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How I Starved a Manipulator
We often mistake “manipulative” for “smart.”
The truth? They aren’t playing 4D chess. They’re just better at weaponizing your empathy than you are at protecting it.
Take my college “friend.” She insisted on buying my bus ticket for a group trip. Total sweetheart move, right? (Spoiler: It was a $2 investment for a $200 return).
By lunch, she “didn’t have change.” Till dinner, I was paying for every expense: her movies, her meals, and her taxis. She treated me like a bank with a pulse.
When I finally brought up the bill? She hit me with the classic manipulator’s trap: “Why keep accounts in friendship?”
Translation: “My money is mine, and your money is also mine.”
Then we happened to be roommates. That’s when the “Stall” started.
She suggested we share textbooks to save money. Sounds practical, until you realize her “schedule” meant she kept the books all day, and I got them from 10 PM to 7 AM.
Even when the books were mine, she’d develop a sudden, very dramatic stomach ache the night before an exam.
I’d feel guilty. I’d hand over the book. I’d fail to sleep.
I was a volunteer in my own exploitation.
I realized my explanations were just “fuel.” Every time I tried…
