected me a bit and I’m sorry about that.
Despite those things, I still wanted to be with you and I was hoping with time we’d be the perfect couple. I was always eager to plan our next date, future plans for us too: holidays, events and I was also hoping I’d meet your family one day. I suppose it wasn’t meant to be but it still hurts knowing we’re not together no more, I still feel like I had so much more to give.
I feel like what we had was something special, it came at the right time, we are both definitely the right people and we had something amazing. I wished the problems we had didn’t push us apart, I feel like we could’ve overcame them. If you lost feelings for me, I get it but it still hurts and I hope you understand.
I’d give anything to talk to you again, simply just be with you again. I still hope, in my heart, that one day we’ll see each other again, that this isn’t really the end. Whether it’s at a coffee shop, a concert or in town, I still wish to see your face again, we pick up right where we left off. If we need to take it slow, I just hope we find our way back because things like us only happen once in a lifetime. I still miss you, your gorgeous smile, your laugh, simply just you.
If not, that’s ok. I know you’re happy now, I’m happy for you too, I wish nothing but the best for you. I just wished you could be your best with me. I’m ok though, no need to worry about me, I’m living my best life too and everything is looking up.
I hope this isn’t goodbye but if I don’t see you again, I hope you have an amazing life.
I’m glad you heard me out, eventually haha, and I’m happy knowing I got everything off my chest.
Thank you for everything and take care

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but life gets so much easier without a toxic person in your life.
I’m on vacation with my family for my birthday, and for the first time in a year and a half, I don’t feel that knot in my stomach. I’m free, and I can enjoy the day. I don’t have to worry about mean and sarcastic remarks about my appearance, family, or friends. We go where we want to and don’t spend hours in bars for him to drink. I had forgotten how relaxing a holiday can be. There’s no one flirting with others to make me anxious.
It will get better. It takes time, and you will feel sad from time to time, but remember, you only have one life. We should spend it with someone who truly loves us, not someone who is only there when they need us. Stay strong, and best wishes from abroad!

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but life gets so much easier without a toxic person in your life.
I’m on vacation with my family for my birthday, and for the first time in a year and a half, I don’t feel that knot in my stomach. I’m free, and I can enjoy the day. I don’t have to worry about mean and sarcastic remarks about my appearance, family, or friends. We go where we want to and don’t spend hours in bars for him to drink. I had forgotten how relaxing a holiday can be. There’s no one flirting with others to make me anxious.
It will get better. It takes time, and you will feel sad from time to time, but remember, you only have one life. We should spend it with someone who truly loves us, not someone who is only there when they need us. Stay strong, and best wishes from abroad!

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but life gets so much easier without a toxic person in your life.
I’m on vacation with my family for my birthday, and for the first time in a year and a half, I don’t feel that knot in my stomach. I’m free, and I can enjoy the day. I don’t have to worry about mean and sarcastic remarks about my appearance, family, or friends. We go where we want to and don’t spend hours in bars for him to drink. I had forgotten how relaxing a holiday can be. There’s no one flirting with others to make me anxious.
It will get better. It takes time, and you will feel sad from time to time, but remember, you only have one life. We should spend it with someone who truly loves us, not someone who is only there when they need us. Stay strong, and best wishes from abroad!

