Solitary Celebration

Ali never thought she would be spending her 21st birthday this way - alone and beaten. Only yesterday, over 100 people were planning to come to her birthday party on the beach. Everything happened so quickly that she hasn't had time to take it all in until now... sitting here on the beach by herself with only her chocolate birthday cake in front of her.

She could feel the emotions radiating through her body to the same intensity that the cuts and bruises had stung on her skin less than 8 hours ago. Ali assumes it's around 5 a.m. because the golden sun is slowly rising above the ocean water, creating a postcard worthy sunrise. However, she doesn't want to stay here for long so that no happy vacationers have to witness this and have the memory of seeing a girl on the beach covered in her own dried blood.

The unintentional chuckle escaped her mouth when she remembered what had started the violence that came so unexpectedly from her guests. Ali had posted what she thought was an innocent picture on social media the day before her party was supposed to take place, it featured her sitting on a barstool wearing a skintight leopard mini dress which complemented her caramel skin and silky black hair. The problem with the post did not lie with her body or her dress, but rather with what could be seen in the background of the picture.

When examined closely, a group of individuals can be spotted that are known to be involved with a large local gang that is antigovernment. While Ali did not know that this group was at the bar when she was, some of her followers, or haters, created a different narrative.

Ali is not famous by any means, but she has enough of a social media following that it can cause problems when some followers decide to influence her real-life friends to turn against her. She has always been spotted with friends who hold government jobs and others who were openly pro-government. She has also used her social media platform to discuss her views which support the government. Because of this, some of her former followers and some who just know of her, decided to use this photo as an opportunity to attack her. They figured that since she is more well-known for her opinions, starting drama would draw attention to her and away from her side's arguments and what she truly supports.

Once the rumor that she was involved with the other side got started, all of her "friends" and local drama pages began overreacting. Ali was shocked that a rumor like this could spiral out of control to such a large extent, especially since she is very open and public about her opinions. Because the rumor didn't make sense, Ali was perplexed about how her friends could even slightly believe it. These were people that she had trusted for years and they might not be super close, but she never thought they would turn their backs on her this easily. She started receiving calls and texts from people calling her an array of bad names or simply just cursing at her. She saw posts on social media all over that were bashing her and saying how she was secretly playing both sides of the argument.

The betrayal and hate escalated so quickly that by the time Ali's party was supposed to start, only a small group of those invited showed up. Of course, Ali assumed that they showed up because they were the few that didn't believe these ridiculous lies; unfortunately, they were there for a much more malicious reason.

She had just arrived at the beach and was about to get the cake out of her trunk when she saw them approaching. She closed her trunk without getting the cake so that she could go and greet them. As they got closer together, Ali saw their expressions and knew then that they weren't here to celebrate with her.

The group, which was made up of both men and women, started yelling at her and Ali was unsure of what she should do. The beach was empty because she had reserved that portion of it for the party. Since no one was around, she began heading back to her car to avoid the situation escalating further. However, she did not make it back to her car before the group reached her. One of them started the physical violence by pushing Ali's shoulder after she told him she wanted to leave. Ali tried to push her way through them to get away, but they surrounded her and started pushing her back and forth between them. That turned into them throwing some punches which landed her on the ground. After a couple final hits, they decided they had done enough to where she "learned her lesson" according to them.

As she laid on the hard rocky ground which had scraped and cut up her body, Ali wished she could go back in time and never post that picture. She also regretted ever believing that any of those people were her friends.

Ali woke up after several hours still laying on ground, realizing she must've passed out at some point while angrily crying in both physical and emotional pain. Every bone and muscle in her body groaned as she slowly rose from the ground and stumbled to her car. When she got to her car, she realized that she was not going to let everything that happened ruin her birthday completely. She opened her trunk and retrieved the cake that had been waiting there for hours.

She slowly made her way to the shore where she lit the candles on her chocolate cake and watched them burn until the wax was dripping on the frosting. That is when she noticed the sunrise and snapped back into reality. She blew out the candles and picked herself up once again and walked the same path back to her car.

She painfully climbed into her front seat and pulled down the sun visor to look at herself in the mirror. She first looked at the scrapes and bruises that adorned her face, but then she looked herself in the eyes and made a promise to herself. She promised herself that she was going to move out of the city and find somewhere where she can form true relationships with people that would not so easily believe falsehoods about her.

The End.

Note from the Author: While this story is completely fiction and extremely exaggerated - spreading rumors on social media can cause this type of extreme pain in someone's life. I urge you to not share anything on the internet that could be damaging to the person it discusses, especially if it is from an unreliable source. Cyber-bullying is just as hurtful, if not more hurtful, than being bullied in person. I hope that we can all remember the consequences that spreading things found on the internet can have. Thank you for reading.