Wilma had tried everything she could think of to put herself into a better mood, but nothing helped, not her music, meditations, or talking to her friend. She went to work at the antique shop with this poor frame of mind, and Dustin was her victim. She yelled at the young man for not locking up the back room immediately after exiting it and reprimanded him for forgetting to turn his cell phone off after it had rung while he had been with a customer. She criticized how he was handling a Depression-Era cereal bowl and complained that his whistling was giving her a headache. Dustin was apologetic for every flaw she had pointed out and diligently did his tasks, but none of this seemed to convince Wilma to let up on him.
She rubbed her temples as she stared at the clock. Only five minutes until closing time. She couldn't take another thirty seconds. The smell of old rubber and metal was about to make her hurl. If she left now, she could make the bus instead of waiting fifteen minutes after work. Wilma gathered her belongings and warned Dustin to lock up everything. She was rude to the bus driver as she got on and cut in front of a businessman in line or order to make sure she would get a seat with armrests.
So I've learned that if I want an antagonist, it's not necessarily someone who will have the evil laugh or always tempt the hero to do something wrong. It can be the obstacle in the person's life. It is that opposing authority figure or misguided best friend that is limiting the person from success. Most of the time, the villains are all misunderstood and deserve sympathy, even though they can be selfish and mean to the protagonist.
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