I met friend C when I was 13, 40 years ago.

We used to poke fun at ourselves and at others behind their backs. We (as least I) poked the fun at others just to make ourselves laugh. It was never meant to go further than just us.

Many years later, she told me she had TOLD the people I joked about what I said! I am mortified by that and had no clue at the time. I didn’t even know the few people I joked about. They were just other kids at school.

Of course I know I was wrong to do it, but I was 13.

So, I had this on/off toxic friendship with her until 9 months ago. We had a blow out because she went off on me, harassing me. I had to block her on social media. She just wouldn’t knock it off and respect my boundaries.

She backed off. She never called me again or apologized for her behavior. I never called her again.

She hears about me and I hear about her through a mutual friend. I try not to feed the mutual friend any info I don’t want her knowing. Mutual friend, should know better than to put herself in between, but she gets sucked in.

But there really hasn’t been any issue since we stopped talking and this other friend’s role. It’s cool.

The Toxic thread just got me thinking about how it all sprung from our childish mean humor. I’m sure it wasn’t me who wanted the mean humor, more I did it to make her laugh. The mean came from her I’m pretty sure.