The people involved in this question are completely fictional. However, it'd be nice if the responses were realistic and not fantasized (maybe not entirely realistic in that it can be ideal, but not TOO ideal) -- it's a standard "what would you do?" thing:

You are a guy, and ever since you were young (say 5th grade), you've deeply resented a girl, also your age. You have grown up together and you've always antagonized her and teased her; she's basically shut you out and tried to ignore you because you've been a total ******* to her. Your resentment may or may not be justified.

Lately, however, (pretend you're in high school) you've started questioning your resentment, and somewhat forgetting why you were so hateful of this girl in the first place. The girl has never been aggressively antagonistic to you -- she's just tried to cope with it and get you out of her life.

The girl's had a rough life, and now you're also feeling a little bit sorry for her, and sorry about being such a *****. But, the feeling of wanting cling onto that resentment is still lingering.

What kind of action, if anything, could the girl make that would make you want to discard your lingering feelings of resentment and want to help her (partly to make amends for being so rough towards her)?

and,
IF the girl made such an action, would you indeed respond as such? Or, would you refuse to do so in spite of your desire to? (Why?)

Yeah, it's kinda vague and abstract, but the jist of it is -- what kind of things make people change their minds in situations like this?

If you for some reason insist on believing that this is in fact not a fictional situation, and that I'm talking about myself, please read [this post] FIRST. If however you can stomach the fact that this is fictional, try to make your post, THEN read the referenced post. Because, half the purpose of this thread will be compromised if you read that post.]

Wow, in all seriousness, I don't think I've ever felt this way (as like the first person). Obviously, the first person is a pathetic slimeball, who may have underlying mental problems. Their irrational malice they show demonstrates that logic probably won't go far with them.

A quick punch to the nads followed by an uppercut is an excellent solution.

Shoot her in the chest with a shotgun.

The girl could break down and cry the next time the guy was mean to her. That'd teach him.

Ok, well, assume the girl has already cried like 9 million times

Say you're sorry. Buy her flowers or something. You know. Be.... Nice?

EDIT: And if you were wrongly a dick to her, she shouldn't have to do anything. You should feel bad automatically.

I don't think that would work.

First of all, you've tormented her for a god what, 5,6 years?

She would've eventually built up the same resentment to you that you would feel to her, only hers would probably be alot more stronger.

Edit: Stupid Edits before I get to post.

I'm not saying he can do just one thing and make it better. You could start by saying "I'm sorry."

oh, I'm asking if anything SHE would do would trigger a change in mentality for YOU

(the most likely, given something like this)

[And no, the guy will not automatically feel bad. Something has to trigger it]


And I prolly have to reiterate that these characters are fictional and the situation is fictional haha (though prolly existant somewhere)

Yeah, I'd think she'd have built up some resentment as well. So why would she want to do anything? Maybe she's just a very forgiving person?

If you, the guy, have this resentment based on nothing, then you need to let go of that and apologize first.

I don't mean, she would do something with the conscious intent of mending things. I mean, ANY reaction or action at all from her that would "wake the guy up"

Maybe "you" just started feeling bad for what "you" did.

Maybe "you" realized you were thinking irrationally and she never did anything wrong to begin with.

Ok, you're missing the point here. Let me make it clearer.

I'm writing a play. I work closely with a group of people to construct a story dynamic for this play. The first "final" draft of the play has been finished.

The play involves a guy and a girl like this. However, in the play, I do NOT cover their "making amends" part and I kind of imply what happens "off-stage"

Comments from readers of this draft, as well as from the group of people I'm working with, suggested deleting a certain scene (which I have no problem doing), and instead having a scene directly cover a series of events that sparked the change.

It was additionally suggested that I poll/ask a group of people NOT for what "I should write" but what "they would do" to get a general perspective of realism (hence my note in the first post), so I could put it together and maybe stretch it a little bit to make it more ideal / suitable for on-stage.
[In order for me not to just steal a bunch of people's creative writing ideas, it was stressed that I should ask what would happen "in real life" without mentioning what this was for, because that would lead to "them saying what they think should be in the play rather than what they'd actually do"]

Is that clearer? This is not me in this situation trying to act like it's not me.

