But He's Not Like Lee (Part 7)

I was done with the crazy boy for good. I began working as much as I could, and contemplated getting back in school. I decided I would wait a year, let my mind and body heal a bit. I actually felt good for a while. I started hanging out with old friends again. They all knew I had been abused, but I was never completely open with the extent of abuse I suffered. I had known all along that it wasn’t my fault, but I had been so scared of admitting failure, so ashamed that I had let that happen to me. I had never been shy, or quiet. I had always spoken my mind. I was not the type of person to let these things happen….but I had. By spring, things were looking up for me, I bought a new car, I was promoted at my job, and I was even interested in dating again. I decided to enroll in summer classes, they went great. The fall semester started and I was really feeling like myself again. I was taking classes 2 days a week from 8 in the morning to about 5 in the afternoon.

One afternoon as I walked out to my car after a full day of classes, I saw someone standing beside my car. The parking lot was emptying, it was almost dark. I was at a school with an enrollment of over 17,000 students. People in the parking lot were common, but I was parked far out, and there were not any cars parked in the spaces near mine so late in the day. Then my palms began to sweat, and I got this sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. Although I was not close enough to make out his features, I knew it was Lee. I got all shaky, and thought that I might pass out. Then from out of nowhere a friend from one of my classes appeared. He was a lot of fun and we usually worked on our calculus homework together. We had a joke that it took both of our brains to pass the class, because we each understood about half of the information given in the class. My friend was on a bike, and I asked him to walk with me to my car. He saw the “stranger” and the look on my face and wanted to know if everything was ok. I told him things were not ok, and promised to give him the story later, if he would stay with me long enough to let me get into my car-alone- with the doors locked. He did. Lee stood there making rude comments about my new “boyfriend”, and telling him that I was a whore, so to watch out that I would probably cheat on him. There was a whole string of horrible things coming form his mouth and my new friend just stood there and made sure I was in my car, told me to leave, and he would call me later. I got in my car whispering apologies into his ear, feeling horrible that my friend (nothing romantic at all), was hearing this and dealing with this horrible person, so that I wouldn’t have to. I was in my car, the doors were locked, I fastened my seat belt, I started the car, I put it into gear, and then it happened. Out of nowhere my friend hits Lee with a right hook that caught him so off guard, he fell to the ground. Then he got onto his bike waved at me with a big goofy grin and rode off to his dorm. Lee was left lying on the pavement, and despite the tears, I genuinely laughed. I also contemplated running over him, but chose to be the better person.

So to add to the crazy element it was now determined that this boy was a stalker. He had managed to find my new car that he had never seen before, and as far as I knew didn’t know existed, in a huge parking lot, at a big school. He managed to not only find it, but know without a doubt it was mine, and exactly when I would be there. Despite my belief that I was done with him, I was learning the battle was just beginning.