For my birthday, my friend gave me a designer handbag. When my roommate saw it, she couldn't stop gushing about how generous my friend was and begged me to introduce them. I let her join a game with us, and then she pestered me to add her to our group chat. Just as I was about to add her, a line of text flashed before my eyes: [Don't do it. The social butterfly roommate will take over your entire friend group.] [You're about to be frozen out by both your friends and your roommate.] [In the end, you'll die by suicide due to depression.] I slowly lowered the phone I had just picked up. And replied to her: "My friends don't like playing with strangers." 1 Seeing my refusal, my roommate, Susan, didn't let up. "How do you know if you don't try? I'm so good with people, I'm sure they'll love me. My best quality is that I can get along with anyone." Susan continued to sing her own praises, but my attention was fixed on the text floating in front of me. The social butterfly roommate will take over your entire friend group. Was that about me? Was Susan the "social butterfly roommate"? Frozen out by both your friends and your roommate? Whether it was real or not, I decided to be cautious. Ever since she saw the birthday gifts my friends gave me, Susan had been clinging to me, begging for an introduction. As an introvert, I hated having new people suddenly thrust into my friend group. I had already refused her twice. The third time, I was in the middle of a game when she started pestering me to join. My friends were urging me to get online. Suddenly, she leaned over and shouted into my headset, "Hi! I'm Leah's roommate, and I love playing Valorant too! Can I join you guys?" My friends were in a hurry to start. "Sure, sure!" one of them said cheerfully. "We're short one player anyway. The more the merrier!" Susan dominated the voice chat, shouting and laughing. Every time I tried to say something to my friends, her voice would cut in. I eventually just gave up and stayed quiet. After the match, she had the nerve to criticize my performance. "Leah, your skills are terrible. Don't worry, I'll carry you for a few more rounds." "Add me to your group chat," she demanded. "That way I'll be online whenever you guys want to team up." I hesitated. Just as I was about to give in, the strange text appeared. I changed my mind. "My friends don't like strangers," I said. But I should have known Susan's "social butterfly" nickname wasn't for nothing. I had just come out of the bathroom when Susan waved my phone at me triumphantly. "Leah, I asked your friends, and they all really like me! They said it's fine for me to join your group." My eyes narrowed. "Did you go through my phone without my permission?" She rolled her eyes. "I just borrowed it. If I had their contact info, I wouldn't have needed to!" I was about to argue when another line of text appeared overhead: [Ugh, I'm gonna be sick. Taking something without asking is stealing. She's really desperate to get into this friend group.] [Just watch. If Leah doesn't add her, she'll just do it herself secretly.] [That's right. Tonight, she's going to use Leah's phone to add herself to the group chat, then claim Leah begged her to join.] Reading these lines, an idea began to form. I ignored Susan, took my phone back, and walked out of the dorm. She stomped her foot in frustration behind me. That night, I went to bed early. I hid my old phone on a bookshelf, positioning it to record the room, and left my current phone on my desk, pretending I'd forgotten it. In the middle of the night, I heard a rustling sound from under my bed. 2 Susan tiptoed over to my desk. She stood there for a long time before finally leaving. The next morning, with no classes, I was woken up by the incessant buzzing of my phone on the desk. I got up to wash my face, and when I unlocked my phone, my world came crashing down. Susan was chatting animatedly with my friends in the group. It had started with a picture she'd taken of me sleeping, which she'd posted in the chat. They were all making fun of me. It felt like having my privacy stripped bare in public. What hurt even more was that my three best friends were joining in on the laughter. Their lighthearted jokes felt like salt in a wound. Seeing that I was awake, Susan tagged me: "@Leah, our star has finally risen." Furious, I typed back, "Why did you take a picture of me while I was sleeping?" Susan quickly sent back an innocent-looking emoji. "We're all friends here. I just thought your sleeping position was funny and wanted to share it with everyone. It was just a joke, you don't have to get so worked up!" What made me even angrier was that my friends started to placate me, all of them thinking I was overreacting. "We're all friends, it was just a joke. Don't be mad." Seeing that everyone was on her side, Susan quickly added, "Leah, everyone got you such expensive gifts for your birthday because they really consider you a friend. It was just a little joke, and you're having such a huge reaction. You expect everyone to be nice to you, but you can't take a joke? That's such a double standard." Her words cast a chill over the group chat. Just as I was at a loss for what to do, the text appeared again. [The roommate is starting to gaslight her. She's the one who was in the wrong, but she's turning it all around on Leah.] [Leah, don't doubt yourself. You're not wrong. Your friends and your roommate are. She's trying to make everyone dislike you by putting you down.] [This is the first step in her takeover of your friend group. By undermining you, she's getting closer to your friends.] Despite my unease, I had started to doubt myself. Reading the text gave me