Breaking Up Can Break You Up

(It’s 1992 and I am in 4th grade. A ‘friend’ of mine is very possessive of me, not allowing me to eat lunch with other children, play with them at recess, and forcing me to allow her copy my school work. She follows me everywhere, yells at me for not doing what she says, and pulls my hair if I ‘disobey’ her. I am an introvert, shy, and naive, and do not realize that she is a predatory bully. She’s in my class, my Girl Scout troop, and rides my bus. Eventually I am fed up with her abuse and decide to ‘break up’ with her at recess.)

Me: “I really think you need to do your own school work from now on.”

Friend: “Oh, really?”

Me: “Yeah, and I don’t want to sit with you at lunch or on the bus anymore. You’re really mean to me.”

Friend: “That’s not true. I’m your friend!”

Me: “You pull my hair and cheat off my test papers!”

Friend: “Well, no one else is your friend.”

Me: “Because you scare them away. You won’t let me even talk to other people. I don’t want to be your friend anymore.”

Friend: “Oh, well, too bad. I brought something for you today.”

Me: “You did?”

Friend: “Yeah, THIS!” *wraps her hands around my throat and starts choking me*

(I struggle against her, eventually pushing her to the ground.)

Me: *gasping for air* “I’m TELLING!”

(I told the recess monitors, but they didn’t believe me. I ended up spending every recess after that almost glued to the monitor’s side. At the end of the school year, we moved to Georgia. I had never been so happy to move in my life!)