Packing up a bag to solve one of the jobs that had been on the back burner, the island overrun with zombies was getting resolved. Checking the contents over one more time, the raw pain of losing Croak drove me to this point. The twins’ hopping down the stairs had me grumbling under my breath, both of them bowing to me. What kind of childhood did they have if they felt the need for that type of behavior? This was irritating the shit out of me. Perhaps it was everything else.
“May we come?” Travy inquired with a nervous smile, her sister holding onto her arm. “I want to destroy what my mother built. Forgive a girl for dreaming.” Both of them looked eager, her usual white suit contrasting her sister’s frilly pink number of a dress ironically. Mulling over her reason, the vows would serve to protect me from assassination. Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t believe what I was about to say.
“Fine but I will be keeping a sharp eye on you. No funny business.” I spoke sternly, zipping up my bag. Whispering among themselves, the talking behind my back is not what I signed up for. Clearing my throat, the twins’ straightened up. Saluting me, this stiff behavior was wearing on my nerves even more. Marching up to them, little to no protest met me lowering their hands. Abuse had led them to such behavior, my task of undoing the learned behavior would be a tedious one.
“Please stop doing that. I want you to respect me by calling me Corpsy, ‘kay.” I pleaded with my genuine smile, both of them attempting to bow again. Catching their foreheads, enough was enough. Parting my lips to speak several times, my expression softening further. Pushing them back into the attention position, they needed to let their guard down. What do you say to a couple of traumatized individuals?
“I don’t bite unless I have to.” I promised them with a hearty chuckle, the edge coming off of their expressions. “Let’s go kill some zombies my pals kept contained for me. Splattered brains and skulls will feel like confetti at this point.” Rolling the transportation spell ball in my palm, a drop of my blood was all I needed. Extending my claws, the tips sank into the tender flesh of my palm. Blood coated my palm, the clear ball glowing to life. Clinging to my arms, a blinding light whisked us to an abandoned city. Fussing with my simple black tank top and cargo pants, this environment had me twisting my waves into neat french braids. Decaying skyscrapers towered over us, every building seeming to be a new level. Chewing on her lips, Saly had true fear in her eyes. Sniffing the air, the remains of a curse had me thinking a witch was in charge here. The true question was where was she, ghastly groans rang out from all around us. Rotting corpses at varying points of decay limped out, the smell sickening the three of us. Spinning on my heels, Saly and Travy waited patiently for orders.
“We are going to slice our way to a necromancer and execute her. If I am correct, we might even get some clues relating to your mother’s plans with Stormana. Sounds great?” Shooting me shaky thumbs up, a kick had my dagger into my eager palm. Extending my blade to its full length, the fun was set to begin. Remembering that Roseworth asked me to do this a while back, she would be proud of me. Spinning their blades in their palms, sly grins illuminated their features. Croak’s smile flashed in my mind, an arrow striking my heart. Croak had been my friend in the dark, the silence killing me every time I hopped into the hearse. Swinging away, heads rolled to my feet. Lightning crackled along the cars, Travy pointing to the closest skyscraper. Leaping over the zombies, shadow snakes slithered down my arms. Sending them out to find the necromancer, Saly pushed me into the glass doors. Locking the doors behind us, eyes glowed around us. Ordering them to shut down their lightning, too much power could bring the building down on us. Rubble covering us was the last thing we needed in this mission, the girls flashing me pleading looks.
“We need to get to the rooftop and get off the ground.” I ordered with a tired smile, my team members nodding with eager grins. “Cut your way to the stairs.” Moonlight bathed the lobby, color draining from my face. A thousand corpses surrounded us, the three of us standing back to back. Admiration burned in their eyes, an honest smile curling on our lips. Three stairwells seemed to hide from us, my snakes slithered over the sea of feet to tell me where our target was. Brushing against my arms on the way up, their hisses told me that she was several buildings away. Whipping their heads towards the clearest path, the twins picked up on it. Covering each other, sludgy black painted our faces with every swing. Jumping over the dropping bodies, relief flooded from our lips upon contact with the first step of the stairs. Three zombies lingered on the next landing, their lack of brains preventing them from going down the stairs. Sending Saly ahead, her skirt floated up with every swing. Crashing up the stairs, the grunting noises soon became the background soundtrack with every second closer to the rooftop. Kicking the door open, harsh air nipped at my cheeks. Black ash drifted like snow, the ash reminding me of a Gothic blizzard. Asking my snakes where to go next, their tails pointed towards the skyscraper twenty feet away from me. Backing up to the edge, our feet pounded together across the helicopter pad. Pushing off the edge, a quiet terror dimmed my eyes at the foul stench blowing my braids about. Landing gracefully, the endless sea of zombies on the streets had me shuddering. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, a couple of hisses had me stopping at the rooftop of an art deco skyscraper. Massaging my forehead, we needed to get in. The usual growls and snarls had us shifting our attention to changed zombies, something seeming off. Cocking my head to the left, horror rounded my eyes at the chains holding them groaning in protest. Nudging my comrades, their terrified eyes met mine. Time for them to let some frustration loose.
“Cut them down before we have an issue.” I whispered loud enough for them to hear and for them to hear alone. Flipping over to the poor souls, lightning bounced off of their blades. Watching them work like a well oiled machine, the image of Croak’s smile in the early morning light had tears welling up in my eyes. A chill ran up my spine, the energy shifting. Glancing up, storm clouds rumbled to life, heavy rain washing the blood and guts off of us. The door into the building clicked open, caution giving me honest hesitation. Urging me to move ahead, it was almost as if I could hear Croak. Hollow footfalls thumped up the stairs, the color drained from my cheeks at a rotting Croak reaching out for me. Opening her mouth, maggots splattered onto the concrete of the rooftop. Stumbling back, the twins caught me before I fell off the roof.
“What’s the matter, love?” She inquired in a gritty tone, her sweet smile sickening me. “Don’t you want to hug me? You did get me killed after all.” Inky splotches dotted my trembling hand, the rain darkening to demon blood. Violent sobs mixed with shortened breaths, my heart seconds from beating out of its chest. Struggling to find any air, her hollow footfalls thumped closer to me. Pausing in front of me, her hands cupped my face. Raising her foot slowly, she kicked us off the roof. Zooming towards the sea of hungry zombies, a numbness came over my face. My comrades begged for me to snap out of it, Croak shifting into a woman with a golden silky bob. Violet eyes twinkled with malice, her spike covered leather dress matching flawlessly to her combat boots. A silver staff glittered in her palm, the skull resting on a carved bone handle. Snapping awake at her chanting, a pool on the roof of one of the other buildings caught my eyes. Building shadow energy at the tip of my blade, a flick of wrist smashed the skyscraper into smithereens. Using the energy to send me back up closer to her, the twins grinned ear to ear at the water flooding the streets. A jolting experience was scheduled for her friends.
“Get the necromancer. We have a shocking gift to jolt those souls awake.” Travy giggled maniacally, her sister joining in with giggles. Smashing more skyscrapers around us, the water flowed like a wild river. Kicking me closer, my trembling fingers snagged on the edge. Lightning lit up the stormy sky, Saly and Tavy winking as they slammed the tip of their blades into a metal skyscraper’s roof. Showing me their rubber boots, pride glistened in their eyes. Pulling myself up with a gruff grunt, a snarl met my broken but defiant smile. Shaking off my fraying nerves, the base of my anxiety remained. Spinning my blade in my palm, the necromancer tapped her staff on the rooftop. A straight blade the size of mine cut my cheek with its expansion, haughty laughter tumbling off her slick tongue. Bad guys needed to calm down with the cockiness, my eyes rolling at her next outburst of frustration.
“Why must you be so insistent!” She growled through gritted teeth, my fingers playing numbly with the cut on my cheek. “Wake up and fight me.” Her chest puffed up and down, frustration darkening her eyes. Rolling my eyes, someone thought highly of themselves. Snapping my head in her direction, an iciness came over me. No one called me out without having their flaws being pointed out as well.
“Fuck you for that trick. Clearly you don’t have a conscience. How many people had to suffer for you to play your stupid game?” I snarled bitterly, a shadow growing behind me. “We let you play for a little too long. Time for you to die.” Charging at each other, sparks danced in the air with every violent clash. Everything doubled, her head cocking to the left creepily. Smashing her fist into my stomach, a splash of blood exploded from my mouth. Sinking to my knees, several organs had burst. Struggling to my feet, she wasn’t going to win. No! This nuisance wasn't going to survive my retaliation.
“Give up already. Your boss left me unchecked for way too long.” She bragged with a Cheshire Cat grin, my hand holding my stomach. Wheezing through the raw agony, my blade trembled uncontrollably. Leaning onto my blade, her hit had some spice to it. Screw her for breaking my insides!
“Never. I would lay down my life the world. Not to be a bitch but you are pissing me off.” I wheezed between words, more blood pouring from the corner of my mouth. “Don’t act all high and mighty with that fucking bullshit that you believe. The dead should stay dead.” Shivering as I raised my blade, my blood painted her face. Slapping my cheek to get myself to focus, shadow snakes hissed to life around me. Swinging her blade towards my head, sparks danced in the air with the violent clash. Pushing her back, the puddle of blood splashed around my feet as I crashed into her building. Sliding down the railing, my feet touched a plush carpet. Spicy wit would have to be my friend, Croak’s real energy raising the hair on the back of my neck. Opening the door, her translucent form sat on the bed. Locking the door behind me, the building rattled. Burying her spirit into a hug, my tears cascaded down her form. Releasing her, her cold thumbs wiped away my tears. Wishing that I didn't have to leave her, too many words bounced around the tip of my tongue.
“Why are you here and not in Heaven?” I asked feverishly, holding her hands like my life depended on it. “Please tell me that you didn’t come here to draw me here.” Averting her gaze to the golden wall, the door began to rattle violently. Cupping my face, the words couldn’t come to her lips. Shaking like a leaf, this couldn’t be real. Speak! Speak, damn it! What I wouldn't do to hear her voice one more time.
“I was stolen from Heaven to this bloody place. Can you free me one last time? There is a deal I made and it has not been fulfilled yet.” She wept dejectedly, my heart breaking for her. “You look like you are doing alright, love.” Uncontrollable sobs wracked my body at how she spoke the word love, the door bursting open. Rising to my feet with a true defiant grin on a determined face, her reign of terror was over. Spinning my blade over my head, the twins paused in the doorway.
“I burn everything you created for what you have done!” I wheezed once more with tears hitting the carpet, hating her for everything she stole from everyone. “You stole someone important from me. Croak was like a fucking goddamn sister to me and you denied her happiness. Fuck you! Get to safety, you fucking idiots!” Running towards the window, lightning lit up the room as they ran down the building. Hoping that survived this, something told me that I might not make it.
“What are you planning to do?” She questioned icily, Croak standing up behind me. “She was easy to capture on the way up. Maybe I wanted to get the bounty on your head by the dark gods. Who wouldn’t want immortality?” Was that really the prize over my head?
“At least it's a steep bounty.” I retorted sarcastically, the corner of lip twitching into a half-smirk. “You wouldn’t be the first person who wants my head on a wall. Too bad I don’t fucking care. Time to bring the big guns.” Shadowy snakes held her in place, her blade rolling over to my feet. My patience had worn thin, my hands picking up her staff. Snapping it in half, it melted into a puddle of boiling hot silver. Panic rounded her eyes, her sinister grin fading for but a second.
“I don’t usually break out my fire powers because the damage is immense.” I growled through gritted teeth, black flames crackling to life as I marched towards her. “Look at you getting the special treatment. Shrinking my blade down to dagger form, black flames devoured my hand. Slamming it into her chest, my fingers curled around her heart. Extending my claws into the tissue, her fingernails scratched at my arm. Shrill shrieks pierced my ears, flames cooking her from the inside. Burning to a pile of blackened ash, Croak covered her mouth. Collapsing to the floor, my muscles had chosen to give out at the worst possible moment. Cursing under my breath, the building groaned in protest. Every attempt to move had me crying into the carpet, Croak begging for me to get up. Shaking my head, every muscle refused to comply with my desire to rise to my feet.
“I can’t.” I snapped into the carpet, my own blood pooling around me. “I used up all of my juice. Be a pal and stay by my side. You know, for old times’ sake.” Coughing up more blood, my claws dug into the floor. Images of Miles running around with my girls had me smiling to myself. Must life always flash before one's eyes. Croak plopped down next to me, her hand taking mine. Tavy and Saly skidded in, Tavy tossing me over her shoulder. Hating for a second that I was going to survive, my hand reached for Croak. Holding on for a second, her warmth felt like her embrace.
“I am not letting you die today, boss.” She chirped cheerfully, tucking my dagger into its case. “Sal, cover our asses.” Sprinting down the halls, Croak waving as she rounded the corner. Watching her spirit float into the sky, silent tears cascaded from my eyes. Letting them rip me from one of the only friends I had ever had, time slowed as they leapt into the crashing waves. Keeping me above the waves, black flames devoured every building. Debris whistled over my head, the lost souls floating into the sky. A wave of exhaustion crashed over me, a rough darkness stealing me away.
Groaning awake on a sandy beach, my wounds had been repaired. The empty vials shimmered next to me, a migraine throbbing to life. Tavy was cursing tersely over a fire that wouldn’t start while Saly struggled with a makeshift fishing pole. A fit of laughter exploded from my lips, a wry smile lingering on my lips. Fishing around my pockets while they rushed over to fret over me, their mother taught them nothing about survival. Sitting up with another groan, the pile of rubble had me tearing up for the millionth time. Stop crying was all I could yell at myself. Plucking my phone from my pocket, the waterproof case had it working. Dialing Morte’s number, he would get the coordinates and come get us. Getting the answering machine, a low growl rumbled in my throat. Rising to my feet, the trees blurred. Running up to me, my palms caught their foreheads before they could bow.
“Treat me like a friend, not a tyrant.” I spoke warmly, the girls straightening up. “Let’s go home. There might be a town not far from her. Dusting off my outfit, I buttoned up the leather jacket to hide the bloody tank top. Undoing my braids, perfect waves floated around my shoulders. Flaking the dried blood off of my face as we hiked, a small town with a single gas station came into view. Spinning on my heels, they shot me a thumbs up. Walking casually into the gas station, colorful snacks lined the shelves. Grabbing a ginger ale on the way to the counter, Tavy slid a couple of candy bars onto the gaudy counter covered in different lighters. Of course, they were hungry. How could I forget?
“Excuse me sir but you know where we are? Our car ran off the road and my cell phone broke in the accident.” I choked out with fresh tears in my eyes, the twins matching my energy. “I need to call a tow truck and I need to know what town we are in.” Sliding over his phone, he gave some a common town name in the United States. Leaving us in privacy, he wouldn’t accept our money. Pretending to dial a number, I hung up and left a wet twenty on the table. Cracking open my soda on the way out, the cool liquid felt nice going down my throat. Turning to face them, a plan had to be formed. Please don't be a daft one.
“You can’t transport or anything?” One of them asked cautiously, my eyebrow twitching at the question. Transportation was out of the question right now with my lack of powers, neither of them needing to know that. Walking into a small park, the early afternoon sun painted the water a nice purple. Dialing my phone again, Morte didn’t pick up. What the hell was he doing? Dialing Wut, he didn’t pick up. Why wasn't anyone picking up!
“Pick up the damn phone, you idiots!” I shouted out of the blue, the others jumping ten feet into the air. “Sorry, my bed is calling me.” Yawning groggily, every muscle in my body ached fiercely. Typing in ways to get home, a bus station wasn’t too far from here. Checking my wallet, I had enough for three tickets home. Marching over to the bus station, the elderly clerk looked me up and down before accepting my money. Sliding over our tickets, the strangers shot us odd looks as we sank into the seats in the back. Trees turned into buildings and back into trees, the four hour bus ride giving me plenty of time to fume. Parking on the edge of the town of my business, another hour passed before I kicked open the door. Everyone looked up, Morte’s damn phone was in a bag of rice. How the hell did that freaking happen?
“Who the hell didn’t pick us up!” I roared thunderously, Morte putting his hands in the air. “I have been calling and calling! I needed someone to talk to. Fuck all of you!” Stomping upstairs to get changed, a new dress waited for me with Roseworth sitting on the bed in one of her usual onyx lace dresses. Folding my arms across my chest, it was her fault I didn’t have a return spell. Who sends someone on a mission without a way back!
“I solved your fucking problem!” I spat viciously, fighting another wave of tears. “Death almost claimed me again. I understand that it needed to be done but I have one damn question! Did you know that Croak was there? Is that why you sent me? That was a freaking joke and cruel at best. I loved her like a sister.” Covering my mouth, tears dripped off of my hands. It hurt to say that out loud, a bit of shame dimming my eyes for a second. No, an explanation was deserved.
“As long as I have lived I have never ever been put through so much mental pain! If you want to continue to be in my life, then secrets don’t exist! Am I understood?” I continued hotly, the guilt in her eyes softening my expression. “Sorry for yelling. I have had a rough day. What’s with the dress anyway?” Bowing her head while collecting herself, a bright smile met my busted expression. Shit, did I go too far again?
“We were going to surprise you for your birthday and our phones all got dropped in water. That is why we didn’t pick up.” She admitted with wet eyes, the guilt creeping in from my outburst. “I did know but I thought you could see her one last time. Sorry for trying to help a grieving sister. I don’t have much either now. All I have is my nieces and you.” Plopping down next to her, my arms buried her into a bear hug. Apologizing profusely, her emotions soaked my shirt. Holding her until the tears dried up, my hand cupped her cheek. The good intentions canceled any rage.
“Thank you so much.” I mumbled with another sad smile, rising from the bed to get changed into the lovely emerald dress. “I love you like a sister as well.” Snatching the dress off of the bed, the reflection in the mirror had me shrinking back. A zombie would have looked better, the door creaking open as I cleaned up a bit. Morte poked his head in, my eyes refusing to meet his. Hating that I lost on him, he must despise me.
“I would have gotten you if my phone was working. I am sorry.” He apologized sincerely, helping me take off my filthy clothes. Sure, everyone really seemed sorry. Maybe I was sick of hearing the word. Helping me get my dress on, the zipper went right up. Tracing the black lace covering the fifties style dress, Morte spun me around to face him. Lifting up my chin, his crooked grin made my day a bit better. Kissing my lips tenderly, my face was still puffy as hell. Lost between a state of panic and euphoria, the combination had a sickening effect.
“You have never looked more beautiful.” He sang with his natural smile, my heart fluttering. “The kids wanted to throw you a surprise party so act surprised.” Uttering a single yes, he offered me his elbow. Sliding on my boots on the way out, we paused in front of the living room door. Opening up the door, everyone shouted surprise. Donning my genuine smile, the girls and Miles smashed into my legs. Thanking them with a flurry of feverish kisses, their smiles couldn’t be any bigger. A bit of life returned to my eyes, my kids giving the flames of hope another boost.

