A Stalker Defeated
I liked this girl. Good start, right? We’ll call her Jenny. So we were in high school, and I knew that she had a thing for me. I had a thing for her too, she’s pretty hot, but problem was, her ex bf was my best friend. We’ll call him Jimmy. So she used to date Jimmy, and I mean bro code, so no can do.
So I ignore it, but guess what should happen? Jimmy ends up telling me one day that he asked my ex (with whom I was hung up over for roughly 3 years before finally getting over… We’ll call her Janice.) on a date. Not being the type of guy to pick fights I gritted my teeth and said ‘hey, good for you, man!’.
Well, I was kind of miserable about them, but the side effect was that me and Jenny started talking a lot more. A lot more. Like we’d give each other long, definitely-more-than-friends hugs every time we saw each other, and all the usual high school flirtation strategies.
So Jenny and I were hitting it off pretty well as more-than-friends-but-not-quite-“friendly”-friends-yet, and it was a good time for me, but remember how I said I wasn’t the type to pick fights? Well that demeanor comes bundled with the package of “never take initiative for anything, ever”.
So as you may guess, I never asked Jenny out. I never did anything besides give her a hug and have our usual conversations. So Christmas break rolls around, and that’s all merry, but once school started back up, I noticed Jenny didn’t talk to me.
I said hi, she said hi, but no hugs, no conversation, no long meaningful eye contact… I wondered what had happened. Well actually I had figured it out pretty quick, it’s what happened to every single girl I got even kinda involved with in HS, I pushed them away because they thought I wasn’t interested in them.
Like I said, I never took initiative. So Jenny is platonic status towards me now, and since I never stand up and fix problems, I let this situation fester and get worse, until the point where we never even made eye contact anymore.
Well, that’s good and all, but problem was, I still carried my feelings for her. So, with the only form of action I could take being passive, I decide to chance a run-in with her in the hallway.
I scope out her classes (wasn’t hard since we had walked to all of each others’ classes the semester before), and find a place to intersect our paths. I figured if I did that and she saw me, she would initiate the conversation and be flirty so I wouldn’t have to do it.
Sounds realistic, right? Well this carried on for more than just one day. In fact, it carried on for three months. Almost every day I would pass Jenny in the hallway, pretending I didn’t notice her, hoping she would say hi. I skipped some days just to not overdo it.
It became so bad that sometimes I actually ended up waiting an hour and a half after school and would make up an excuse to be there for when she got out of her musical rehearsal.
I would follow her tweets on what she was doing and chance a meeting there, I would “accidentally” text her deep and thought-provoking messages that made me sound mysterious. Yes. I was basically stalking this girl, and she knew it.
How did she know it? Because one April day of some year, I was crossing paths with her during one of my chance encounters. It was one of my two paths that I actually had to go way out of my way to see her.
Turns out, Jenny had done her research and found out that I didn’t need to be walking anywhere close to where I was, especially not for three months.
Her class was on the top floor of our school, the arts and crafts hallway that only had two active classes that year, one of which was at the very beginning of the school day, and I had no art classes. So why was I there?
We passed each other in the crowded hallway. Just as we got to the point where we would leave each other’s peripherals, I took a glance, sure that she wouldn’t notice me looking at her.
I noticed that her face was turning towards me. I quickly glanced forward, intent on keeping me calm-and-collected and I-don’t-care act. I heard my name.
I halted. Turning around, I saw Jenny glaring right at me. Her snap had attracted attention from the fellow hallway marchers. She had clenched fists, and if the human body were capable of blowing steam out of its ears in anger, she would’ve done so.
“O-Oh hi, Jenny! I didn’t s-” She interrupted me with a voice that, while not screaming, was loud and sharp enough to give off the demeaning tone she was trying to achieve.
“Don’t you ever follow me again. Since you know my schedule so well, try avoiding me from now on.” She gracefully, yet firmly turned on her heel and marched onwards.
The lanyard and ID I was twirling on my index finger fell to the ground. I was speechless. Bracing the whispers of judgement and the blanket of shame falling down upon me, I gathered my belongings and tried to walk to my next class with whatever shreds of pride I had left.
I promptly failed. Never again did I see Jenny in the hallways. So yeah, idk about whoever reads that, but I cringe every time I remember it. Story credit: Reddit / Sharpam