Our Stories & Voices: Anonymous

Content Warning(s): Creepy behavior, person under the age of 18.

Submitted for Sexual Assault Awareness Month - Our Voices & Stories.

"Friday night of the convention, there was a pajama party with a lot of board games, twister, karaoke, etc. I was there with a few of my friends and I had tried to put together a cute outfit. Tutu, knee socks, pigtails, etc.

I was hanging around in the hallway outside when I was approached by another male stranger. He looked to be about my age and, this time, I thought he was cute so I was more inclined to say hi. (That and he didn't invade my personal space immediately.) Because I liked him, I didn't pick up on any of the red flags. He started asking if he could take pictures of me and was posing me in ways that my skirt would look shorter in the picture. He had another female friend with him that he put in the pictures with me and did the same to. He asked for my phone number so he could meet up with me the next day at the convention, and I gave it to him, excited to have met a cute boy.

We talked a little more and I mentioned to him that the following day was my birthday. He asked how old I would be and I told him... "17!" He got a little weird and excused himself for the night shortly after. The next day, I was anxious to hear from the cute boy I met, but didn't get a text for most of the day. That night was the rave. As I was entering the dance floor, I felt my phone vibrate and it was a text from the guy I had met. He asked me to meet him in a certain place in the main events hall and, of course, I went.

That night, when my friends and I went to leave on the shuttle back to our hotel, he remarked that he was staying there as well and rode back with us, holding my hand, asking me if I wanted to hang out in his room with him for a while. My friends, looking out for me, basically told me they wouldn't let me go even if I wanted to, so I went back to my own room.

The last day of the convention, we met up once more before the closing ceremonies. We sat in the AMV hall and he tried to put his hand on my thigh. I brushed it off. As I rode home in the car with my friends that afternoon, he texted me to tell me that he had a good time meeting me but that he had a secret he needed to tell me.

He was 36.

-Anonymous