No ones going to read this and this is going to be very long and im sorry but i dont know how to explain it in a different way. I'll begin with saying im F14 and im kind of introverted and i dont really like being social and talking to people makes me anxious but since year 7 ive had a pretty stable friend group of three other girls. Ever since we became friends ive noticed i do get made fun of, now i know thats normal, all friends make fun of eachother. I make fun of them, they make fun of me and it was pretty harmless at first, just casual joking around.
But maybe a year into our friendship ive noticed one of the girls (T) is kinda rude and shes always yelling at me and swearing and just saying mean things. This happened for months and months until it hit its breaking point. The first major thing was when it was her birthday and it was at a mall, and she got there kind of late and she was freaking out and stressed because she needed to buy paper plates or something so she quickly went to the store and atp 2 other friends were there and she was only being really mean to me. She started yelling in an aisle and other people were around so i did tell her "maybe dont yell, we're in public" and she started yelling at me saying "shut up your face is stupid youre weird nobody cares that its a public place." Now idk if i did something wrong by telling her to not yell but she just kept getting mad. This continued throughout the day and last friday in class she started yelling at me again, it was the end of the week and i was tired and i just started crying and my other friend (S) comforted me and (T) didnt even apologise until much later and i think she only did it because we had plans to go to my house after but i forgave her because i always forgive her but it continued. Now (S) is nicer but shes still quite mean, i have to mention me and my friends have wildy different tastes, in music, movies, media pretty much everything. They have this joke where they call me a millennial because i dont enjoy the things people my age enjoy but i enjoy "old things" which i didnt mind being called a millennial, i mind constantly being made fun of for the things i like.
Now my friend (S) also has this joke which (T) joins in on sometimes, basically the joke is that they call me autistic and a nerd because i like learning things. Now i know being called autistic isnt an insult and i do get annoyed when anyone says it as an insult cause its insensitive. I did play into this joke because to be fair, autism is in my family, most of my cousins on my dads side are extremely autistic and honestly my dad and grandpa and have many symptoms as do I, i guess. I also am not good with social cues especially sarcasm so my friend (T) came up with this thing where she said she'll do a hand signal whenever shes being sarcastic so i dont take something she takes seriously but honestly i think she just exploits it now. She'll say something super mean and act like she was being sarcastic, now i cant definitively say whether or not she was just making a joke or if im being dramatic cause i dont get sarcasm and it makes me feel so horrible and out of place.
Now the biggest thing that made us not talk happened this monday in school. We were talking in class when T brought up this comedian that i was talking a lot about on Friday. I said something like "hes actually pretty funny im surprised not a lot people know him" and both of them started this whole thing about "nobody knows him, hes probably not even funny, hes probably a boomer or something. Haha youre not even a milenial youre such a boomer." I took this as a joke at first but it became annoying after they kept repeating it again and again and again. Everytime i tried to defend my self, S just started spewing out insults really fast and loudly so i just couldnt get my point across. And everytime i did say something like "oh im so sorry for having good/a different taste" they said "thats literally what a boomer would say youre soo weird." Which was also annoying, eventually i said to S "wow all this after i gave u all that chicken on Friday too." (At my house on Friday i got everyone fried chicken to eat) and S said "yeah cause youre a blackie, shut up blackie."
Now i didnt like this for many reasons, im not even black but i know that you shouldnt be saying that word to people regardless of them being black or not. I replied with "you know you cant call people that" and S said "yea you'd know cause you are one, you blackie." I just dont like when people say stuff theyre not supposed to cause its insensitive or just mean. I know even if someone explains exactly why u cant say that word to S or T they wouldnt understand or care. A couple lessons later we had a substitute who basically said "do whatever u want just be quiet" and since S and T had been making fun of me the whole day i wanted to cheer myself up so i decided to watch that comedian i was talking about before. I asked T once if she wanted to watch with me but she said no so i began to watch him alone, with my headphones in not bothering anyone and T looked at my screen and groaned and said "omg shes seriously watching him right now" to S, which imo was just mean cause its not like i was forcing anyone to watch i was just minding my own business? S also looked and kept saying "oh you probably only like him cause hes cute, hes prolly not even funny."
Then they both proceeded to ask me again and again to let them watch and i said no cause i knew they'd just make more fun of him and me. They asked and asked and i had enough and i went to the bathroom for the rest of the lesson. They never apologised but i think they attempted to cause when i came back to class they packed my bag for me which maybe was their way of saying sorry but its weird they didnt vocalise it cause they usually have no issue expressing emotions. The rest of the day i didnt talk to them and neither of them said anything except S asking me if i was okay once. its wednesday now and i didnt go to school cause i got sick but we havent talked and no ones messaged me. All i know is that T thinks im mad at her, which im not im kind of just upset. Idk if theyre going to say sorry but even if they do and we make up they'll just keep making fun of me because they always do.
Im tired of not being normal, i wish i was like everyone else and im tired of not being able to tell my friends about things i like without being mocked. I dont have any other friends, and T and S are popular so god knows if this news will get around and which version other people will hear. I dont know if im being dramatic or this is an issue? I hate school i wish i could go anywhere else.

