“So a bit of backstory: this happened about two years back when I was still in high school, and it was summer break. Wanting to enjoy the beautiful summer evening, a few friends, my uncle, and I went out for ice cream at one of our local shops. We were celebrating an invitation I had received to a very prestigious military school here in the States that I’ll just refer to as ‘WP.’ Since it was summer, there was a pretty long line at this tiny place, and they only had outdoor seating. Being that we were a pretty big group, I had my friends go save us a table. To make things easier, I made a list on my phone with my friends and my uncle’s orders, so only one of us had to wait in line. As I turned to head into the line, I heard it; you know that noise someone makes when they think they’re high and might? That condescending clearing of the throat.
Now, mind you, I’m pretty weirdly built for a female. I’m pretty short, like under five feet, but I’m bulky from being a wrestler and doing weight lifting. At the time, I think I just had some standard jean shorts and a random shirt with my school’s logo on it, nothing that would have made me seem like an employee at the shop. Not that the actual workers ever would have come outside to take orders or anything. At first, I kind of tried to ignore the lady and keep heading towards the line. As I was doing so, she made her throat-clearing noise again, and being me, I decided to see what she wanted. Now, I really didn’t want to say anything to some random lady, so I sort of just made eye contact and raised my eyebrows at her. She had that pretty stereotypical ‘Karen’ look, in the mid-30s with that short haircut, fake blonde hair, and tacky acrylic nails. When she realized I acknowledged her, she huffed before talking to me.
‘Well, it took you long enough! I want to order!’ this ‘Karen’ shouted.
Before I said one word to her, I knew this woman was going to be loud and really irritating, but I wanted to keep my cool and just explain the situation.
‘Miss, I don’t work here. I’m just grabbing what my group and I want so we don’t have to stand in-‘ I began.
‘I don’t care if you want to help your friends first! I watched you write down their order! You work here and now you will help me as well!’ she screamed at me.
Okay, so clearly, I was dealing with a crazy lady. Great, that’s just what I wanted.
‘Miss, I just told you, I don’t work here. I’m just doing my group’s order,’ I told her, hoping it would end everything.
After that, I turned to walk away to pick up my order. Turns out that apparently, like most Karens, sudden movement upsets them. As I turn, I felt those fake acrylic press into my wrist. This woman actually decided to grab me! I quickly rip my arm from her grip as I turn around to face her. The mere fact that she had the audacity to grab me made me enraged. Even if I was an employee, there is no reason for her to place her hands on someone.
‘Look, lady! Even if I worked here, which I don’t, you have absolutely no reason to ever lay your freaking hands on me!’ I screamed at her.
Through this shouting match, my Uncle grabbed the manager to come to help me out. They came out just to see me wrench my wrist from this Karen’s grasp.
‘What the heck are you doing to my niece?’ my uncle roared, furious the crazy woman had gone so far as to touch me.
He grabbed my arm to check over my wrist. I knew I was bleeding a bit from when she dug her nails in, but I didn’t really notice it too much. The manager was trying to ask the Karen about what happened as Karen ranted about how I was rude, didn’t want to take her order, and how I assaulted her. Now obviously she didn’t have any marks on her, while I was the one with nail marks on my wrist. The manager calmly explained that I didn’t work there nor do the workers come around to take orders. My uncle told the manager, while I was okay, the lady needed to go. Needless to say, I got my ice cream and had a pretty nice time after that.”
