Bus Stalker

This story took place during my first year of college. Back then, the bus system in my city was a complete hit or miss in terms of being reliable. Unlike most of my friends, I lived the farthest from downtown in a recently developed suburban neighborhood. Very few busses had routes that ventured out the newly built-up area. The ones that did, the 177 and the 175, only came around in 30-minute intervals for a couple of hours at a time in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

It was a Saturday in the middle of spring. Two of my close friends had suggested that we see a movie and then do some window shopping afterward. A typical hangout session for a bunch of 19-year-olds. We all decided to meet downtown somewhere between 10-10:30 am that morning. On a good day, the journey downtown from my neighborhood took two busses and an hour to complete. To make sure I got there on time, I hopped on the 177 around 9 am. About 15 minutes later, I'm getting off at the local shopping center so I can transfer onto the 95. There was still some time to kill before the bus arrived so I walked to the other side of the bus station and waited inside the bus shelter.

While sitting and playing games on my phone, I occasionally glanced up to look at the busses approaching. On the opposite side of the bus stop, I saw a man step off a 95 that was ending its route. Nothing strange about him at first. He was very tall, probably pushing 7 feet. He didn't look scruffy and was clearly jamming out to whatever was playing through his headphones. Probably wouldn't have even noticed him had it not been for the bright orange raincoat he was wearing. Colour aside, I figured he had it on because it was supposed to rain later that day. Right before I could look away again, the man had spun turned his head, and stopped mid-stride as our eyes met. A flash of cold ran through my chest, realizing that I'd been caught stupidly staring at a stranger. Extremely embarrassed, I awkwardly looked back down at my phone.

My bus was due to come back around any minute so I gathered my things and decided to wait outside the shelter for its arrival. Once standing I could see that the man from earlier was staring directly at me. As soon as it was clear that he had caught my attention, he smirked and gave me a small head nod. Not knowing how to react in such a situation, I gave a tiny wave and adverted my gaze to anywhere but his general direction. when my bus finally showed up I practically ran to it. After getting situated in the back, I looked out the window to see the tall guy running to join the line of passengers entering the bus. I thought to myself, "Didn't he just get off the 95?" It was weird because we would just be going back the way he came. I shrugged it off and chucked it up to him missing his stop before. Maybe he's never been to this stop and didn't know that he could get back on the same bus. Booking it as soon as he saw the 95 pulled up. The bus began to drive off, and I prepared to tune out the world with my earphones. From the corner of my eye, I saw the tall man seat himself a few rows in front of me; sitting with his back against the window. He had a clear view of me in that position since not many people were on the bus yet. From the corner of my eye, I could see that the man was smiling at me again. It seemed off, though. Almost forced. I continued to ignore him and turned towards the window. Stop after stop, people started to fill the bus quickly, hiding me from the man's view. Giving me some peace of mind until I reached my destination.

The day goes by and our outing eventually comes to an end. Friends K, M, and I are waiting for our respective busses to go home. This particular bus station is huge and is located outside the bottom floor of the mall, off to the side of the main road. It's loud and busy with hundreds of people waiting at any given moment. We wanted to stay out longer but that's risky when your main means of transportation has a curfew. Heavy rain began to fall, as expected from the weather forecast. Luckily, I checked the weather report that morning and remembered to bring an umbrella. Being tall myself, it was easy to keep the three of us covered under the large umbrella. Shortly after the rain started, K then gets a text from her boyfriend. Apparently, he'd just gotten off from work and wanted to drive home together. She says goodbye to the two of us and runs off back inside the mall to meet her boyfriend. To pass the time, M and I were talking about project deadlines and cracking jokes. M suddenly turned away from me a bit. Her eyes kept looking behind me, then darting away. I didn't mention anything about it because I knew M had trouble in large crowds. Sometimes pointing out her behavior made her anxiety worse. However, my curiosity was eating me alive. I needed to check and see if our bus was coming anyway, so I took the opportunity to try and see what was bothering her so much.

And there he was. Right behind me. The tall man in the orange raincoat.

He was so close to us that he was partially covered by my umbrella. He definitely wasn't standing there when we arrived at the station. At least where we could easily see him. He must've appeared within the 15-minute time frame K has been gone. I understood why M was freaking out. I've run into the same people before while traveling across the city on multiple occasions. It's not necessarily uncommon. But that's only seeing them from afar. Not in your personal bubble. I'm pretty sure he was staring at us the whole time based on how his eyes and head instantly shifted towards the road once I looked at him.