My wife and I have been together since 2017. At the time, I had a 2 year old child from a prior relationship. We got married in 2022.
I come from a single mother house where my father was an alcoholic who committed suicide when I was 1. My mom was a hard shift worker who wasn’t home a lot but showed me an abundance of affection and gave me excessive gifts. She is overbearing and doesn’t ever view her actions as wrong.
She comes from a single father house where her mother was killed in a mass shooting when she was 3. Her father worked excessively and was a harsh disciplinarian (or worse) to her brother. Her father is absent and a hoarder with questionable hygiene.
At the beginning of our relationship, I tried to break up with her several times and I told her we weren’t right for each other. She told me she didn’t want to be a mother or have children. I struggled with alcohol and would often say hurtful things towards her when I was intoxicated. She refused to let me go and we would patch up our problems. During 2020-2021, she started to resent me for not asking her to marry her. It would be brought up every couple of months to the point of being a big problem. She has made it clear to me that she does not like asking me for things and would rather me proactively initiate. This caused a paradox of being able to plan a time to ask her to marry me without it seeming like she forced it to happen. I decided I had to seriously get my crap together and be “all in” on the relationship or not with her. I chose to be all in. She sold her house and bought a house closer to my daughter. The day we moved in, I asked her to marry me. Over the course of 2021-2022 and parts of 2023, I still suffered from alcoholic outbursts and would say mean things when we would argue. Shes kicked me out of the house at least 3 times and I’ve left the house at least 3 times. Each time we patch things up over the course of days/weeks/months. I decided to go to counseling and started reading 7 principles of marriage, attachment theory etc. I started listening to podcasts and trying to be better. She is persistent in saying she doesn’t want to go talk to someone but was receptive to being prescribed a pill for depression. She did do virtual sessions with a counselor for a month before there was a miscommunication with her counselor and she felt they didn’t really care about her and/or they weren’t really getting anywhere. She has somewhat isolated herself from friends and family. She talks to her out of state aunt fairly often and in state brother occasionally. She doesn’t hang out with any of her friends or try to make new ones. She says she doesn’t need that and I am that for her. I have a strong core of 5 friends that I talk to fairly often.
I’ve discovered my love language is affection and hers is quality time. We have had multiple conversations about it and have even implemented the state of the union conversations. It’s been helpful but we are guilty for letting it slip away from our schedule. She admits that she struggles with showing affection and I admitted to wanting to be “carefree” and avoid hard or meaningful conversations. I find that she wants me to initiate those conversations and stays somewhat closed off until I pry. When she is quiet (often), I spend a large portion of my time with anxiety wondering if she is mad at me, or wanting me to talk or wanting quiet time.
This week, my buddy had a birthday and she asked if it was wives too. I inquired and told her yes. I asked if she wanted to go and she said no. I asked her twice more and reiterated that wives were going and she said no again. Later in the day, I asked her twice more. The day of the party came and she said she was surprised I didn’t follow up with her. I asked if she wanted to go again and she said no. It turned into an argument and I went without her. I came home and she was upset and said I shouldn’t have left her and I should know to follow up with her and I should know that she would want to go and I shouldn’t have taken no for an answer. It got more heated and she told me she was taking care of my kid while I was playing softball (which she offered to take her to the meeting so I could go) and having fun. She said she takes care of all of us and I don’t take care of her heart. She told Me I should go marry my friends and my whiskey bottle. She says we don’t have meaningful conversations that are fulfilling and we no longer have any spark in our intimacy. She yelled for me to get out of her face during the course of our fight, which I did and then told me I don’t know when to console her when she is crying and just needs a hug. She went to bed in the other room and I did too. I woke up the next morning with a note saying I needed to get my necessities and leave. A few hours later, I sent her a text wishing her a happy Mother’s Day even though I wasn’t sure where we stood. She sarcastically told me that saying it through a text means so much more… I came home and she told me that I blew it by not calling her to wish her a happy Mother’s Day and not taking her to the friends birthday party was so much more damaging than I realize and would be the cause of our demise. She’s told me that all of the people in her life have hurt her and I have hurt her the worst and now she wants to be alone. Our last big fight, she brought our divorce papers and I told her if she ever mentioned divorce again, I would do it because the threat of divorce during an argument gives me extreme anxiety and makes it feel like we can never have a bad argument without it turning to divorce. I went to my counselor and she recommended marriage counseling (again) but said to offer it as a way to find out if we are right for each other or wrong or just the next step. My wife said no thanks. Is there just too much damage?
TL;DR. I drank a lot and said hurtful things. Paired together with her own experiences, I fear I may have caused too much damage to repair.

