Let's Not Meet Again

My Overly Clingy Stalker Friend

I had a friend, a friend who I thought of as a brother, a friend I could talk to and a friend I told my deepest secrets.

I met him at my school, or more specifically a sports day. I called him Joshua. It was the last day of school before the holidays. We hung around with a bunch of others, had some laughs, enjoyed ourselves and after we exchanged our Facebook names. Pretty normal stuff.

It wasn't until the middle of the holidays until he messaged me, he just said hello and said he wanted to check up on me.

Now, I should tell you I'm quite a loner and I had never had a proper friend since primary school (I'm in the 4th year of secondary school) so I was quite flattered by this. We started talking consecutively to each other, around the same time I was moving house. He told me he only lived 10 - 15 minutes away from me so we could really hang out together. I was really excited we would be hanging out, I had never had a friend over to my house before so it was a new experience.

Fast forward a year later, we were now best friends. We discovered each others interests, walked around the town together, went to the movies and went swimming, exchanged secrets, we did anything really. The problem is, he had gotten REALLY clingy.

I knew he wanted to get with me, but at this time I had a boyfriend, Charlie, and he knew this so I was pretty annoyed. He insisted Charlie couldn't treat me right or that he didn't really love me and that Charlie would talk shit behind my back. When I asked for proof he wouldn't talk to me for an hour.

Honestly, I didn't really care because he was pretty annoying.

He constantly tried to call me on Skype, but I was usually talking with Charlie so he would try to get into the call with us. Charlie and I never really got time together because he had a job and I had to study so we said no to Joshua most of the time. He would get salty and would say "if you were really my friend, you'd let me join" but would apologize 30 minutes later for being childish.

All my friends (the internet ones and Joshua at least) know I'm a huge gamer and recently got into a MMO that was new at the time. I didn't tell Joshua that I would be playing it because I didn't want him to trail behind me. He had already done it twice before and kept bugging me to always play with him.

I had found a guild with great people I would raid with twice a week for a few hours. They were like a second family to me. A week later, he found out I'd been playing this MMO from a friend and signed up to join my guild. I knew it was him because he always used the same name.

Not even a week later, he was kicked from the guild. Apparently he would talk shit behind my back and would harass the female members. Plus they just thought he was really annoying. He thought anything he said was comedy gold and every second sentence was a shitty reference. He'd also interrupt the raid by coming into one of our voice channels for raiding and start blaring loud music. He got what he deserved honestly.

After hearing he would talk shit behind my back though, and deciding that enough was a enough, I called him on Skype and told him I didn't want to be friends anymore.

He didn't take this lightly.

He cussed me out and threatened he'd bleed out my secrets to my friends, saying he'd ruin my life 

and I hung up on him and blocked him. I had enough of him and I thanked God he was gone, or so I thought.

I had forgotten he knew where I lived because I had delayed seeing him for a month and I prioritised my guild over him and I really just didn't want to talk to him.

About 3 weeks later after getting Joshua out of my life, I noticed something that gave me chills. I'm an insomniac and I liked to look at the street lamps outside sometimes. I just love the glow of a stray street lamp in the midst of darkness. I had black roller blinds covering my window and you couldn't really tell if someone was looking at you from my window. That's when I saw Joshua, standing outside under the street lamp closest to my house.

Outside my window, is a balcony, you could easily climb up and down it because of the many ledges and pipes on the side of my house, It's how I would sneak out sometimes. I should also mention that I always had my window open because it was so warm in my room and I didn't have a fan or air conditioning, but the past week it was freezing so I kept it closed.

I was fucking terrified, I could see him staring at my window. I knew what he was going to do and not 15 minutes later he started climbing up the ledges and pipes. It was just quiet enough to hear the pipes banging against the wall. I was SO glad I had closed the window because you could easily slip in or out of it.

I had turned off my monitor, just in case any light seeped through. I didn't want him to know I was there, I was shaking, my teeth were chattering but I tried my best to stay quiet. I didn't move out of my room because the floor boards were creaky and very loud and if you were standing outside on the balcony you could hear pretty much anything.

I couldn't scream for help because my mum had left to go out drinking and my little sister was staying at my grandparents.

I heard the creak of the balcony, it was only a window separating me and Joshua. It became a waiting game and it felt like minutes became hours. I heard him trying to open the window but there was no real way you could open it unless you were inside.

I think It was 5 A.M now, I heard my mums car pull into the drive way, and I was extremely relieved. She began shouting at Joshua and I could hear him jump back onto the pipes. My mum got inside and rushed up to my room, giving me a big hug and being glad that I was okay. We called the police but they said they couldn't do anything unless he actually assaulted me.

It's been a year and a half now and I still haven't seen or heard about him, he had just up and disappeared but maybe that's for the best.

Wherever you are Joshua, let's not meet again.