His close proximity obviously made me extremely uncomfortable. Not wanting the man so close anymore, I came up with the idea to "accidentally" trip and bump into him."Oh! I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you?" My voice was much louder than it had originally been. This shocked M and quite a few other people nearby. The man wasn't expecting me to do this and seemed uncomfortable with all the heads turning in our direction. He stepped back and muttered, "Uh..no, no. It's alright." It was the first thing I could think of. My hope was that making a big enough show out of the situation would give us a chance to move away. "Ah! Ok. So sorry, again. I know my umbrella is huge. Haha!" It worked, kinda. M and I moved away as people got up and made their way to the approaching busses. Separating us from the man. M grabbed my arm and told me she didn't say anything earlier because she didn't know how to tell me without him hearing her. "How did you find out?" "I saw him when I turned to find the bus. I almost screamed because he was right next to me. So I just pretended to trip so we could bounce." She laughed at me and began texting K about what just happened. "He was staring at you for a while. I thought he was gonna ask you something but he just stood there." "I don't know man. Earlier this morning I saw him at the station. We made eye contact as he was walking around funny. Then got on the same bus as me. He was watching me the entire time. Haven't seen him all day until now." M looked up in disbelief. "What? Really?" I nodded and kept my eye on the man.

20 minutes later, we were still waiting for the 95 to arrive and take us back to our neck of the woods. As to be expected, the bus was running late but there was nothing we could do about that. The creepy man was standing a couple of meters away, occasionally peeking in our direction. The two of us carried on with our conversation but made sure to keep tabs on him. Another wave of passengers made their way onto the next set of available busses; thinning out the sea of protection M and I were relying on. As we feared, the man took this as an opportunity to approach us again but he made sure to keep some distance this time. "Can y-you help me, please?" His voice was gravely and very deep. We exchanged a quick glance before asking what he needed help with. "I heard you girls mention [College Name] and that's near my place. I'm still getting used to this city and I'm lost. Can you tell me which bus takes me there? I've been searching all day." Hmm. Something wasn't adding up. That morning he took a bus that went in the complete opposite direction of where he "lives". The 95 starts its route on the outskirts of the city and slowly makes its way to the opposite end of my neighborhood. It only makes one stop for that area near the college at a large station. J would have no choice but to walk to that station in order to ride any bus, including the 95. Yes, it's possible he was running errands that morning. But there were many of the same stores and service centers near the college, as well. But still, it was already about 9 something in the morning when we saw each other. So just how early had he been up and about before then? If that was the case, it would only prove that he definitely knew his way around. Not to mention, it's been hours since we've seen each other. He's been lost all day...but didn't ask anyone else for help? No off-duty bus drivers? No other riders? There were maps everywhere. He had a smartphone that could tell him where to go and what bus to take. But he waited nearly 6 hours to ask me? A random chick he made eye contact with? There's a very high chance he had previous plans that day (if at all) and decided to forgo everything in order to follow me to...wherever I intended to go. When he got seperatd from me on the way downtown, he must've just waited around the station in hopes of seeing me again, as this is the only major bus station. Unfortunately for me, he got his wish.

I told him that we weren't familiar with bus routes outside of the ones we regularly use (Obviously a lie). "That map could tell you, though." I said pointing to the map behind him. The man didn't even bother to glance at the map. He just stared at me blankly. "Well, could you ride with me there?" My eyes widened at his request. "What?" he repeated himself and I replied, "N-no. Sorry. As I said, we don't know how to get there from here." "We can figure it out together." I could feel M grabbing onto my shirt tightly. "Why would we do that? We don't know you. And we have places to be." He stepped forward and blurted out, "You can call me J. I won't do anything to you. I just need help. Your friend doesn't have to come with us. She can go home." He sounded so desperate. We went back and forth for a few minutes. With the man, now known as J, pleading with me to help him all the way back to his place and with me refusing. J kept inching closer and now had his hands, which were previously in his coat pockets, out with one randomly clutching his pant pocket. His behavior had me feeling nervous and I decided to stop engaging with him completely. When he realizes that I was no longer speaking to him, J made a strained whine and walked back to where he was standing before. No idea what his problem was but I wanted none of it. And no, nobody heard or saw our verbal exchange. With the heavy rain, busy traffic, and the tons of people talking, it would've been impossible for someone to pick up on our quiet conversation.

The next thing I know, M is pulling me towards the 95; pushing us through the back doors. We could see J just staring at the bus; watching it slowly fill up. "What the hell is his problem? Why didn't he just look at the map?" I answered M with a shrug but never took my eyes off J. It was his face that held my gaze. He looked absolutely torn about something. Panicked even. I started to feel bad for the guy; it goes against my nature to not help someone, but I'm not going to risk my safety for some stranger that makes me extremely uncomfortable. Then I saw something that made me gasp. M asked, "What? What hap-" "He's getting on the bus." She stiffened and then leaned over me to see out the window "Oh my God. He...He's trying to follow us." J could only get on through the front door of the bus. It was so full by then that he had to stand by the bus driver. M and I kept our heads down as much as possible and endured the long ride back to our neighborhood.