hi, im a 19(F) who in the past year has dealt with two ghosters who used to be my irl friends, but slowly begun to dislike me overtime for some reason - for this first ghoster, we will call them Apple and for the second ghoster, we will call her Banana for privacy reasons
so let’s start with Apple. i’ve been friends with Apple for 7 years (middle school-high school) and while we weren’t close close because of our different interests, we’ve gotten each other thoughtful and meaningful birthday gifts and talked on social media a lot — when we were seniors in high school, which was last year, after our winter break they had begun to ignore me on social media - we still saw each other irl so i thought nothing of it, but i still felt some sort of loneliness and lack of closeness from them. in may (last year) when we graduated, apple was still ignoring my messages so i decided to only text them every few months as to not bother them - around oct, i had checked one of our social media to see that they soft blocked me, and i assumed they had done so in the middle of summer sometime. they had also gotten into new interests within that time, something i actually knew about so that we could’ve had a convo - it never happened.
in nov, i had asked one of their friends if she knew how apple was doing, and the friend didn’t feel comfortable telling me (which i respected) so then on thanksgiving, i messaged apple for closure and an explanation in hopes of finally getting a response - still nothing. apple was even online, and completely ignoring and ghosting me. it really hurt me.
things soon took an invasive turn. in december, i had continued to respectfully ask apple’s other friends if they knew anything about apple ghosting me. they said no. i even offered to give one of them context via my text messages with apple, which i know now was a complete inappropriate move on my part, because even if i didn’t actually send them, i still considered sending them, which is wrong. i was desperate to find out the truth. apple unfriended me on social media for talking with their friend, but didn’t completely block me yet.
in mid january, our friendship ended. i was still feeling desperate and needing to know why apple ghosted me. so i messaged another one of their friends to ask if they knew anything about me being ghosted (i did not send anything personal). the friend had no idea but told me that they would show apple our conversation.
(i also put apple in my dni on my new social media account, made a sarcastic comment abt them ghosting me but also allowing them to message me if they wanted. i was feeling spiteful and annoyed at the time)
i soon got an angry, harsh message from apple.
the message was basically that i lost the right to know why they stopped talking to me (remember this for later), disrespected apple for wanting to share our personal information and relentlessly bothering their friends. (i do agree on that part and it is my fault, although i was very respectful when they all said they had no idea and i apologized to them all) — apple also said they didn’t ghost themselves from me, but rather distanced themselves from me — as they said, i agree that’s completely fine and normal - however, it becomes a problem when you don’t say you’re going to distance yourself from said person, because apple still had me added on other social media before that day, and apple gave me a heartfelt message in our yearbook (but I actually never got to write in theirs) - so ofc i got mixed signals
anyways, apple basically told me to get a life off my phone and that they will never contact me again. okay, i accept that (except the ‘go touch grass’ part that was uncalled for, but it was the heat of the moment so i understand their anger) — now, remember the ‘lost the right to know why i stopped talking to you’? - apple constricted themselves a few sentences later saying that they didn’t want to make a big deal ending a backboned friendship (of 7 years, mind you!), which im assuming implies that they never valued our friendship as much as i did. (ofc sometimes our friendship was rocky at times, but i always apologized in the end.)
one thing that makes me mad abt the message is that apple never took responsibility for their actions that begun all of this, never once replying to my messages and even knowing how much i was hurting from the closure message i sent them two months ago, they did not care about my feelings in the slightest - i know they said they would never contact me again, but at least think of the happy memories we had once before and once you’ve come down from your anger, take the responsibility as i did. but i guess i wasn’t worth it.
afterwards, i ended up breaking down and crying a few days later because the deserved hurtful message really made me feeling upset for weeks - I even vented to my own friends about the whole situation but idk i feel like some of them didn’t really care or just got annoyed with me because i did the invasive thing and probably still are so i felt like i couldn’t talk about my own feelings with anyone and take in my sadness alone
it’s been a few months since then so i’ve moved on from my first ghoster and i still don’t have many irl friends to this day, but i do wish them the best, even if we ended on a sour note. i’d say we were both at fault here, and it could’ve worked out had we just communicated and talk it out. but i suppose we’re better off and maybe we were just too toxic for one another. i am still sorry for everything that went wrong. i can only hope my first ghoster is too, deep down.
now to you all, i’ve told you mainly everything that happened without leaving any important details out. i wanted to share my mistakes with you and not keep it in the dark, because it’s important to own up to them. ik im just a throwaway account here, but i hope you can see where i was coming from, even if it was an unconventional method. i am sorry. i would really appreciate it if you guys don’t entirely focus on that part, but if you need to, i understand.
part 2 regarding my second ghoster will be up in a few days. if you’ve read this far, thank you very much. it felt good getting my feelings out to this community, i just hope you all will be understanding that. i may still make mistakes from time to time, but i will learn from them with each passing day. thank you.

Basic Info:
Name: Elliana Frostfire Gender: Female Godrent: Khione Age: 13 Sexuality: Bisexual
Appearance:
Height: 5'6
Weight: 123 lbs
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Icy blue
Skin Color: Pale
Personality:
Elliana is reserved, sarcastic, friendly, and stubborn. She gets angry when you ask about her personal life sometimes. She is also sarcastic on a daily basis. She hates her mother.
Favorite Things:
Food: Ice cream and snow cones
Drink: Anything with over 5 ice cubes
Media: Anything sci-fi
Powers:
Air and Wind Manipulation (Domain)
Weather Camoflauge (Domain)
Weather Prediction (Domain)
Ice Manipulation (Minor)
Quebecois French Fluency (Minor)
Temperature Resistance (Minor)
Offensive Ice Weapon Manifestation (Major)
History:
Elliana was born in Colorado to Eric Frostfire. She went to school peacefully until she was almost 13, where she was attacked by a ventus when she ditched a math class. Her father then went on a plane with her to New York, and now here she is. She was given a gray tabby kitten for her 8th birthday, which she named Frosty and brought with her to Camp Half-Blood

The last 9 mother's Days have sucked. My husband- 38m and I -34f have been married for 15 years. For the first three years I received gifts and outings and appreciation. Slowly, over the years I have received lesser gifts and appreciation. 6 years ago, he cheated on me on mother's Day. When he came home and told me, it was in front of his mother and sister. Last year, we were on the way out to lunch and discovered that the car we had just bought had a dead battery. We walked down to Subway, it wasn't too far. He bought another car on carvana while we were waiting for food. He let me know that these cars are not mine and that I would still have to pay for at least one of them. I make $200 a week on DoorDash so it shouldn't be a big deal but it really feels like paying rent. I feel like he allows me to drive this car and live in his house. He tells me consistently every mother's Day that I'm not really worth it, but he does it because he wants to make me happy. He doesn't say it like that but I know what he means. This year, he came home at 2:00 a.m. which is pretty standard for him. As I was already up, I decided to walk into the living room. He said" I have a question, when was the last time you gave me a BJ?" I responded with" Happy mother's Day. Give me a BJ" sarcastically. To which he responded" You're killing our relationship and damaging our sex with your feminist BS" and we argued back and forth about how BJ's do not represent feminism or anti-feminism . He told me that I don't respect him and I ask him why he thinks BJ's represent respect. He had no response and just continued yelling at me somewhat incoherently. I told him while he was getting in the shower that I need to breathe. So I'm going to play a game in the office. I came back when he was asleep. I have been high anxiety all day because I knew that he was just going to subtly jab at me all day. And he did. We went to the gym and then to tropical smoothie. I made no decisions and was asked nothing. I felt like I had to mitigate his emotions the entire day. It was very on edge. I asked him what he had planned, he told me he didn't know because he was depressed. I want to make it clear that we had sex last week. Multiple times. As per the usual for the last 9 years, he basically told me I wasn't worth it and he didn't like spending money on me. I also want to make clear that I did not request to go to tropical smoothie. I suggested that we stay home and watch movies and he could cook. I really like his cooking and he's good at it. I even suggested that we could cook together. He said he did not want to that he had to take me out. I suggested that we go to a cheap place , he turned that down. I want to make it. Also very clear that I felt that if I had said no to going out at all, he would have thrown an absolute fit and I would have been yelled at for the rest of the day. Probably would have continued till tomorrow. He has always done this on holidays. If the Attention is not fully on him, he will throw a fit. This was proven at a really good friend's birthday dinner. Recently. He didn't get any attention and instead decided to put his hands around my throat and force my face in his direction and when I startedly asked him WTF? He acted like I was the villain. It was an extremely childish thing to do. I have long suspected that my husband is a narcissist and reading the other post on here specifically about today, I feel vindicated and validated. I am scared of him. He has physically hurt me before he will do it again. I am not in a financial situation to leave but I have to. I know that. Mother's Day is always really hard because it's not focused on him.
Update: today has been extremely tense. We started the day off calm but still shaking. I have been extremely anxious all morning. It has been raining so I didn't go out for work today. I thought we might watch movies and relax for the day drinking hot chocolate and tea. I asked him if you wanted to watch a movie, He yelled at me" No. I want to f***." He then slammed a door and got in the shower. I did not know what was about to happen so I went outside on our covered back porch and when he came out of the shower he began packing things and telling me he was going to leave. He came back in a few times after taking his things back and forth to the car. He told me that he wanted to divorce because I am not affectionate enough. I told him that if you wanted a divorce that's fine but we need to talk about it when everything comes down. I want to make it clear that I in no way shape or form encouraged him to stay or prevented him from leaving. I had done that in the past and it only escalated things. I sort of just stood around the house to make sure he wasn't destroying objects or hurting the dogs. He walked out, put his things in the car, came back in and told me he wanted to talk. It was not a good talk. I told him that if he wanted a divorce and uncontested divorce is much cheaper and we still have to talk about custody of our 12-year-old. He then sat in the bedroom for about 30 minutes and then came out and said" I don't want a divorce but I'm not going to beg you for attention and affection anymore. I will just find it somewhere else." I told him that I do not control his body and have no intention of doing so. And if he wants to do that, that's fine. I did not tell him that I have been planning to divorce him for the last five years. I simply lack the financial stability to do so. He is now gone and I have texted a friend to come keep me company. I will not say that I am not scared for when he comes back but he did take his work clothes with him. So I surmise that he will not be back today. I assume he is going to the gym and then probably will contact his Long time" friend" Ally. They have always had feelings for each other and I have always known. If anyone was wondering, it does not hurt me anymore. There are worse things than private parts smashing together. And I am still planning to leave
Update number two: so I'm going to try to keep this as brief as possible. He was taking a bath. I went in to talk to him, he basically told me he wants to move other women in so he can have sex with them instead of me and I told him that I didn't want that around my child. So he's going to have to give me some months to get the funds to move out. Out. And in the meantime he can do whatever he wants. He basically told me that it was going to happen one way or the other. Now I am faced with having to tell my son that I have to move out immediately because I don't want to be here when he's with other women in that way.

