Not Cosplaying Around Any More

(I manage to get a job with one of my friends in a gas station on the north end of town, which is where a lot of the weirdest people are. My friend is entirely too trusting, and becomes friends with one of the homeless guys, an older veteran who rarely ever bathes. The guy hangs out with her when she has to work the evening shift by herself. I somehow get talked out of my phone number as well. One day I get a random text. It is a picture of a girl taking a selfie in the bathroom, having just applied makeup and a wig, with a weird border obviously added by a program.)

Text: “Guess who this is?”

(I’m confused, because I don’t know who would send me a text like that, so I check the sender. It’s the veteran, and after staring at the picture I realize it’s of my friend cosplaying.)

Me: “Hey… [Friend]?”

Friend: “Yeah?”

Me: “Did you post any cosplaying pics on Facebook recently?”

Friend: “Oh, yeah. I was working on applying the right amount of makeup to look like [Character] and posted it to get opinions. Why?”

(I show her the message, and she goes slightly pale)

Friend: “Who did this?!”

Me: “[Veteran]. I take it he didn’t ask permission before probably sending this to every contact in his phone?”

Friend: *even paler* “No.”

Me: “And I imagine the picture didn’t have this weird border beforehand?”

Friend: *barely audible* “No.”

(Fast forward a couple hours, and the veteran drops by.)

Veteran: “Hey, [Friend]! How you doing?”

Friend: “Did you send my cosplay picture to all your friends?”

Veteran: *looking proud of himself* “Yes! I thought it was really pretty!”

Friend: “All of them?!”

Veteran: *catching on to her tone* “Uh… yes?”

(Long story short, he got lectured in the middle of the gas station while other customers looked on. Over the next few days all of his buddies showed up looking for my friend, several of them intoxicated and making not so nice comments about her, before they were kicked out!)