The Problem With Being Kind

"You are a mean, selfish asshole and a failure! You'll never get anywhere in life!" she screams at me through tangled lines. "Yeah, that's what they tell me," I replied before pushing the red circle and slamming the phone down. The problem with being kind is that one slip up will get you labeled as Pol Pot's reincarnation. Meanwhile, the ladies fawn and drown in the aura of those who beat them and put them down. I light up a smoke and lay back, erasing her numbers and deleting her names. I am reborn, or perhaps just relieved. Maybe she was right.