For context, I'm a working student with a very good salary and my family is well off so money is not an issue for us. I'm the type to give more than receive so I tend to libre small things like drinks, foods, etc when I can.
Early today, I went shopping with my brother. Usually, we shop once a week pra sa mga merienda o anong mga bagay na kailangan namin. I try naman to keep within a budget na reasonable.
I bumped into one of my friends sa mall. Syempre, I was happy to see her kase magandang siyang kausapin at sasamahin. I invited "Mae" to join me and my brother if hindi siya busy and she accepted. I bought some more stuff and as time went on, na notice ko na parang snappy at sarcastic yung mga comments ni Mae. For ex, tanong ko: 'Should I buy the shirts, the pants, or one of each para one outfit siya together?' and reply: 'Bat mo ako tanungin? Hindi naman akong may pera dito.'
Akala ko joke kasi I didn't think she would be mean to me, friends naman kami eh! Over time, I felt very concious sa iya and decided to sit down at a random cafe. Again, I invited her ans she accepted.
Hindi ko alam kung anong ginawa ko pero sabi ko kay Mae na magoorder siya whatever she likes kasi libre ko na, after all she walked around with us for many hours na. She turned to me and went quiet. Then, sabi niya: "Ang tanga mo talaga, hindi mo ba iniisip pera mo? Ang grabe mo magspend, meron tao dito na walang bahay ay ganyan ganyan ka." (nonverbatim cause I forgot some of what she said.)
I tried to defend myself but I got her point. I tried to mediate pero she ignored me as she finished her drink and left without a word. The whole time sa cafe, sa car at kahit ngayon, iniisip ko ang nangyare.
I feel na gago ako kasi insensitive ako sa friend ko at ginagamit ko yung pera in a negative way.
________________________ UPDATE ________________________
Hello everyone! First of all, thanks for the advice on my previous post! There were a lot of insightful comments that helped me this morning. Thank you all so much! TL;DR at the bottom.
— Some FAQ: - Baka inggit lang siya? I'm not sure. In my opinion and perspective, she's doing okay financially. Palaging siyang nagpopost sa Insta so akala ko okay lahat. Assuming lang ako rn. - Baka akala niya ililibre mo sa shopping? I don't think so. Pala libre ako pero sa mga pagkain/drinks o commute lang. Wala ako track record mag libre sng mga damit o gamit unless birthday ng mga kaibigan ko (in a form of a gift). - Nilibre mo ba ang drink? Yes, almost 4hrs ang non-stop shopping namin without rest/sitting. I felt bad since taxing nga sakin and I invited her. I also hoped na she would open up if she rested and had a drink.
— Here's the update: As soon as I entered my classroom, one of my best friends, "Vic" told me that Mae and "Anne" didn't come to school. Anne is part of our COF na friend ni Mae since high school, and was also the one to introduce Mae to us. Sinabi ni Vic na may nangyari kay Mae at pupunta si Anne kasi need niya ng support.
Akala ko its because of what happened sa mall, so I panicked a little and message the both of them asking if they need help saamin (our COF). Walang reply sa kanilang dalawa pero naseen messgaes ko. They replied to some others sa group, but not to me, which made me think na its really me yung rason.
Around lunch, my COF and I were eating at a carinderia. Biglang pinakita ni Vic yung message niya from Anne which was "huwag mo siya pansinin kay masamang akong tao nyan." Syempre, I revealed the story. I even showed them the reddit post! They were very understanding naman and told me na baka masamang loob ni Mae, that's why she did that. We talked about it and decided na we will invite Mae and Anne to a cafe around 2pm (as we all done with classes by that time). Of course, they accepted since they ommitted na I will be there as well.
I guess they were expecting that I would be there since they came in really angry and silent. l explained my side, telling them everything I knew. Mae didn't answer for a while but it was revealed that Mae was meeting with a guy we know "Juan". Apparently, Juan and Mae were katalking stage and yesterday was their trial date. Unfortunately, by the end of the date, Juan rejected her and told her na he likes me and wishes to pursue me. No idea why as we are not close and I've never talked to him beyond "hi" at "hello."
Coincidentally, she met me at the mall and, when I invited her, she took it as a chance to ask me about him but didn't have the chance to. When I asked her why was she so mean to me yesterday, she replied "Akala ko alam mo na nireject niya ako at pinapakita mo sakin na nanalo ka." ??? what???
I told her na I'm not even friends with him on any socmed. I even showed her my messages with him since freshie years of us sharing greetings: "Hbd, Mxmax, congrats, etc." as classmates do. She apologized and Anne did too.
Safe to say, I'll be treating them as acquaintances in the future :// Genuinely feel so weird right now but I have good friends with me right now (sa bahay) and will try to sort my feelings with their help.
TL;DR: Mae met Juan (a guy we know) at the mall and she got rejected because Juan likes me and wanted to pursue me. She thought I knew/orchestrated everything and asummed I was showing off that I won. I'm not close to Juan, at all.

I need to know, and this is a throwaway for reasons that will soon be clear. I cannot risk my family or classmates finding this post, although my parents will recognize this easily.
The reason I ask is because I want to mention two situations very quickly while I have time. On Christmas, after opening presents, my dad came back home in a bad mood and called me to clean the dog, and I shouted "Yeah?" when called like ALWAYS before. He demanded "Yes, dad" and when I questioned why, he got mad and pulled me, and I shouted "Merry Christmas" sarcasticly as I found the situation hilarious in some twisted way. He then took all my devices and demanded an apology, and when I pointed out the randomness, he said he tolerated the disrespect all this time. He said just because its Jesus's birthday doesn't mean anything special, which is absolutely wild to me (This may be personal but I believe Jesus is the one taking care of me in these situations)
I spent the day sleeping, going on one device they secretly forgot to confiscate, and doing chores, and eventually my dad said I was not allowed to sleep until I apologized. I pulled an all nighter two weeks before for a school project, and considering I got 18 hours of sleep that day, I agreed. My mother forced me to apologize at like one in the morning as I was gonna get hit if I didn't, and my dad reminded me that we aren't equals and that I better listen. I was also prohibited from going bowling with my friends three days later, but at least I got my stuff back that day, although I find myself dreading Christmas this year. On the bright side, I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up until five in the morning online on that device watching YouTube and scrolling Twitter and Reddit, which is a very fond memory of mine now given the peace and quiet. But was I justified or should I have apologized?
That in combination with the events of 2023 after I turned 15 absolutely destroyed my mental health, so yesterday (May 11) I didn't want my 16th birthday to be celebrated. I never shared this reason because previous attempts failed miserably, as they are the type of people who can NEVER accept they are in the wrong, although I told my parents I didn't want anything the week before, but I was told I had to given that I was leaving soon. My parents came in at midnight singing Happy Birthday but I wasn't having it, so I asked them to leave me alone and said I didn't like the singing. Not even three minutes after I turn 16 my dad slaps the back of my head sending me to the floor, saying I made mom breakdown crying, taking all my devices and saying I was grounded indefinitely, and to immediately brush my teeth and go to sleep.
As I was going to bed, he called me a narcissist and said he has two years to fix me. I find it ironic given three days ago they admitted in an argument that they were trying to mold me according to THEIR values, and painted themselves as victims of me, my teenage brain, and outside influence like the internet and school. He demanded to be called sir (I KNOW he got that idea from Young Sheldon as he seemed to enjoy that scene like a kid watching Cocomelon, and he said in near verbatim what was said on the show) and to not speak so I don't "spew more hate," and to clean my room.
So today several 100+ day streaks on Snapchat died, and I assume they found my private messages of me venting to my best friend as privacy is a privilege and not a right, and I am lucky I am allowed to close my door, so I probably am stuck on this device again for a while, unless it is confiscated too (they will recognize me if they see this post)
I was not allowed to attend a mandatory orientation for my summer job, so unless I go on the 24th I am done. They always hold things like that and friend gatherings over my head while talking about how they are so much better than their parents. I also gotta hope nobody misses me or brings up my birthday, as now I am dreading 17 and lying when asked how my birthday was. I am also not allowed to sleep until I am granted permission each night.
I don't plan on caring much for mother's day, and if I still am for whatever reason faced with a cake as promised it will take all my self control not to yeet it off the table. I wanna know if I'm a bad person, they are, or the three of us are.
And also, when I grow up I wanna travel on my birthday and Christmas on my own to make up for lost time. If I am innocent, got any suggestions? God bless you all, and if my parents are reading, I am bound to escape one day.