M's stop was soon approaching next. We were hesitant to separate because we didn't know what J was capable of if he got one of us by ourselves. M decided it would be fine as long as she moves with the crowd in such a way that it reduces the chance of him seeing her from the window. "Call me if anything bad happens." she says and gets off the bus; immediately taking a sharp right behind the bus. I peeked around some of the remaining passengers to try and find J. I caught him looking out the window and checking the group of people leaving the bus. He seemed unimpressed and went back to whatever he was doing before. My phone suddenly got a message in the group chat. Both M and K were checking in with me to see what was happening. I tell them I'll keep them posted and wait till my stop arrives.

Within another 5 minutes, the 95 makes it back to my local shopping center. To my horror, I see the 177 leaving the station right as we pull up. Meaning I'll have to wait 30 more minutes before the next one comes to take me home. As the final stop, every passenger must get off. I didn't see J anywhere on the bus and thought he had gotten off already. Maybe he walked off to look somewhere else. Nope. He did get off but was waiting right outside the back doors where I was exiting. that's when I remembered that he saw us get on through the back door. So of course he knew where to wait for me. Not wanting to cause a scene, I tried to go by him. While doing so he attempted to grab my arm. This made me mad and I quickly yanked my arm away. Turning around while holding my umbrella up slightly in a threatening manner. J held his hands up and backed up a bit. "S-sorry. I just wanna talk to you." I glared at him before speedwalking across the road. I looked over my shoulder to see him glance around and begin following me again. Not many people were nearby. This probably gave the creep a bit of confidence to continue his stalking.

I quickened my pace and ducked into a clothing store around the corner. It's a store I visit often, so the manager there recognized me and said hi. I returned the greeting but stayed tucked in the back of the store. Where I was standing, I had a clear view of the front door. However, someone looking through the double glass door wouldn't be able to see much past the front display. The store was empty with just me and the manager at the moment. J had to of seen me turn the corner since it was a straight path from the bus stop. I continued acting like I was browsing while also watching the front window. 10 minutes go by and the rain picked up again outside. I carefully crossed to the other side of the store to check the blindspot of the glass window. I started to think that perhaps J walked in a different direction. That was. With his orange raincoat, hood pulled up, in the pouring rain. I waited to see if J would walk by the store, but no. He's just waiting outside. does he know that I'm in here? J turned to face the store. I made sure to stay down. The clearance racks were tall and helped me stay hidden. I could see him try to peer into the store and then look around a couple of times.

Why is he doing that? Well, the building I entered was a women's only clothing store. The only times you see men in there is when they take their daughters or wives shopping. Otherwise, they'd most likely just order the items online instead; assuming they wanted to buy gifts for others. As a man, if you didn't have a woman accompanying you in the actual store, it wouldn't be against the rules or anything, but it would look very weird to others. J took one last look around and then entered the store. The manager greeted him and asked if he needed help with finding an item. Probably assuming he's buying something for his girlfriend. I could hear him mumble a quick "no" as he randomly started messing with a pile of jeans. The manager didn't seem too bothered by this and returned to her closing duties. I grabbed some clothes off the rack and quietly asked her for a fitting room. "No problem. Let's get you set up in room 1." I entered the fitting room after thanking her. Locking the door and just sitting on the bench. I checked the time on my phone and saw that I only had 7 minutes till the 177 came. Not knowing how long J would be willing to wait outside, I contemplated just calling my dad for a ride as I knew he wasn't on call that day. As soon as I finished texting him...

*Knock*Knock*Knock* "Hey." *Knock*Knock*Knock* "You in here?"

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. What did this man want from me? "I...I'm not a freak or anything. I just wanna get to know you. You seemed so nice earlier and I want us to be friends. Please?" Friends? He was easily in his early to mid-30s. And he wants to be friends with a young, female, college student? I stayed as quiet as I could, but he just kept knocking. Then the knocking upgraded to jiggling the handle; pulling it back and forth to try and forcibly open the door. "Come on. Just tell me your name. I loved the smile you gave me this morning. You're so pretty." He sounds like he was on the verge of tears. What's wrong with him?! I honestly was preparing to fight. I may be tall but I'm not lanky by any means. I could throw a few punches if necessary. "Hey! Sir, you can't be back here. This is the fitting room area." The manager stated from the corridor. J quickly released the handle and I could hear him back away from the door. "I was just waiting for my friend. She was just asking me a question." "Right...but I'm afraid you still can't wait here since there are women that change back here. Men aren't allowed in the store but have to wait by the register. It's a policy put in place for privacy reasons." J stuttered, struggling to speak. "Sir. Please. You can't be here."

I have no idea what's going on. I can't see what's happening, only hearing their voices. At some point, other customers must've entered the store because I heard the bell at the front ring a few times. My dad then called me letting me know he pulled up to the store. I didn't think. I just ran for the car. I heard J call after me but I ignored him. As my dad and I drove out of the parking lot, I saw J in the rearview mirror just standing outside the store. Staring at us.