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Chapter 2

Author: Veggie Bunny
On the day Chelsea signed the lease, she took me out to dinner. It was a steakhouse, even pricier than the last place. She ordered half the menu and opened a bottle of wine.

"Kara, this one's for you!" She raised her glass, her face already flushed. "If it weren't for you, I never would've found such a great spot."

I clinked my glass against hers but did not drink. She did not seem to mind. She downed hers in one go, then grabbed my hand, and her eyes actually welled up.

"I wasn't always that nice to you back then, but you didn't hold a grudge, and you still helped me this much. You're stuck with me as a friend now!"

She "wasn't always that nice" to me. That was what she called it.

Drenching me with cold water was "not that nice." Locking me in a bathroom stall was "not that nice." Tearing up my homework in front of the whole class and calling me a loser for three straight years was "not that nice."

I took a sip of my wine. It was cold and a little bitter.

"If you ever need anything, just come to me," she said, thumping her chest. "Chelsea Ruddock isn't the type to forget who helped her!"

I nearly laughed.

She poured herself another glass. After finishing it, she slumped over the table and mumbled something under her breath. Her voice was quiet, but I heard every word.

"You never fought back anyway, so it probably didn't hurt that much."

My hand froze on my glass for two seconds.

…

The renovations took two weeks. On opening day, she sent me over a dozen messages, insisting that I come.

I stopped by around noon when it was less busy. There were over a dozen people lined up outside, mostly students from the school nearby.

She stood behind the register in a cat-ear headband, her makeup done to perfection. The moment she spotted me, she came around the counter, grabbed my hand and pulled me inside.

"Come on, come on, I saved the first cup for you! It's our signature coffee with extra cream, and I made it myself!"

She pressed the cup into my hand. It had a handwritten label on it that read "Kara's Special."

A few young girls nearby were watching, and one of them said, "Aww, you two are so close!"

Chelsea wrapped an arm around my shoulders and smiled sweetly. "Of course! We went to high school together. We've been best friends for over ten years!"

I took a sip of it.

"Well?" She watched me eagerly.

"It's good."

"Just good?" She pouted. "You're so picky."

I told her I was not and that it was great, then turned and left. On my way out the door, I glanced back. She was posing for a photo with a new customer, beaming, her chin held high.

I had seen that look countless times. It was the same look she wore whenever she was stepping on someone else.

She really did make money that first month. She posted five or six times a day on Instagram, showing off her sales, the lines and herself ringing up customers. Every post had a location tag and a heart emoji.

She even made a post just to thank me, along with a photo of the two of us. In the picture, she had her arm hooked around my neck while I stared blankly at the camera, but her caption read, [Huge thanks to my old friend Kara Westbrook! I wouldn't be where I am today without you.]

It was then followed by a row of rose emojis.

Mia Brenner came across the post and showed it to me. "Kara, is that the space she's talking about?"

"Mm-hmm."

"That space..." Mia paused. "Didn't you say there was something wrong with it?"

I looked at the post. Chelsea had already traded over 20 comments with people underneath, every one of them saying something like, [Come grab a drink and mention my name for a discount!]

"If I told her now, she wouldn't believe me," I said.

"So when are you going to tell her..."

"She'll figure it out on her own."

Mia glanced at me and did not ask anything else.

In the second month, business started to drop. Weekend sales went from 400 cups down to just over 200, and then weekdays fell from over 100 cups to around 70 or 80. She explained on Instagram that it was too hot and nobody wanted to go out, and that things would pick up in a few days.

In the third month, sales dropped even harder. She started messaging me constantly.

[Kara, do you think it's because I'm not on the delivery apps?]

[Kara, a new coffee place just opened next door, and they're two dollars cheaper. Are they doing it on purpose?]

[Kara, I did the books this month and I lost over 3,000 dollars. I'm losing my mind!]

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  • I Said Yes to My Bully   Chapter 9

    After Mrs. Ruddock left, I sat behind the register for a long time. Mia had the day off, so I was alone in the shop. It was raining outside, and there were no customers. The lights cast a warm yellow glow over everything.I set the jar of pickles in the corner of the counter and stared at it for a while. Then I picked up my phone and opened my messages with Chelsea.The last one was still [You're really ruthless, you know that?], sent a while back. I scrolled up a few pages and saw the messages she used to send.[Kara, we broke 4,000 dollars in sales today! Dinner's on me!][Kara Kara Kara! Get over here, I want to make you our signature drink!][Hey, Westbrook, do you think I should add something new to the menu next month?]Every one of them ended with an exclamation point, and every one of them was so warm and familiar that it seemed like we really were close friends.Yet when I scrolled further up, back before May, our chat history was blank. It was completely empty, not bec