Good evening entitledparents. You may remember me from that time my mother tried to push me towards an elective c-section. You do not have to go back to that post to understand this one, however since then, my parents have made amends with me. Our renewed relationship was going so well that I decided to take myself and my now four-month-old daughter on a trip down to Sydney for a visit. As I'm back on this sub, I'm sure you already know that this was a big fucking mistake.
Aside from seeing my parents, I was looking forward to having a break from regional Queensland. I had hoped to watch the world go by at Cremorne Point with my baby one day, or maybe grab a burger at whatever new joint my youngest brother had found, and maybe do some shopping. Well I will be doing none of that as no one under the age of 55 is insured to drive my parent's car, making me somewhat housebound. That's fine, I should have asked before coming and maybe hired a car myself, so I'll take the L on that one. I figured that my daughter and I could just spend some quality time with my family at home instead... Or maybe that would have been possible if my parents didn't insist on watching every single fucking NRL game every single fucking night. And we can't even be in the same room as them while they do that because their two dogs cannot possibly rough it outside, so for my daughter to have a little kick around on her play gym, she and I need to relegate ourselves into a separate room.
I was feeling a little low about all of this until today - Mother's Day - my first one ever. And now I feel miserable and full of regret for having come at all. My mother and my Nanna were gifted with bottles of wine and flowers. I received nothing. My daughter, however, received so many gifts you would have thought it was her first birthday. I was forgotten and told "oh, I didn't even realise it was your first mother's day!!" Despite this, I was determined to remain in good spirits so I put my daughter in her pram so that she'd have a seat while she watched some Disney and I could get myself a glass of wine. Whilst strapping her in, my brother (who lives 5 minutes away and who heard me have a full conversation with my mum about Disney for baby and wine for me) decided that the basketball was more important and I was met with "oh, maybe your baby will like basketball instead, she can watch Disney tomorrow" (as if we are moving in permanently with them and not just here for a week). I have had zero control of that TV since arriving 4 days ago and this was the one time I wanted to give her just a little screen time, and she loves it every now and again too. Listening to her laugh and gurgle at the Jungle Book is the cutest thing in the world... And she was denied of that one small luxury before the real bullshit of the day commenced.
After the extended family arrived, they played every new mother's favourite game of "pass the baby". But as lunch was served, the new favourite toy was forgotten on her playmat, only to be discovered by my four-year-old cousin (not being watched by my aunt) who immediately dropped an ipad on her head. I'd barely eaten any lunch when I had to go and rescue her. It had been three hours and I'd barely had time to eat, use the toilet or have a sip of water because I was so busy fussing over my baby. During this time, barely anyone aside from my brother and aunt spoke to me. Everyone else had a lovely time drinking champagne and catching up as if it was their first time seeing family in 2 years...
Once everyone had left, the NRL went back on, I tended to my daughter and got her ready for bed. Once she was down for the evening, I came into the kitchen to realise that there would be no chance of dinner as everyone else in the house had decided that they "had enough food at lunch". At this point, I confronted everyone remaining and was met with the most absolutely obtuse response from my father who sarcastically told me that he'd just cancel my brother's birthday dinner to make up for everything. After pointing this out to him, he declared that he felt sick and left for bed. My mum stayed up with me and got me some wine, which was nice, but it doesn't un-fuck my first mothers day and it doesn't un-drop an ipad on my daughter's head.
So my lesson has been learned. I will never be coming back here and I will never be spending another event with this side of the family ever again. If they want to see their granddaughter or me again, they can come out to the sticks in Queensland.

I need to know, and this is a throwaway for reasons that will soon be clear. I cannot risk my family or classmates finding this post, although my parents will recognize this easily.
The reason I ask is because I want to mention two situations very quickly while I have time. On Christmas, after opening presents, my dad came back home in a bad mood and called me to clean the dog, and I shouted "Yeah?" when called like ALWAYS before. He demanded "Yes, dad" and when I questioned why, he got mad and pulled me, and I shouted "Merry Christmas" sarcasticly as I found the situation hilarious in some twisted way. He then took all my devices and demanded an apology, and when I pointed out the randomness, he said he tolerated the disrespect all this time. He said just because its Jesus's birthday doesn't mean anything special, which is absolutely wild to me (This may be personal but I believe Jesus is the one taking care of me in these situations)
I spent the day sleeping, going on one device they secretly forgot to confiscate, and doing chores, and eventually my dad said I was not allowed to sleep until I apologized. I pulled an all nighter two weeks before for a school project, and considering I got 18 hours of sleep that day, I agreed. My mother forced me to apologize at like one in the morning as I was gonna get hit if I didn't, and my dad reminded me that we aren't equals and that I better listen. I was also prohibited from going bowling with my friends three days later, but at least I got my stuff back that day, although I find myself dreading Christmas this year. On the bright side, I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up until five in the morning online on that device watching YouTube and scrolling Twitter and Reddit, which is a very fond memory of mine now given the peace and quiet. But was I justified or should I have apologized?
That in combination with the events of 2023 after I turned 15 absolutely destroyed my mental health, so yesterday (May 11) I didn't want my 16th birthday to be celebrated. I never shared this reason because previous attempts failed miserably, as they are the type of people who can NEVER accept they are in the wrong, although I told my parents I didn't want anything the week before, but I was told I had to given that I was leaving soon. My parents came in at midnight singing Happy Birthday but I wasn't having it, so I asked them to leave me alone and said I didn't like the singing. Not even three minutes after I turn 16 my dad slaps the back of my head sending me to the floor, saying I made mom breakdown crying, taking all my devices and saying I was grounded indefinitely, and to immediately brush my teeth and go to sleep.
As I was going to bed, he called me a narcissist and said he has two years to fix me. I find it ironic given three days ago they admitted in an argument that they were trying to mold me according to THEIR values, and painted themselves as victims of me, my teenage brain, and outside influence like the internet and school. He demanded to be called sir (I KNOW he got that idea from Young Sheldon as he seemed to enjoy that scene like a kid watching Cocomelon, and he said in near verbatim what was said on the show) and to not speak so I don't "spew more hate," and to clean my room.
So today several 100+ day streaks on Snapchat died, and I assume they found my private messages of me venting to my best friend as privacy is a privilege and not a right, and I am lucky I am allowed to close my door, so I probably am stuck on this device again for a while, unless it is confiscated too (they will recognize me if they see this post)
I was not allowed to attend a mandatory orientation for my summer job, so unless I go on the 24th I am done. They always hold things like that and friend gatherings over my head while talking about how they are so much better than their parents. I also gotta hope nobody misses me or brings up my birthday, as now I am dreading 17 and lying when asked how my birthday was. I am also not allowed to sleep until I am granted permission each night.
I don't plan on caring much for mother's day, and if I still am for whatever reason faced with a cake as promised it will take all my self control not to yeet it off the table. I wanna know if I'm a bad person, they are, or the three of us are.
And also, when I grow up I wanna travel on my birthday and Christmas on my own to make up for lost time. If I am innocent, got any suggestions? God bless you all, and if my parents are reading, I am bound to escape one day.

