Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying the
holiday season! I'm going to tell you a Christmas story today, but it's
definitely not the kind of festive tale you'd normally expect this time of year.
Before I begin I'm just going to tell you: this is a real story. If this were a
magazine article I put a little a strict right here saying names have been
changed to protect people's privacy, but really yeah, I'm changing all the names
and places- but not to protect people's privacy- it's to protect my safety
instead. So this is important: If you think you know who I really am, please
don't say anything! It could put me in a lot of danger if
anyone reveals my real name or location. That’s the same reason why I’ve had to keep pretty quiet about this story in real life. Only the people who are really close to me know exactly what happened to me on Christmas day two years ago, when I was 17. To tell you the truth, it feels really good to get all this off my chest. Thank you so much for clicking on this video! Hi, my name is Stephanie, and this is my story. The story of the scariest Christmas of my life. It all began three summers ago, about half a year BEFORE that fateful Christmas. I think I’m really lucky that I had a close group of friends through high school. We definitely weren’t popular. No, we were more of a group of theater geeks than anything else, but they made going to school a lot of fun. It was a simpler time. So…with that whole theatre geek thing…some of my friends went to my same school, but a lot of them didn’t. We’d all just met at drama classes around town and doing plays outside of school. And then five months before Christmas, a new guy joined the group – a dude called Mark. I can’t even think about theatre now without a shiver running down my spine; it’s weird how hindsight can ruin good moments, isn’t it? At the time, though, I didn’t have any alarm bells ringing. I wish I could say I was more intuitive, but he just seemed (like a lot of us) like he was lonely, a bit of an outcast, and excited to have friends. Mark and I got along great. We were fans of a lot of the same things - shared a deep love for Hamilton and Taco Bell and thought the same things were funny. Obviously, those are just surface-level connections, but it’s always nice to spend time with someone who likes the same things you do. So pretty quickly he ended up being one of the people I hung out with the most - he and a girl I’d met the year before, Mira. I’d just like to make a disclaimer: I was in LOVE with Mira. And pretty much everyone in my friend group KNEW I was in love with Mira. I never tried to hide it, or hide that I was a lesbian, and I never, EVER tried to deceive Mark into thinking I had feelings for him. I never flirted with Mark, I never kissed him. We just hung out, gave friend hugs and shoulder punches. I just feel the need to make that clear, because some people blame me for all of this, saying I must have led him on. As if that would mean I deserved to be terrorized! Anyway. By now you’re probably already guessing it: Mark starting crushing on me. I mean, I didn’t even notice it for the longest time, mostly because I just don’t really think about guys that way – I just forget that the feeling isn’t always mutual. It’s weird for me when guys are into me, because I have like zero interest in bisexuality. And I only found out that Mark was into me because Mira pulled me aside and told me Mark was telling everybody how much he liked me, that he just knew it was mutual, and he was going to ask me out. At first, I thought she must be joking, because, again: lesbian. But then I heard it from a few more people, and then I started noticing that yeah, Mark did treat me differently from everyone else. Jeez - How had I not noticed before? He was actually pretty rude to other people, like always cutting them off in conversation just so he could talk to me.
So I decided that I’d better have a talk with Mark about the whole situation, before things got more intense – or he got embarrassed. I didn’t want him to think I was interested, or flirting, or anything, because somehow, he evidently thought I had feelings for him. I mean, another guy, Lewis, had already told Mark I was gay, and Mark just rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah sure, I know that’s what she tells everyone.” That really annoyed me. So one day I pulled him aside – and I really tried to be gentle – and I straight out told him I knew what he’d been saying, and I reinforced the fact that yeah, he was a close friend of mine, but I was not interested romantically. I was starting to re-consider the “close friend” bit at this point, but I thought it sounded nicer. Clearly, none of this went into Mark’s head at all, because he grabbed me by the face …and kissed me! It was the first time I’d been kissed by a guy, and between you and me, I hope it was the last. I wrestled myself free and stared at him. “What the hell, Mark? What’s your problem? I didn’t consent to that, and I don’t want to be with you! Ever! Consider this the end of our friendship.” Mark just smiled at me. He didn’t even seem bothered, even though I was starting to cry. “You’ll come around,” he said. “Goodnight, Steph.”