  • I Said Yes to My Bully   Chapter 8

    On the last day of November, it rained. It was not heavy, just a light, steady drizzle that tapped against the windows as if tickling the glass.That day, someone I never expected walked into my shop. It was Chelsea's mother.I did not recognize her when she pushed open the door. I had only seen her once before, at a parent-teacher conference in high school. Back then, she had been decked out in gold jewelry, sitting off to the side and chatting with the other parents so loudly that the whole floor could hear her.The woman in front of me now was thinner and older, and most of her hair had gone gray. She wore a faded windbreaker that had been washed too many times, and she was carrying a plastic bag."Kara?" She stood in the doorway, her voice a little timid.I looked at her and did not move."Mrs. Ruddock," I said.She let out a sigh of relief, came inside and stopped in front of the register. She set the plastic bag down on the counter."These are homemade pickles. You used t

  • I Said Yes to My Bully   Chapter 7

    Another month went by, and Chelsea's name all but disappeared from my life.I did not unfollow her on Instagram, but I muted her posts and hid mine from her. I did not keep her there out of any lingering affection. Unfollowing her would have meant I cared, and I could not be bothered to prove that I cared.Mia said that way of thinking was a little twisted. I told her she was right, I was twisted. Those three years had bent me out of shape, and there was no straightening me back out."Don't say that," she said."It's the truth," I said.One day near the end of the month, business was slow, so I sat behind the register scrolling on my phone. A text suddenly came in from Tina.Tina had been in my class in high school. She was not one of the bullies, but she was not an innocent bystander either. She was the type who never wanted to get on anyone's bad side. She got along with everyone and was close with no one.[Kara, did you hear? Chelsea's shop closed.][Yeah, I heard.][Sounds

  • I Said Yes to My Bully   Chapter 6

    As I listened to her, I suddenly laughed."Chelsea, you think I've been holding a grudge for ten years?""Haven't you?""Then let me ask you something.""Go ahead.""In those ten years, was there a single day you ever thought about what you did to me?"The line went silent."Did you ever once wonder whether the girl you drenched with cold water got sick afterward? Whether she had nightmares? Whether she was too scared to go to school?"She still said nothing."You didn't," I said. "Not for a single day. To you, it was all small stuff. Once it was over, it was over. You forgot about it, so you figured the whole world would forget about it too.""That's not—""It is."I cut her off. My voice was not loud, but it was steady."If you really thought you'd done something wrong, the first thing you'd have said when you came to me was 'I'm sorry,' not 'Can you help me?' That's who you are, Chelsea. That's who you were ten years ago, and that's who you still are now."I heard snif

  • I Said Yes to My Bully   Chapter 5

    For the next week, Chelsea did not come looking for me. Her Instagram went quiet too. She stopped posting her sales numbers and photos of the line, and she did not even post selfies anymoreOnce in a while, her profile picture popped up on my feed, so I tapped on it to take a look. She had changed it to a solid black square, but her bio was the same. It still read "Coffee Shop Owner."Mia said she followed Chelsea and could see what she was posting."It looks like she let her staff go," Mia said. "Now she's running the shop by herself every day, from nine in the morning to ten at night.""How do you know?""She posted a photo of the prep counter with the caption 'Gotta keep going, even if it's just me.' She deleted it three minutes later."I said nothing."Someone commented asking what was wrong, but she never replied," Mia added."Do you think I went too far?" I asked suddenly.Mia paused, then shook her head. "Kara, did you know I was bullied in high school too?"I said not

  • I Said Yes to My Bully   Chapter 4

    I looked Chelsea in the eye and said it slowly, one word at a time."The second week of freshman year, you hid my gym clothes in the boys' bathroom. I spent an entire class period looking for them and, in the end, the PE teacher had to go in and get them for me. You stood there watching, and you laughed the loudest."She stopped crying and glared straight at me."That winter in sophomore year, you told me to cover your cleanup duty. I said I had tutoring, so you made me stand in front of the whole class for an entire period. The next day, someone had written 'loser' across my desk in marker. It was your friends who did it."Her lips moved, but no sound came out."That December, you cornered me in the bathroom and dumped a whole bucket of cold water over my head. It was below freezing, and I sat shivering in soaking wet clothes for three periods."That afternoon, I was sent home with a high fever. My mom went to the school to talk to your dad afterward, and he paid her 200 dollars

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