I left the house this morning at 11:30 AM. I had on some high waisted shorts and a crop to match because it's February 22, and already is it 85 degrees fahrenheit. I now know that both these things were a mistake.
My goal was to either a) head north up the street to go the grocery store or b) go south and go to the drug store. I decided on option b. Another mistake.
I'm walking south, but traffic is headed north. I walk past a bus stop, and the man sitting there gets up. He's on the low end of middle aged, looks a little worn. He asks me if I'm going to work. The answer to that is no. Then comes, "oh, then where are you headed?" Just walking. He runs back to the bus stop, grabs his belongings, and runs back after me. It's hot outside, but that's not why I'm sweating. He says he's going to walk with me. My pepper spray is home on my nightstand.
And, what can I say? I'm barely five feet tall and not even out of my teens. I look small. And, if I had just worn my oversized tee for Old Friends, I may not have even had this problem. But no. I was showing a decent amount of skin and looked decently weak. Maybe I was overreacting, but who just leaves their bus stop to follow some random girl?
He starts telling me that he's fresh out of prison, just released this month, and that he's starting a job on Monday so he has nothing to do today. He asks if I live alone. I told him I have three roommates, I'm never alone (which is a lie). He lives alone, he likes it, and he's prattling on about something I really don't remember because I was eyeing a gas station. I could go inside, ask the cashier to help me out, nothing about this felt right. But, what if he came inside with me? Then what would I do? I'm bad with confrontation.
So instead, I cross the street and start walking westbound. I figured he wouldn't want to follow because now we were going to be walking away from his bus route, and surely, he had something to do because he was waiting there originally. This was too a mistake.
He crosses the road with me, and the downtown bus pulls up a few minutes later. I thought about getting on the bus, but again, what if he got on, too? Then I would just be stuck sitting next to him. About five people get off the bus, and he recognizes one.
This man is a bit younger, maybe mid twenties or so, but he's dirty. Not like his hair is just greasy and clothes disheveled, but he's actually coated with dirt. He reaches over and tries to run his hand over the tattoo on my left bicep. I've never flinched away more.
They ask me what my last name is. The first thing that pops into my head is Cass. They ask me to spell it out and everything. They ask me what my name means, whether it's Swedish or German. They ask me if I'm Swedish or German because I look it. I tell them I don't know.
The topic is back on my tattoo, and they're asking me all sorts of questions. I tell them the truth about it, that it's by Van Gogh, so that makes them want to talk about Norman Rockwell, and the way they're talking is so forced, and I get trying to make small talk, but not trying this hard when they've been following me for twenty minutes now and I've probably said less than fifteen words in total, counting "yeahs" and "mhms."
They ask me my first name, and the first thing I think is Cassidy, but Cassidy Cass is just so bad, so then I settle on Tiffany. The delay in response should have been a good indicator that I was lying, but both men started humming, "Tiffany Cass," like they were trying to memorize it and my skin crawled.
They were trying to sandwich me between them, and I got so scared. All of a sudden they got quiet and were so close, and if we kept walking west, very soon would the alleys start and the not too busy streets, and I panicked. Two against one with no eye witnesses made me want to pee. We were on a very busy street now, and I kinda shouted that I was gonna cross the street, and I just jaywalked.
I hate jaywalking, but I sprinted across the street and hustled as fast as I could to the east. The men kinda just stopped, did not cross the street, but started walking east bound, too.
I ran into the McDonalds and just sat there for about an hour. I ordered some food (they messed up my order), but I figured it would be better to sit there with food versus just sit there and look scared.
I walked home very paranoid, keys between my fingers, but there was not another incident. First thing I did when I got home was put my pepper spray back on my keychain, bought online a knife and one of those self defense keychains that looks like a cat. When I have an extra 30 dollars, I will buy a taser, too.
The fact that I have three other stories like this one from within the past year scares me so badly, too. But, my usual go to response is, "I am a minor." It's always outside of school hours, my tattoos are covered, something else. I'll be twenty in a few months, and today was the first time ever that I felt like that excuse would not work.
I don't like it.
I had other plans today that would require me leaving the house, but that's not gonna happen, no.
Stay safe guys. Don't leave your pepper spray at home. That's the best piece of advise I can give you.
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