Not Safe

Dammit. She was already running late and it would definitely be dark when she heads out to her car now. It took over four minutes to reset her password before she could clock out on the ancient computer in the back room of Pins and Plays. The only bowling alley in town so it was packed wall to wall on the weekends but dead on the weekdays until it was time for the league players. Tashi rushed out the door, across the parking lot, glancing around, no sign of the truck tonight. Thank God! She reached her beat-up, old-ass, blue Ford Focus as quickly as humanly possible and got inside as her cell started to vibrate. Her heart sank. Her stomach clenched. She didn't want to look at it. She mentally prepared herself and looked at the phone but it was Carmen. Her best friend since childhood and no threat at all. Tashi relaxed and they gossiped as usual, about the boys at school, and the plans for the summer, the ten-minute drive home passed by pretty quickly. Carmen was filling Tashi in on the plans her parents had to rent a beach house down on the Outer Banks of North Carolina when the text came through on Tashi's phone.

"I SEE YOU MADE IT HOME SAFELY. LOVE BILLY' . "

"Shit!" Tashi said suddenly and Carmen already knew what happened. The text messages weren't a new thing. Billy was always around. He was always watching. About a month after she started working at Pins with Carmen, Tashi noticed a man watching her. He was just sitting there, eating his fries and looking up every few minutes to smile at her. This in itself wasn't strange right? She worked the snack bar, she was a cute teenage girl, and, sometimes men smiled at her. No harm, no foul. But then, he walked up and said " Thanks again Natasha". That was really creepy for a lot of reasons! Starting with the fact that they didn't have name tags and the fact that no one except her father called her by her full name. After that, Billy was at Pins for every shift that Tashi worked. After she complained to management, she was told that Billy was harmless and that seemed to be true. He was NICE, really nice. People seemed to love him. So Tashi tried to relax and just smile and say hello. Then the text started. Sometimes she would get a text when she got in her car to start driving home. 'DRIVE SAFE NATASHA. LOVE, BILLY" She would look around then, sometimes she would see the black truck sitting there in the parking lot, and sometimes she wouldn't. Tashi thought the times that she couldn't see the truck were the worst! Where the hell was he? How was he seeing her?

Tashi was worried that things were getting worse and she was looking forward to her vacation in two weeks on the beach with no Billy! That night she changed her clothes and got ready for bed. "SWEET DREAMS NATASHA. LOVE BILLY"

Her fears soon became reality and Tashi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She did both. Every day. On Friday, the week before the beach vacation, she pulled out of the school parking lot and noticed Billy's truck behind her immediately. This was strange, even for Billy, he was older and he never followed her to school. He followed her to work and sat in the parking lot all night, then followed her home and sat outside of her house. Eventually, Tashi went outside to ask him what was going on and he sped off. This was stranger behavior than Tashi was used to from Billy so she text Carmen and they agreed to be on high alert. It was a good thing they did, both girls worked on Saturday to save money for the trip, then decided to stay at Carmen's house. Tashi saw headlights speeding up behind them quickly, staying close to Carmen's car and flashing brights, all along the winding country road. It could have been anything at all. Except then the text came in

"YOU NEED TO BE MORE CAREFUL OUT THERE. LOVE BILLY"

At this point, both Tashi and Carmen were really scared and started to wonder if Billy was dangerous. Tashi worked her shift on Sunday and Billy followed her home, like usual. he sent his text, like usual. Tashi busied herself packing for the trip, she needed the time away to clear her mind and get a break from Billy. When he didn't show up at Pins for the next two days it was such a relief! Tashi began to hope that he had given up or that he had found something better to do? But on Wednesday night, Tashi saw that black truck sitting across from her house and she felt sick. On Thursday night she got the strange text "DON'T LEAVE ME NATASHA. LOVE BILLY" What? Tashi decided right then that after the vacation she would sit down with Billy and tell him that this needed to stop or she would call the police. Or maybe she would just call? She had all the text. That was proof, right? Maybe she should just answer the text?

Friday morning as Tashi was about to leave for the beach, Billy sat in the truck and watched her. She looked up and saw him, looked away. Then decided to confront it. She walked up to the truck and asked Billy why he was sitting there but he didn't answer, he looked away. Then he finally said " I won't text anymore." Then he started the truck and drove away. When Tashi got back from the beach trip, she quit that job, even though she had loved it, she didn't want to run into Billy anymore. But she did, one more time, it was several years later and he was with his wife. He smiled and introduced them and she smiled and found that she actually felt happy for him. She didn't mention that she still looks over her shoulder for his black truck all these years later.