The Day I Tried to Help and Became the Villain: A Yelp Story

Some years ago, I attended a Yelp event. One of the participants, a woman, got piss drunk. She was all over the place, and eventually, she stumbled her way outside and started wandering around the street. A group of us were nearby, and I decided to make a bodega run to grab her some water, hoping it would help her out. She was seriously messed up.

I got the water and ran it over to her, thinking I was doing a good deed. But instead of accepting the water, this woman completely went off on me. She started insulting me, cursing at me, and calling me every name under the sun. Even as she did this, I tried to help her. I figured it was the alcohol talking, mixed with some deep-seated psychological issues she clearly had, which were now surfacing and being misdirected. I even offered to get her a cab to make sure she got home safely.

But again, she just kept spewing insults and attacking me. At that point, I thought, “Screw this asshole,” and decided I wasn’t going to stand there and take her abuse. I left her to fend for herself and went about my business heading home. I don’t care how drunk someone is—there’s no excuse to treat someone like that.

The next day, this wench of a human started badmouthing me to some of the other people in the Yelp group. Suddenly, I was the bad guy in her little circle, thanks to this crazy nut job. I have no idea how she managed to twist my attempt to help into something negative, but somehow, she did.

After that, I started to distance myself from most of those people. I kept a few friendships—sort of—but even those eventually fizzled out. No doubt it had something to do with whatever nonsense she was spreading about me. They were her friends first, so their loyalty was with her, truth be damned.

The funny thing is, I can’t even remember her name. Even if I did, I wouldn’t say it anyway, but I’ll never forget the heinous way she acted toward me.