Tar was at Burger King to enjoy his meal and have a nice time out of the house. However, that all changed the moment Julius and his goons came around. They began to bully him, none of them noticing the soldier that was on the bench that fateful evening.
The only thing that was on Tar’s mind was eating the burger in front of him. He had his phone in his hand, browsing through social media as he took huge bites of his meal. Every once in a while, he took a sip of his drink to wash it down. He wasn’t really paying attention to the people that surrounded him. However, it all changed abruptly when he felt a hard slap on his back.
He turned, and his eyes widened when he saw the muscular boy, Julius. He was there with a few of his boys. They all stared at Tar as if he had something of theirs and was refusing to return it. Tar decided to ignore the fact that Julius had hit him and resumed scrolling through his phone.
However, Julius grabbed the phone out of his hand and saw that he was browsing through a catalog of luxurious sports cars. Tar tried to take the phone back, but it was held out of his reach. Julius’s goons immediately began laughing at him. They demanded to know why he was searching for sports cars, mocking him and telling him there was no way a little black boy like him could afford such things.
Once again, Tar ignored them and continued trying to get his phone back. They kept holding it out of his reach. Later on, he got to his feet and, before Julius could react, snatched the phone from him. He told Julius to leave him alone.
He was about to return to his meal when Julius slapped him once again on the back. Julius asked him why he was eating at Burger King, saying that a black boy like him wasn’t supposed to eat at such a prestigious establishment. Tar was shocked by his words. When he replied that he had as much right as anyone else to be at Burger King, they were not going to stop him from finishing his meal. Julius told him that he didn’t care about his rights. All he knew was that seeing Tar eat there annoyed him, and he wanted him gone. He was tired of seeing his face and was ready to drag Tar out if it came to that.
The young black boy ignored everything, even the threat. He tried again to return to his meal, but Julius pulled it out of his reach. He stared angrily at Tar and warned him for the last time that they didn’t want black people there. He had to go somewhere else to eat, preferably in the dumpsters where there were more blacks.
Tar ignored them yet again and reached for his meal once more. He knew that ignoring them was the only way they would get bored and leave him alone. However, ignoring them only made things worse for him, and Julius didn’t like it at all. He wanted to see Tar suffer and run away in humiliation, but the black boy was handling it like a champ. Just then, Julius grabbed Tar’s plate and slid it back to him. Tar was about to pick up the burger to eat when Julius suddenly grabbed a drink beside the plate and, before anyone could say a word, poured it over the meal, ruining it almost immediately.
Tar stared at him in shock. He couldn’t believe Julius had just ruined his meal. Julius was opposite him, staring at him with an evil smile on his face. He dared Tar to do something about it. In a rage, Tar stood to his feet, but the thugs forced him back down into the chair. He tried to stand up again, but he was pushed back down.
No matter how hard he struggled, he was held down fiercely so that he couldn’t escape or do anything else. None of these acts went unnoticed. Everyone at Burger King could see that Tar was being bullied by the boys. They all knew what was going on, but sadly, they pretended that they weren’t watching. They focused on their meals and their drinks; some preferred to look at their phones while Tar got bullied over and over again. All of them chose to simply mind their business and leave Tar to his fate.
Sadly, things were about to get even worse for Tar in a way he could never have expected. While Julius and his goons were still bullying him, the door swung open and a young man walked in. He was big and a bit sturdy, with a malicious glint in his eyes. He was on his way to the counter to make an order when he saw Julius and his boys gathered around Tar.
He paused at once and turned towards the youngsters. He told them that his name was Chase and asked them what was happening. However, before Julius could even say a single word, Chase slapped Tar hard on the back of his head. He put a lot of force into the slap, almost causing Tar to fall off his seat. Just like that, Chase joined the bullies to torment Tar.
However, he was worse than the rest of them. He got more physical with Tar, grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt and shoving him against the wall. He demanded to know what gave Tar the audacity to eat at a Burger King. Chase had pushed him so hard that the collision sent shockwaves traveling down his spine. This was so sudden that even Julius seemed shocked. However, Chase didn’t care one bit. He looked like he was having fun.
Chase came from a broken family. While his parents still lived together, they always fought and argued with each other, and many times they never cared if he could hear every word they were saying. They both were well-to-do; they worked in reputable companies and made a lot of money. However, they were rarely home because they always had one trip or another to be on.
This left Chase to grow up alone, mostly with different nannies his parents hired over the years. Whenever his parents managed to be around, it was even worse. If one parent was home and the other was on a trip, they would lock themselves up in their office and wouldn’t want to spend time with him. When both of them were gone, they did nothing but fight about the silliest things.
At one point, Chase found himself wishing they never returned from their trips. As he grew older, he realized something about his parents: they loved their perfect-looking life and were willing to do anything to maintain it, including paying people off. This realization marked the beginning of his journey down the wrong path.
He started with stealing, but whenever he got caught, his parents would step in, either bailing him out or paying off the owners. They were willing to bribe whoever necessary to ensure he wasn’t punished, pampering him to maintain their facade. Despite this, he wasn’t satisfied. He believed he could do more and get more.
Soon, he began bullying people, targeting those who were smaller or weaker than him. He loved terrifying them. He would beat them up and take whatever he wanted from them. The fact that he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it convinced him that he was invincible and untouchable. He became fearless and unhinged, which made him dangerous.
Now Tar was getting to see just how dangerous Chase was. He kept shoving Tar against the wall, warning him never to step foot in Burger King again, or there would be hell to pay. Then he pushed the young boy to the floor and told him to run off. However, when Tar got to his feet and tried to run away, Chase set his foot and made him trip. He fell terribly, knocking some of the chairs out of the way in the process.