strength. I replied coolly, "Shouldn't friends respect each other? Don't you need someone's permission to make a joke at their expense? Besides, you used my phone to add yourself to the group without my permission. You've got some nerve." The group went silent. Susan sent a crying emoji and explained, "Leah, you were the one who added me, remember? You must have forgotten." I immediately sent the video I had recorded into the group chat. Susan started sending tearful voice messages. "I was waiting for you to send me Bri's contact info, but you fell asleep. I didn't want to wake you, so I just used your phone to get into the group." Her damsel-in-distress act worked. My friends jumped in to mediate. [It's fate! Leah, just let it go.] [Yeah, yeah, your friends are our friends.] [The most important thing is that we can all hang out together.] She seized the opportunity. "Besides, Leah, why were you recording in the dorm room? You just don't trust me!" My friends chimed in. [Yeah, Leah, you were in the wrong on that one, too. Just drop it.] Susan exclaimed, "Exactly! I'll be the bigger person and not hold it against you." Seeing that they were all siding with her, I didn't say anything more, but my heart had turned to ice. After that incident, I started to lurk in the group chat, rarely speaking. Susan, on the other hand, became incredibly active, constantly starting new conversations, acting as if she were the real friend to my friends. Every time they discussed something new in the chat, Susan would corner me in the dorm and talk my ear off about it, always ending with a jab: "Are you sure you guys were friends in high school? It feels like you have nothing in common with them. You don't really fit in, do you?" I didn't get angry. I was more curious to see how she planned to take over my friend group. Two weeks later, my friend Brianna's birthday was approaching. Susan quietly asked me in the dorm, "Your friends got you a designer bag for your birthday. What are you getting for Bri?" Before I could answer, the text appeared again. [Be careful, Leah. Don't fall into her trap. She's going to swap the gifts to completely alienate you from your friends.] [The roommate has secretly gone through your phone and bought the exact same gift, but it's a fake.] [After being framed, you'll be ostracized by your friends. With the roommate's added manipulation, you'll be isolated at school too.] I turned to Susan and said with a smile, "I'm getting her the latest earrings from the new collection." Susan quickly waved her hands. "Oh, you don't have to tell me." I was curious to see how she would manage to swap my gift. 3 In the dorm, I showed my roommates the birthday gift I had bought for Brianna. It was a pair of earrings, a wreath of green jade with jade feathers dangling below. Everyone gasped. "They're beautiful." Susan, however, was unusually calm. She was hunched over her desk, writing furiously. My other roommate, Yolie, nudged her. "Susan, look! These earrings are gorgeous." Susan didn't even look up. "I'm busy with a proposal for my club. Don't bother me." Yolie pouted and turned away. As everyone chattered, Susan kept her head down, but I could see her sneaking glances out of the corner of her eye. I suddenly had an idea. "Hey, let's all go shopping. I'll show you some even more beautiful jewelry, and I'll treat you all to bubble tea." Everyone was on board. Yolie called out to Susan again, but she just repeated that she was too busy. I put the earrings back in their box and placed it in my locker. I never bothered to lock it. My roommates and I went out for the entire afternoon, leaving Susan alone in the dorm. When we got back that evening, I opened my locker to change and glanced at the earring box. Sure enough, it had been opened. I casually asked, "Susan, Bri's birthday is in a couple of days. Are you coming?" Susan readily agreed. "Of course! Bri invited me. We can go together." The night before Bri's birthday, I suddenly came down with a bad case of diarrhea. I was up all night, running to the bathroom more than a dozen times. The next morning, Susan helped me to the campus clinic. As I was getting an IV drip, she reminded me, "Leah, you're in no condition to go today. Why don't you give me the gift, and I'll take it for you?" I was completely drained and weak. I had no choice but to tell Susan to get the gift from my locker. After she got it, she even sent me a picture of it. On Bri's birthday, the group chat was eerily silent. Usually, we'd be flooding it with pictures of the cake, the gifts, everything. I didn't know what Susan had said, but the silence was unsettling. That evening, Susan returned, her face beaming with suppressed joy. The moment she saw me, she quickly wiped the smile off her face and looked at me with a hesitant expression. She came over to my bed and whispered, "Leah, Bri said the earrings you got her look like fakes." "I think there must be a misunderstanding," she continued, her voice full of concern. "Don't worry. Think about it, maybe you got scammed." "I didn't want them to say anything in the group because I was afraid it would upset you. Why don't you apologize to Bri later and get her another gift? Don't let this ruin your friendship." She looked so genuinely concerned. If I hadn't known the gift had been swapped, I would have been completely fooled by her performance. I replied with feigned agitation, "That's impossible! I have the receipt. The sales associate said they could be engraved, so I had them put the first letter of Bri's name, 'B,' inside. I'm calling Bri right now, and we'll go to the store to get them authenticated."
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