I met my ex bf online in February 2023. We went hot and heavy for the first four months. Nonstop seeing each other every day. Very active sex life. Now, after this many months of a very active sex life, things slowed. We still hang out. We just don’t have sex as much. I’m was ok with that. I enjoy his company even if we didn’t have as much sex. During these months, I spoiled him with gifts and bought him many gifts. Which included a mattress because his bed is so uncomfortable. That doesn’t include all the candles and towels, and all these things that men just don’t think about that they need in their house. I knew that something was up when we had sex and he smelled differently “down there.” During this time, and being intimate you learn a persons sent. I knew something was up. I walked in the kitchen then the coffee on the counter ( he doesn’t drink coffee) and dishes in the sink made me realize he had had a someone there that morning. I knew right away he had cheated on me. I just let it go. Only making sarcastic remarks about it.
It was getting close to Christmas. I had not talk to him in weeks or even seen him in several months He calls me asking me to come over. He knows that at Christmas time I get a very large bonus from my job. He knows that when we were together, I offered to give him part of that money for a truck that he wanted to get. Now he wants me back in his life. But I don’t want a relationship with him now, because of him cheating, and later admitted that there were actually two other women.
For the next couple of weeks, we were going hot and heavy again, and I knew that’s what it was.
To make this very long story, a little shorter, I’ll cut to the chase. we hooked up one last time. And in the middle of everything he stops and whispers in my ear. You’re gonna give me that money, you hear me? The next morning I left and I didn’t talk to him again.
Just to get back at him for playing with my heart and my emotions, and being so unappreciative of the things that he got during our relationship. I decided to send him a present for his birthday.
I bought a card. It was a musical card that played the most annoying music ever. Once the music started, it would not stop until the battery died. At least 12 hours of continuous music annoying loud obnoxious. If the card is destroyed to stop the music it will deploy about, 3 ounces of ultrafine glitter into the air. Inside the card I put $1000 of prop money just to put a knife into the wound. But the best part of all was returning his blanket. I unfolded it, poured glitter onto it, folded. Folded and repeat. The glitter fill blanket into a hot pink floral scented garbage bag. I left this on his doorstep.
He called me and cussed me out for the prop money. Never said anything about the glitter.
Just so you know, he still called me to come over. I finally blocked his number.

I need to know, and this is a throwaway for reasons that will soon be clear. I cannot risk my family or classmates finding this post
The reason I ask is because I want to mention two situations very quickly while I have time. On Christmas, after opening presents, my dad came back home in a bad mood and called me to clean the dog, and I shouted "Yeah?" when called like ALWAYS before. He demanded "Yes, dad" and when I questioned why, he got mad and pulled me, and I shouted "Merry Christmas" sarcasticly as I found the situation hilarious in some twisted way. He then took all my devices and demanded an apology, and when I pointed out the randomness, he said he tolerated the disrespect all this time. He said just because its Jesus's birthday doesn't mean anything special, which is absolutely wild to me (This may be personal but I believe Jesus is the one taking care of me in these situations)
I spent the day sleeping, going on one device they secretly forgot to confiscate, and doing chores, and eventually my dad said I was not allowed to sleep until I apologized. I pulled an all nighter two weeks before for a school project, and considering I got 18 hours of sleep that day, I agreed. My mother forced me to apologize at like one in the morning as I was gonna get hit if I didn't, and my dad reminded me that we aren't equals and that I better listen. I was also prohibited from going bowling with my friends three days later, but at least I got my stuff back that day, although I find myself dreading Christmas this year. On the bright side, I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up until five in the morning online on that device watching YouTube and scrolling Twitter and Reddit, which is a very fond memory of mine now given the peace and quiet. But was I justified or should I have apologized?
That in combination with the events of 2023 after I turned 15 absolutely destroyed my mental health, so yesterday (May 11) I didn't want my 16th birthday to be celebrated. I never shared this reason because previous attempts failed miserably, as they are the type of people who can NEVER accept they are in the wrong, although I told my parents I didn't want anything the week before, but I was told I had to given that I was leaving soon. My parents came in at midnight singing Happy Birthday but I wasn't having it, so I asked them to leave me alone and said I didn't like the singing. Not even three minutes after I turn 16 my dad slaps the back of my head sending me to the floor, saying I made mom breakdown crying, taking all my devices and saying I was grounded indefinitely, and to immediately brush my teeth and go to sleep.
As I was going to bed, he called me a narcissist and said he has two years to fix me. I find it ironic given three days ago they admitted in an argument that they were trying to mold me according to THEIR values, and painted themselves as victims of me, my teenage brain, and outside influence like the internet and school. He demanded to be called sir (I KNOW he got that idea from Young Sheldon as he seemed to enjoy that scene like a kid watching Cocomelon, and he said in near verbatim what was said on the show) and to not speak so I don't "spew more hate," and to clean my room.
So today several 100+ day streaks on Snapchat died, and I assume they found my private messages of me venting to my best friend as privacy is a privilege and not a right, and I am lucky I am allowed to close my door, so I probably am stuck on this device again for a while, unless it is confiscated too (they will recognize me if they see this post)
I was not allowed to attend a mandatory orientation for my summer job, so unless I go on the 24th I am done. They always hold things like that and friend gatherings over my head while talking about how they are so much better than their parents. I also gotta hope nobody misses me or brings up my birthday, as now I am dreading 17 and lying when asked how my birthday was. I am also not allowed to sleep until I am granted permission each night.
I don't plan on caring much for mother's day, and if I still am for whatever reason faced with a cake as promised it will take all my self control not to yeet it off the table. I wanna know if I'm a bad person, they are, or the three of us are.
And also, when I grow up I wanna travel on my birthday and Christmas on my own to make up for lost time. If I am innocent, got any suggestions? God bless you all, and if my parents are reading, I am bound to escape one day.

Show bible - The children’s deadly escape room.
As many children are kidnapped in a science museum from a 'failed' experiment, they don’t know where they are. All they know is that they were at a birthday party then they were dragged through a portal.
This story takes place in multiple episodes around the world. Some rooms take one child back in time to a horrible place.This place has a sinister,creepy but joke-like environment. At some places there may be dark humour,mainly near-death moments.
The theme is a dangerous environment and quick mental solving as it is a deadly escape room.
A few main characters are:
Heather Colldun - She is a joyful but smart person. She is a true asset to the team. She wears a purple top and a blue skirt. She likes big problems.
Aledime Slayer - A mean and sarcastic girl. Not everyone likes her. Her only friend is Violet Westre. She wears a green top with black trousers. She likes bullying.
Violet Westre - The actual leader of the escape rooms. A shy but very logical girl. A good liar. She wears a turquoise shirt and yellow skirt. She likes poems.
Lucas Tredness - A sports person. He comes in handy when a long run is needed. He wears a red tracksuit. He likes sports.
Lucy Extrel - A character with cancer who has daily medicine provided by the escape room who is friends with every kind person. She likes to wear a wig but everyone accepts her for not having hair. She wears a Green top with a lilac skirt. She likes art.
Season 1
The children (30 or 31) don’t know where they are. They have multiple of the same clothes to wear everyday they stay in the escape rooms. They are well-fed and have bunk beds to sleep on. The escape rooms have an uneasy feel to them. The children feel like they’re being watched (by the viewer) but the children don’t know they’re being watched.
Episode summary
Ep.1 Jump It!
The first episode/challenge of the show. The children are unsuspecting that it is dangerous until one kid dies by drowning. The children soon realise that it is truly serious. The escape room consists of a tube underwater that has a 5-number lock on it. Violet was the key for the escape this time.
Ep.2 Dangerous Dodgeball
In this episode some is revealed. Where is it set? How do they get their infinite food? This episode is set in a giant glass hall where the remaining kids play dodgeball. One character breaks the rules and finds a hidden room. This shows that it is set everywhere on the globe and the food supply is infinite.
Ep.3 Footie Football
In this episode, the kids play a game of murderous football where if the children cheat, they die. Creating a fair game of football. The losing team dies. Half of the children who are dead get replaced by sleeping children.
Ep.4 Malicious Mazes
Red - Instant death Yellow - 1 question
Purple - 2 questions Green - safe
Once a red tile is touched (or killed someone) then it is inactive so it can only kill one person. They can only move left, back, forward and right. It takes a long time to complete. Each question is a multiple choice.
Ep.5 Realistic Rodeo
In this episode, all the remaining and alive kids come to real life and face a problem in a school. It takes place at night at a high school where security guards will shoot anyone on sight, it is possible to lose them but it takes a while.
Ep.7 Assastionation Allowance
In this episode, the remaining children have to kill a target
For example: Violet Westre has a target on Aledime Slayer meanwhile Aledime has a target on Violet Westre. At this point only a few kids remain. The children seem to have had a target on their friends.
Possibly more. I'm not sure about more ideas.
The final episode - Freedom Fighters
In this episode the kids find the leader's base and battle's Violet and her guards. The episode ends with one of the kids getting out of a guard outfit and stabbing Violet with a dart from a dartboard from one of the rooms.
For example, it could be like:
Violet: Ha! I still HAVE a guard.
Heather: Don't be too sure, Violet Westre.
Violet: What do you mean? I have control of all the rules.
New shy kid: Well today, The rules are DIFFERENT!
He Stabs Violet.
Violet: Gah! Fine! I'll tell you about the room's origins! Okay? You *CENSOR*. So, there was one reason these exist. I made it... ah... to strengthen your abilities...
Heather: You killed SO many people!