Karaoke rival
Ok, so I've been going to karaoke bars for the past maybe 4 years now, this one specific spot for 3 of them. At this spot there is a Karen that's a daytime regular there, and I mean she's a Karen to the T, haircut, entitlement, alpha energy, good looking, everything.
I'm a nighttime regular cause I'm a chef, so if I run into her its usually because she's been there all day so you can fill in the blanks on her state when I do run into what others would say is a sweet girl when she first gets there. What I deal with when I get there is something different. When I get there and she sings, and she had been a habitual violator of this, she either gets distracted by her friends or basically sings half the song, either way its not a good performance and you're hoping she calls it for the night on the singing at least.
So one-night shes bombing a good song, and I give her a playful Michael Scott boo, not expecting anything but maybe a small slap or something playful, that was not the case. She blows up at me, those within her wrath are looking like, wth is going on? I'm just a puzzled as they are, but I let her rant, figure she was having a bad day and let it go.
A week or two passes and I run into her again, I show up on a Saturday and head straight for the KJ and she makes a B-line for me, like a GF whose found out her BF cheated on her. She continues the same rant from weeks before not missing a beat and Im just puzzled. At this point though the bar and many of her friends are starting to come to her side and asking what did I say to her. I'm thinking I'm gonna get my ass kicked, but I tell em I just sarcastically boo'd her a couple weeks prior. You should have seen the confusion on their faces. Anyway I avoid certain death but she's not done with me. And this is where the rivalry starts.
For the next couple of years every time I run into her maybe once or twice a month she's talking smack and or yelling in my direction. If I talk to other women at the bar, she immediately follows right behind me and talks all kinds of smack about me like some smear campaign. I just react with behavior, I don't react to her, I don't engage her, I mind my business. And this is how it goes for 2-3 years.
I still have no clue why she hates me so much, over a simple booing? I find out later one friend of hers approaches me after I endure a thorough staring from the Karen and accuses me of associating with an ex BF of hers who apparently treated her terribly. This is the first time I've ever heard of this, they don't tell me who he is and I only talk to maybe a couple people at this bar, none of which I know were associated with her. I don't know her besides exchanging Hi's once in a while before the rivalry started, let alone her dating history. Then on a July 4th after singing a song, Karen comes over, gives me a hug, complimenting my song choice and said she still hasn't forgiven me for what I said to her. I say " What are you talking about?", she then says I stood 3 feet from where we were on the night of the initial incident and said she deserved to be abused by her ex Bf. Again this is news to me, I don't know anything about this woman and why in the world would I wish anything so horrible to a person.
I'm sitting there baffled as those few seconds of peace was basically the eye of the storm and I was right back into the hurricane with that question. At this point I'm George Costanza and I'm enamored with the fact this woman hates me so much and I don't understand why. I talk with another regular whose the only one who talks to both me and her and he tells me he asks her about the state or our situation to which she refers to the rival " the relationship is rocky but tolerable". What relationship??? I tell him I don't talk to this woman.
I finally talk to another one of her friends and ask why she hates me so much, he tells me sometimes she just makes up stories to get mad at people, she'd done it to him in the past but I still see them hanging out. At this point I guess I'm dealing with a nut job but I'm also wondering is there more to this, is this a thin line between love and hate scenario.
I finally confront her about the situation, I approach her at the KJ booth where she's talking with the KJ and I notice her immediately kinda standoff-ish and kinda subservient and before I could say anything she says " I'm sorry". Wait what? "I'm sorry", and she repeats it a couple more times. It was like she realized what she been doing the last couple of years was wrong. Clearly I was in the right and never said anything to her, because, to those reading this, if anyone ever truly said what I had been accused of you'd never deal with that person ever again.
Anyway after the talk I told her, I'm glad we're cool again but I kind miss the rivalry we had. I kinda got off on the idea of her hatred towards me.
My question to anyone, I'm I wrong for thinking there was something there, were there feelings or is she crazy?
Happy singing. Dont forget to tip your KJ's