A man scared my friend at the gym, then looked aghast when I did it to him a week later

I am a regular at my gym and have made lots of casual friends there, men and women. A year or so ago, my best friend joined me and we had a lot of fun lifting together.

One day, I’m doing kettlebell work and she’s catching her breath after her set. A 60+ year old man who is an acquaintance of mine decided to walk up behind her, slap his hands down on her shoulders and shouted GET BACK TO WORK! It was like seeing it in slow-motion - I couldn’t put the weights down fast enough to stop him.

She yelled out because first of all, what the fuck - but worse is she’s a victim of domestic abuse! Her ex husband broke her back in THREE places!! The trauma of that? Holy shit. I immediately pulled her into my arms while dude just walked away thinking himself soooo funny. We immediately ended our workout because she was understandably upset and not in the mood to be there anymore. I wanted to scream at him, but my focus was on keeping her calm.

Now, I’m 5’6” and 200lbs of muscle AND fat. I tend to wear pigtails and bows to the gym cuz I’m just ✨a girl✨. But I’m a girl that will fuck you up if you mess with my friends. I will kick your ass while my bows dance in the wind.

A week or so later, I spot the guy facing away from me. I walk up to him and slap my hands down on his shoulders just as hard (maybe a liiiitle harder) as he did to my friend and shouted “GET BACK TO WORK!!”

Ladies, I wish you could have seen his face. He turned around like he’d seen a goddamn ghost! He was SO AGHAST that I did that! His expression said “what in the actual FUCK?!?” so I smiled sweetly at him and skipped off to the squat bar.

Unfortunately, this was not the only instance of my friend being harassed there and she eventually cancelled her memebership :( she works out in her home gym now!

Anyway, moral of the story: keep your fucking hands your yourself.