Teaching My Overbearing Neighbor a Good Lesson

I honestly thought someone would step in to call her out, but instead, the whole group replied with a simple "Noted".

I was stunned.

What the heck was going on? Was I the only normal person in this building?

Nicole suddenly tagged me. "@401 Bella Martin, don't think you can stay quiet and avoid this. I'm going to specifically call you out today!"

Call me out?

"I warn you. Get rid of your cat, and stop feeding the strays! Those cats carry germs and toxoplasmosis. Every time you feed them, you attract more strays. What if Brianna catches something while she's out for a walk?

"You even lied to me, saying they're all your cats! You're just a woman. How much money do you even make to feed all those cats? You must be doing some shady job. Do you treat your parents as well as you treat those strays?

"And if those strays start yowling at night while in heat and disturb Brianna's sleep, affecting my precious grandson, are you going to take responsibility?"

Precious grandson, huh? This was truly something else!

It turned out that there were not only drama queens in this world, but also some people who tried to crown themselves.

But I was no pushover!

I immediately sent a "confused" meme to the group chat.

Nicole quickly responded with a voice message, "Don't send me that stupid meme! Can't you understand simple words?"

I took a sip of water. Just as I was about to fire back, I received a private message from Robert Hunter, who stayed in unit 502 upstairs. "Don't mind the old lady from unit 402."

That only made me more confused, so I replied, "What's the deal? Is her family really that powerful around here?"

"Not exactly, but you really don't want to mess with her. Just keep your head down and avoid trouble," he answered.

I replied with a simple question mark.

Robert was about my age. He was tall, lean, good-looking, and pretty friendly too. When I first moved in, I had too much stuff, and he helped me carry it upstairs. That was when we exchanged numbers.

From him, I learned just how outrageous Nicole could be.

"That crazy lady is mean and unreasonable. You really don't want to get on her bad side. I was watering my plants upstairs once, and she saw me. The next thing I knew, she was banging on my door, accusing me of getting water on her clothes drying downstairs. She even forced me to pay her 50 dollars!"

I couldn't understand. "That's extortion. And you just paid her? Why didn't you call the police?"

"I did call the police, but it didn't help at all. As soon as the officers arrived, Nicole collapsed on the ground, saying I hit her, and then pretended to have a heart attack. She rolled around, saying she'd die right in front of my door unless I paid her.

"The cops couldn't do anything, so they just tried to smooth things over, saying we should be understanding of neighbors. I had no choice but to pay her off to make it stop."

"Does she have connections at the police station or something?" I asked.

I heard Robert sigh deeply in his voice message. "No. That's the scariest part. She's got nothing to lose. Once you provoke her, things will get really ugly."

He went on, "It's not just that. The parking spots for bikes downstairs are all shared. But Nicole has taken it upon herself to claim a section and says only her family can park there. If anyone dares to park their electric bike in 'her' spot, she'll go and slash their tires, smash their mirrors, or remove their seats.

"This kind of thing has happened more than once or twice. Everyone in the building knows not to mess with Nicole. I'm just telling you. Don't go head-to-head with her. You'll be the one who ends up suffering."