(Note: I have misplaced the source of this prompt. I did not create the prompt, but I did feel like responding to it enough to save it.)

Imagine that since the first day of college, you’ve had a serious crush on someone who has just begun to reciprocate your romantic interest. After class last week, she invited you to a party and you finally felt confident enough to ask her out on a date. You decided to go to the party and had a blast…at least at first. After spending the entire night casually brushing up against one another and exchanging flirty glances, you snuck outside with her to talk. Just as you were about to ask her to join you for dinner next weekend, another man whispered something in her ear. When you asked her what he said, she disclosed that he said you were a player. Soon after, she started giving you the cold shoulder so you decided to leave. On your way to your car, you walked past the guy who called you a player. What would your response have been if this actually happened to you? Would you have taken revenge? If so, how?

My first reaction would be “wow, after all that, after my long crush or her, she believed this guy, despite the evidence to the contrary.” After that shock, I’d remind myself that since I’m not a player, that he probably is, and that if he’s got to resort to this tactic, and it worked, he’s worse off than I am. I’d also be sad that my crush got the very type of guy she thinks she’s avoiding.

I believe that if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. My crush would have ignored that guy because I would have already, by this point, demonstrated, through clear action and attitude, that my feelings were sincere, and more that the calculated approach of a “player”, which is not something I know how to be. Either she’s got the confidence to believe in me and give me a chance, or not.

If I also believed this other guy was a player himself, then the best revenge, if any, would be to move on, eventually get over the sting of that sudden setback, and find another person that will not be so easily manipulated and ultimately to be happy when that works out. There’s not a good reason to directly work to get revenge on the guy and that would only reflect badly on my part, so I just could not stoop to such a level.