30 Day Writing Challenge 2 - 4/6/16: Villain

Have you ever been the villain of a story-- not just being accused of being the bad guy but actually starring in the role? Have you ever been truly, deliberately cruel to someone ... and how did you feel afterwards?

It is not a great feeling, let me assure you.

I own up to the fact that I'm not exactly the most friendly, outgoing person you'll meet. Even in my early years, I tended to be a bit standoffish and aloof. As life moved on and knocked me around a bit, I became even more guarded and selective about who I let behind the velvet ropes. I wanted only to be accepted and loved for the strange wee lass that I was. 

And then came someone who may have been willing to try just that... to accept me, as I was. Honestly, it scared the ever-loving crap out of me. I'd become so accustomed to being misunderstood and assuming that everyone had an angle or agenda that my red flags went up everywhere. I freaked out badly. 

To be fair, he wanted a serious relationship and I was in no place to commit to such a level. He was not a bad person, but he was not right for me and the time was not right. He would have none of that, none of my polite brush-offs, none of my requests to leave me alone. They all got laughed off. I felt great pity, but that was all. And pity is no basis for a relationship. The pity soon dissolved into thinly disguised contempt as his barrage continued.

Finally, I'd had enough.... He asked for what felt like the four hundredth time, and I flat snapped. I went all Julia Sugarbaker on him before I had ever seen an episode of "Designing Women." Things along the line of I wouldn't go out with him if we were the last people on earth and responsible for the start of the new line of the human race. We'd go extinct.

Well.... There I was, Snidely Whiplash's evil sister. Villainess extraordinaire. Cruella DeVille had nothing on me. To this day, he hasn't spoken to me. Not that I exactly shed a tear over it. 

But it should please him to know that karma is real and she's a bitch. I found myself in a similar situation years later, only the other person was more cruel than I ever was to this other young man. No, my beloved didn't have the heart to be cruel sooner rather than later, and so I spent four-plus years languishing in the misery of "does he or doesn't he?" before learning that it would never be.

We're all heroes at times, and we're all villains as well. As long as we are more heroic than villainous, then our world still has hope.