While Tar was writhing in pain on the floor, something else was happening all around them in the lobby of Burger King. The fast-food staff was serving smashed burgers to their customers. When the patrons made their orders, the staff prepared them all according to their specifications. But when they were about to serve them, they slammed their fists into the burgers, smashing them. Then the smashed burgers were served to the patrons.
As they received their meals, many of them were shocked by what they were given. They couldn’t believe that they were being made to eat something that had been smashed by a fist. They all began to complain, wanting to know what was wrong with their meals. Many of them got up from their seats and went over to the counter to lay their complaints.
However, the staff paid them no mind. They refused to replace the smashed burgers with better ones. When other patrons placed new orders for better burgers, they smashed those as well. Everyone gathered at the counter, trying to make sense of what was going on with their meals.
Meanwhile, Chase was still taunting Tar. He kept mocking him, telling him to get up and run. Yet every time the black boy tried to do so, he was pushed back to the ground. Chase looked like he was having the time of his life, and with almost everyone focused on the counter, he felt that he could do whatever he wanted. However, neither he nor the other bullies knew he was being watched.
A few feet away from them, a soldier was sitting quietly on a bench with a cocktail in front of him, watching Chase continue to bully Tar. His name was Drew, but he wasn’t dressed in the usual camouflage that soldiers wore. He had on a tight shirt that clung to his body like a second skin. Although it had the word “Army” inscribed on it, one could not easily guess that he was a soldier. He had been watching Chase torture Tar for a while and was disgusted by it. Initially, he thought it was just kids playing silly games with each other. But after seeing what Chase did to Tar, he realized there was nothing playful about it. Chase was mean and intent on hurting Tar.
You see, Drew had also been bullied when he was younger. He knew the psychological effects such acts would have on the victims, and it wasn’t something that he would ever wish
on another child. As he grew older, he swore that he would never stand for such a thing. And now he was going to put a stop to it all. Drew pushed himself from where he was sitting and made his way over to where Chase was still tormenting Tar. By then, Julius and his goons weren’t doing much anymore; they just stood to the side while Chase kept bullying Tar. Drew pushed through the crowd at the counter because the staff were still purposely ignoring their requests.
When he got closer to Chase, he could see that Tar was about to get to his feet once more. Chase raised his hands, ready to knock him back to the ground. However, Drew got there right in time and caught his hand. He told Chase to knock it off and leave Tar alone. The bully looked livid at the interruption. Drew held on to him tightly and told him to leave Tar alone, but Chase refused, telling Drew to mind his own business.
Just then, Tar got to his feet, and Chase tried to knock him down. However, Drew grabbed Chase’s hands, held them behind his back, and pinned them against the wall. Chase struggled and demanded to be released, but the soldier’s grip remained tight. Drew calmly told him that the only way he would be released was if he calmed down.
Meanwhile, all around them, the tension in Burger King was rising to a fever pitch. The customers had realized that the staff were purposely serving them smashed burgers, and they were angry at them. They had worked themselves into a temper and were gathered at the counter, demanding an answer. Things were getting out of hand, and Drew began to consider stepping in for crowd control.
He watched in shock as Tar got up from the floor and made his way over to where Julius was. They stood beside each other. Drew was shocked by this. Julius had started the bullying against him, so he couldn’t understand why Tar would feel comfortable standing beside him. He was about to make a comment when an office door swung open and the manager walked out. He clapped his hands to draw everyone’s attention, and when he got it, he began to talk.
He told them that everything that was happening at Burger King was a social experiment. He talked about how bullying had become so prevalent in society, destroying young lives and scarring them. He also talked about how society treated victims of bullies: they were never given the amount of care and attention they deserved. He then said that he and his team had opted to use their platform to create awareness of the dangers of bullying. He announced that Tar, Julius, and the other boys were actors.
The acts of bullying they had put up were staged to get the reaction of people when they saw a child getting bullied, and the results were unflattering. Almost everyone had ignored the young boy, yet they had all complained when they were served smashed burgers. The bullied burgers and their complaints against them showed that they were perfectly okay with bullying as long as it had nothing to do with them.
The manager went on to say that while the experiment had been going great, they had considered calling it a wrap, but things took a nasty turn in a way none of them could have expected. Chase had walked into Burger King and then taken over everything. He wasn’t an actor; he was an actual bully. He saw what was being done to Tar and decided to join in.
He was having so much fun tormenting someone else that he didn’t even notice when Julius and the others stopped. The manager had tried to stop it, but Tar had signaled them not to. He wanted to see just how far Chase was willing to go to inflict pain on someone he didn’t even know before that day. Thankfully, Drew intervened and stopped him.
There the soldier stood in shock as he listened to everything. The other patrons were equally shocked. They were all ashamed of themselves as they realized how selfish they had all been. None of them had cared enough about a human life that was in danger, but they had wanted to fight off the staff just because their burgers were smashed. They realized that they needed to do better.
Chase stood there like a pole. He couldn’t believe that he had gotten carried away like that. As he stood there, all he could hear in his head were the manager’s words reminding him about how evil he had been to a person for no reason at all. Soon, the cops were called for him, and they took him away. He was going to be charged with assault.
However, before he was led away, he apologized to Tar for everything he did to him and asked for forgiveness. Later on, when Drew left Burger King, he felt lighter in his heart. He was glad that everything had worked out well and that people were taking the issue of bullying more seriously. It reminded him that no matter what was happening, he would always do his best to help those who needed it.
Soon, Chase was taken to a juvenile home where he began his journey to internal healing. He realized the folly of his ways and swore that he would never try bullying again. His parents had tried to bribe the police to release him. However, the video of Chase bullying Tar went viral, and they couldn’t accept the money. They had to investigate the case. They learned the hard way that they couldn’t pay off every bad decision their son made. Chase swore that he would be a better person and that no one would ever be scared of him again.
