So, yeah, the title sounds horrible. I get it. Let me explain before you light your pitchforks.

This happened last weekend. My friends and I 25(M) were on a little getaway trip to the coast to celebrate one of our birthdays. We rented this beach house, stocked it with booze, snacks, and vibes, and planned to just chill for 3 days. On Saturday, it was particularly hot, so a bunch of us decided to hit the beach and swim.

Now, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the ocean. I love how pretty it is. I hate how it’s just full of things that want to murder you slowly and with malice. But peer pressure and three hard seltzers convinced me to go in.

And here’s where it all goes downhill.

Within five minutes of being in the water, I felt this sharp, searing pain on the back of my thigh. I screamed. Like, not a cute scream. A bloodcurdling, horror movie, “they’re coming to flay me alive” scream. I had no idea what just happened, but I managed to hobble out of the water and immediately collapsed on the sand, clutching my leg like I’d been shot.

Now, I’m in panic mode, because 1) I have a ridiculously low pain tolerance, and 2) I’ve read somewhere (probably on some sketchy forum) that jellyfish stings can cause your heart to explode or something. I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking clearly.

Here’s the thing: I was in so much pain I wasn’t really… aware of my surroundings. I was screaming, writhing, and kicking like a lunatic, and in my moment of pure agony-induced panic, I noticed someone approaching me. She was holding her phone out, recording me.

RECORDING. ME.

Like I was some kind of freak show.

That’s when I lost it.

Something snapped in me. I was crying, sweating, probably hallucinating, and I just lunged at her. I swatted the phone out of her hand, shoved her, and then (and this is the part that got me in trouble), I started hitting her with my flip-flop. Then I just went ballistic. I started punching her, kicking her and trying to choke her.

Now, I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I was just in full fight-or-flight jellyfish-sting-mode. My friends immediately pulled me off, and the woman screamed that she was going to call the cops. My friend tried to explain that I was stung and not in my right mind, but she wasn’t having it. She ended up leaving, and nothing came of it legally (thank GOD), but now all my friends are split about whether I went too far.

Some of them are like, “Dude, you were stung. You weren’t thinking clearly. She shouldn’t have been filming you.” Others say, “Yeah, but you assaulted a woman with a shoe.”

To be clear, I did apologize once I calmed down and realized what I did. I even offered to replace her phone case because it got completely shattered when I hit it. She just looked at me like I was the literal spawn of Satan and walked away.

I still feel awful, but I also feel like she seriously crossed a line filming me during what was probably the most painful experience of my life. Like, imagine if someone filmed you giving birth and posted it with a funny caption.

So… AITA?