Let's Not Meet Again

My High School Stalker

I'm in my 20's now, and unfortunately for me, have had a TON of creepy encounters. Probably the worst is this guy from high school who developed a crush on me.

I'll call him Mark, and use different names for other people. Tons of people in my town know this story and I am going to try to avoid giving away a lot of hints because honestly, he still creeps me out and the whole situation still makes me uneasy.

Mark was the same age as me and had been held back a year so I met him when I was a sophomore and he was a freshmen. I want to start our by saying Mark wasn't bad looking guy, he wasn't even socially awkward and was a talented singer and musician. Despite him not having your typical "something's off" vibe... something was definitely off.

I was pretty popular and had some anger issues back in the day, so I brushed Mark off without even a thought about him, but everyone was uneasy around him. This included teachers and parents of other students.

I had to deal with Mark because we both were in theatre, for sake of length I will skip the endless strange things he did and focus on what really put me off. He started telling everyone, myself included that he had a crush on me barely after a day of knowing me.

He used to try to hang out with my friends and I constantly. He started doing weird things like asking people where I was when I was absent or not at rehearsal because my role didn't require it. If you're in a show you can go to all the rehearsals even if you're not rehearsing on stage that day, and he started going to every rehearsal. He would just stare at me, and soon he got to the point of staying after much longer than required. Perhaps that would have been less strange if when he turned 16 and had a truck he didn't turn it in a parking spot facing the theatre exit and wait for me to come out. Always offering rides.

By my junior year the amount of times he would approach me and other people about how 'great' I was was getting less annoying and more disturbing. Being as I had a reputation of being tough, I basically just cursed him out and became exceptionally rude. Which really only made him try more.

Something to note about me is I am a very picky eater, and people who have known Me for years can't keep up with what I do eat and what I hate. But Mark started buying me food and giving it to me, and it would always be these particular things that there was no way he should have known unless he just watched me constantly. He started trying to give me money too, and I always told him to get away from me and would threaten him in one way or another. I noticed at rehearsals that money ended up in my backpack. The same amount he was always trying to give me, so obviously it was him.

Winter started to roll around and I was just creeped out. Everyone basically said he was the creepiest dude ever and how I hadn't been completely freaking out before now was beyond them. I was very close with three guys. Two were brothers, Jason and Mike and my best friend, Toby.

Jason and Mike went to church twice a week and announced to myself and some mutual friends that Mark had been kicked out of the youth group for inappropriate advances on girls there. Apparently of all ages.

It was around this time Mark just started following me, sitting across from me in rooms, at lunch, in the theatre. Being rude hadn't worked, being neutral hadn't worked, so I was just acting like he didn't exist at this point. It was hard considering he started following us to dinner after shows and sitting at other tables next to us in resturants.

Here is where it gets bad, and I didn't even realize this was as potentionally bad as it could have been until I was an adult. After rehearsal, Jason and Mike headed home in Jason's car, and I got in a Toby's car. They all lived in the same community and there was a park and a lake there and we decided to go walk around.

Apparently Mark decided following us wasn't out of the question and as we got to the parking lot he did too. Night security told him flat out they knew he didn't live there and to leave, knowing me because I was friends with many people who lived here. Only later did Mark tell us the night security asked him to leabe and he said "he was with us "

Jason, Mike, Toby and I just walked around throwing rocks into the lake and talking and Mark followed us, being that it was cold, he literally took it upon himself to try to put his coat on me and he insisted as I refused and finally I just gave it. Mistake.

Jason and Mike got into Jason's car because they were over Mark being creepy and said we needed to get out of there. MArk tried to leave his coat with me, but I didn't want anything to do with anything of his. Toby insisted he take the jacket back and tell him to get lost, as everyone knew we were best friends and he was over six foot four. I said I could take care of it. Second mistake.

I took it off and handed it to him through the window of his truck and he said dead serious, "I am going to put this in my shrine to you." I remember I huffed angrily, but didn't say anything and as I went to walk back to my friends his eyes went dead and he says so blankly, "You know you're the type of girl that makes guys like me bring guns to school."

That was is for me. I excused myself as nicely, without being TOO nice and got into Toby's car. He could tell something happened and asked what. When I repeated what I had been told he instantly waves Jason back to his car, who had gotten out to come ask why we weren't following them to his house.

Once Jason was back in his car, Toby called him and told him what happened and said not to go anywhere until Mark left. After about five minutes he did. We all went to Jason's house and the three of them including Jason and Mike's parents said this had gone on long enough and that was a tgreat and I needed to tell someone, but I refused, saying he was just trying to scare me.

Luckily for me, Jason and Mike's mom knew my mom very well and after Toby and I left so he could drive me home She called my mom and told her what happened. Toby decided to spill the beans the second he saw my parents, saying if I wouldn't tell them, he would. My mother just heard the same story of this dude mentioning bringing a gun to school over me from two different people.

She called her friend who was a cop, and she went to the school the next day. What EXACTLY happened to Mark I don't know, all my mother, our cop friend and the administration at our school did was say it was 'taken care of' And he was no longer allowed to be within 100 feet of me.

After this my senior year was filled with him staring at me, but never coming up to me, but throughout this year, and entire year after his comment to me people I barely knew would approach me saying Mark said weird stuff like wanting to marry me and -even creepier- that he had a shtime to me. I like to believe there was never a shire and he was just being weird, but everyone in my life swears they believe this 'shrine' existed.

I hate to think what would have happened had I not been with Toby, Jason and Mike. If Jason and Mike's mom didn't tell my mom and Toby also told her. I was originally mad that they were going to adults about it, but now realize that there is a chance that comment was more of a threat.

Every now and then I wonder what would have happened if no one told. If I hadn't obviously looked scared and Toby picked up on it. Could this guy of shot up our school? Killed me, my friends and innocent people?

I like to think this was all a bunch of talk from a weird guy, but so often people do end up acting on their insane ramblings. Toby and I are still best friends and here and then mention it, and I can never stop thanking him for involving Jason and Mike's parents as well as my parents.