So maybe you're just a bitch

“Maybe it’s because you’re a bitch.”

She accidentally slams her coffee cup down in surprise, hissing when the hot liquid splashes out and burns her hand. Glaring across the table, she wipes the back of her hand on her jeans, the stain on her denim the least of her worries at the moment.

“I mean, no offense,” Her friend shrugs lazily, picking up his sandwich and taking an obnoxiously large bite out of it. She wrinkles her nose in disgust and picks up her mug again. Cautiously taking a sip, she dotes on her response. She opens her mouth to reply, but he beats her to it. 

“I’m not saying that you are a bitch, but you’ve said before that you can be off-putting on first impression,” He says in between chews. The sound of his teeth mashing bread and lettuce and whatever the hell else was in his mouth was making her stomach churn. “What does it matter to you anyway? You don’t even like the guy. Why do you care so much about what he thinks?” She frowns even deeper at this, setting down her coffee cup gently this time, not wanting any further unwarranted casualties. 

“I don’t know, it’s just not nice to hear those things, you know? Also, I barely even knew the guy. I don’t understand where he gets the confidence from.” She pauses, pursing her lips. “Especially when I was nothing but normal to him. I think he’s just projecting.” Her friend rolls his eyes dramatically, grabbing his water and taking a big sip to wash down the remainder of his bite. Seeing that he was about to retort, she rushed out the rest of her thoughts.

“Like, what would you do if someone said that to you? You couldn’t possibly be--” She stopped mid-sentence to slap away his hand that was reaching for her coffee cup. “--okay with a date saying all of those heinous things to you literally an hour after it ends.” He snatched up her mug regardless, undeterred by the measly hit to his wrist. He took a gulp of the drink, a bit too big for her liking, ignoring the sting of the temperature. 

“Okay, fine. I relent. Let me see the text again?” He stuck his palm out, wiggling his fingers. Sighing, she unlocked her phone and pulled up the message, placing the device in his hand. His eyes shifted as they read the text, lips quirking up into a smile as he recalled the contents of the message. Once finished, he couldn’t contain his laughter as he shut her phone off, handing it back to her. 

“Stop that!” She huffed, but couldn’t help her lips from twitching, also wanting to smile at the fact. He threw his hands up in surrender, shoulders still shaking with laughter.

“I’m sorry, okay. You have to admit it’s honestly kind of funny. But yeah, I’ll give it to you. That’s kind of an insane thing to say to someone you’ve just met.” He agreed, picking up his sandwich again to take another ridiculous bite. 

“Thank you.” She crossed her arms, finally feeling validated.

“But can I just say this?” He asked through a mouthful of food, leaning forward onto his elbows resting on the table. 

“I really wish you wouldn't.”

But he ignored her, as men do, and continued.

“I think you care too much about what other people think about you. Like I said before, if you really don’t like this guy, why do you care what he thinks of you? It’s not like you’ll go out of your way to change your behavior and personality just to prove to him that you’re better than what he believes.”

“That’s not the--”

“I’m sure you’ve had similar thoughts about the random men you’ve gone out with before, but you just talk about it with your friends afterward. This guy just had the balls to say it to your face, which, you gotta admit, is kind of awesome. Anything you do isn’t going to change his opinion of you now unless you like, I don’t know, put out.” She grimaced at the thought. “And sure, he’s most likely projecting his insecurity of rejection back onto you, but if that’s the kind of person he is, you just dodged a bullet. There’s no point in dwelling on what he thinks anymore. You’re gonna kill yourself overthinking this situation. Just swallow the tough pill and move on. Trust me, you’re gonna go on so many more shitty dates that you won’t even remember this happened.” He finished with a satisfied look on his face as if the last thing he said would provide her any sort of comfort. 

She opens her mouth again to snap back at him but quickly shuts it out of better judgment. With the attention span of a small child, his gaze shifts away from hers, starting to whisper about someone who just walked into the cafe. Leaning back in her chair, she mulls over his words, tuning out whatever he’s saying now. Picking up her mug again, she takes a sip of the lukewarm coffee, hating that he might have a good point. Placing the drink back down, she concedes defeat in her argument and focuses back on the new conversation.