Leave her alone, just forget about her. Don't "hang out" with her or anything, do yourselves both a favor.

STOP being such a dick headed moron. Leave her alone, god dammit! I'd say you probably like her, whether or not you want to admit it. But antagonizing her is no way of showing it, so STOP. Do you know how horrible it feels to be picked on and laughed at and yelled at? It makes you feel worthless to the core.

She shouldn't have to do anything. The action is on your part. Walk away, don't bother her anymore. How hard is that?

[edit]okay, it's a play. haha. I have an idea: she should slap him in the face![/edit]

Despite you not reading my last post,

yes, the guy likes her, and yes the guy eventually marries her.

this isnt a real girl thread, so i'm not gonna offer any ruth wisdom.


wisdom.... Ha!

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

The guy does do exactly this, but the point is that the readers of the play thought that was too simple / boring and that in addition to that I should directly show the "cause" of his doing that

Perhaps a scene where the girl needs help with something and your guy is the only one around? He helps her out, and the viewers see a change of heart.

I don't know. I'm not a writer.

I think the fictional character should post a poll on massassi requesting advice.

I'm writing a play. It's a musical version of Star Wars.

My play is better than your play.

That was a [sexuality neutral] thing to say.

The girl should say something to the guy that really hammers it home to him that all these years he's cruel to her and she's just weathered it. What kind of person does that make him, that he's held this 5th-grade grudge for so long, when the person it's against has done nothing to reciprocate?

You could also have someone else say it to him, but that might not work.

(Also, you should use the phrase "fifth-grade grudge." It's catchy. ;))

Well... She'll probably say something like, "Ha ha! Hormones! I win!"

I would imagine that at the ages you're talking about, it would be hormones that would trigger the change. So showing him becoming more interested in her as she develops makes sense. As for something specific that she could do...hmm...

If there was a definite reason that the grudge started, you could obviously show that she does something to negate it, but as you haven't implied this, I'm assuming there isn't a definite reason...

damn, this is hard!!

Well, all that I can think is that he would have a problem of some description, and she would help him out, despite the tension between them. This would make him realise that despite anything she may have done in the past, she is willing to look past it and just be nice, and so he sould probably return the favour.

How about a scene where the guy sees someone else harassing the girl. Something the guy considers much worse than what he's been doing the past years.

Maybe the guy goes and defends the girl, maybe he just watches. The girl just takes it until the harasser goes away for whatever reason (maybe she was walking by a group hanging outside a pub who weren't going to leave to follow her?)

After that incident, the guy goes to the girl and asks her why she took it without any attempt to defend herself, and she replies with some simple remark along the lines of "Amazing what you get used to over the years" or something. Not directly referencing what the guy's been doing, but pointed enough that there's no mistaking what she's talking about. With that she walks off, and leaves the guy there to realise that his harassment has been just as bad if not worse than what he just witnessed.

Meh, needs some work. Might work.
[Note: I did read the "spoiler" post before coming up with that]

if she flashed her boobs.

I really like Giraffe's idea. Maybe the guy could be playing along with the other tormentors (maybe his friends, maybe strangers), when all of a sudden it goes too far for him. He steps back and kind realizes what he's been doing. It might help to have the tormentors look really stupid, and he takes a literal step back and see's how stupid they look. Maybe they'd all be drunk, or they'd be making fun of the girl somehow so they just plain look stupid.

The guy could see her getting attacked by a zombie dog and he can get a shotgun and shoot the dog and save her and then they'd fall in love with each other and have hot sex on the dog's corpse. But the dog wasn't really dead and he bites both of them and they become zombies and convert everyone in their town to zombies.

[QUOTE=Mr. Stafford]if she flashed her boobs.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a reachiny puberty story. Noticing girls differently and such.

But your story does require a comic sidekick that walks around in a shark costume.