I didn’t want to be a drama queen, so I just texted Mira to see if I could come over. We laid there on her bed as I sobbed and told her the whole sordid story. You might think I’m being silly, because it was just a kiss, but… that kiss really upset me; it made me feel…dirty. Like he had just trampled all over my boundaries. Mira, despite being all of five feet tall and about as threatening as a kitten, seemed like she wanted to beat him up. That made me feel better. I do have to tell ya - one good thing happened after that: I asked Mira to be my girlfriend, and she said yes! So at least I was getting romantic attention from someone I was actually, you know, interested in. But it was hard to focus on the sparkles and fun of a new relationship when Mark was still ignoring my boundaries. He’d come up and put his arm around my shoulders at drama class. He texted me so much I had to block him. He even sent me a few gifts! I threw them out. And by now, I was starting to get scared. Fortunately, my friends came to the rescue, and they told Mark we didn’t want to hang out with him any more. So for a while, I was relieved. I never had to see Mark again! But then things got weirder. I started to see him, lurking in the distance, when I was out doing day to day stuff, like at the mall, at the movies with Mira, even once when I was out on a run. He never spoke to me, just watched. It was horrible. Mira was the one who suggested that he was checking my location on Snapmaps, so I turned it off, and the sightings stopped. But he still seemed to know stuff, like when I had my drama classes, even though I’d rescheduled them all to avoid him. I realized I had a stalker. I told my parents, who told the police, but they said there was nothing they could do unless he committed a crime. They did make a report, though, so that there would be a record of a history of him threatening me. I hated that! Seriously? I just had to wait around for him to do something even worse? Now it was December, and it was non-stop gifts showing up on my doorstep. Jewelry, flowers, things that HE thought I’d like…this guy didn’t even know me! I opened them with my family around in case there was something inside that could hurt me. And then, it was Christmas day. Mira’s family celebrated Christmas three days early because her dad had to work on Christmas, so she got to spend Christmas day with me. I was so excited, despite everything going on with Mark. We were going to spend the day at my grandparent’s lake house with all of my cousins. I knew there was no way Mark would ever be able to find out where I was – it was going to be a blissful day, free of fear. But - somehow he did. I still don’t know exactly how. I think maybe it was my younger cousin tweeting that she was excited to spend Christmas with me and mentioning the lake house, but her account was private, and I don’t know how he found the address. I don’t even want to know. Maybe he made a fake account just to follow her. We had the best family Christmas eve, eating, drinking, telling stories, eating more, telling more stories. My grandparents loved Mira, I got to hang out with the cousins I hardly ever saw, and things felt good. The whole night nobody noticed a set of footprints in the snow leading up to the window, and as we watched a movie, laughing, nobody saw the boy standing out there in the dark looking in. We only saw the footprints in the morning. Now, I can’t imagine that night without seeing a shadowy figure staring in from outside, for hours and hours. So we woke up in the morning, all of us looking cute in our Christmassy pajamas, and traipsed downstairs to open presents. As soon as we got downstairs, everybody stopped cold. The whole family knew about my stalker, so they knew something was up as soon as they saw the window open, flurries of snow blowing in. And then there was the big, shiny present sitting on the living room floor by the window, with a note that said: “To Stephanie, my love.” I burst into tears. My grandparents called the police, and this time, they were able to do something. See, now there were fingerprints on the box that had been left inside, which meant there was enough evidence to charge Mark with breaking and entering. And the box itself provided even more evidence. The police officer who came to the house opened it, and as soon as he unwrapped it, whispered, “Oh, my god.” There were photos. So, so many photos. Ones of me and Mira from a distance, ones of me and my family, and then, even more disturbingly: me watching TV late at night, clearly taken from a window or inside the house. One of Mira sleeping. One of me sleeping. By now my whole body was shaking. There was a note in with the pictures, too, that simply said: “I’ll get you, Stephanie.” The officer said that he could be charged with threatening me, too.
Mark was back at his house, trying to pretend that he had done nothing wrong, when the police showed up and arrested him. Fortunately, there was more than enough evidence to prove that he had broken into the house, as well as my grandparents’ security cameras showing him standing in the garden, just watching, for hours. I never heard from Mark again. I haven’t seen him since I testified in court. Every day, I thank the lord that he was already 18 when he met me, so he could be tried as an adult. The scariest thing was how delusional he was when he pled not guilty. He still thought that I loved him back and he just needed to convince me that it was ok to give in to my feelings. What a lunatic! I’m still terrified about what will happen when he’s released, but there will always be a restraining order so he can’t come near me, and I’ve been taking judo and self defense classes (with Mira, who is still the love of my life) so I can feel safer once he’s out in the world again. I wish he could’ve just listened to what everybody told him and just been cool about. Things would’ve turned out so differently – for me, and for him. Thanks for listening to my story. I know it’s scary, but it's important to me to make sure that you know not everyone has good intentions. You need to take care of yourself first – be intuitive and listen to your gut feeling about things! And please respect people’s boundaries. You can’t change how someone feels, ESPECIALLY not by stalking them. Merry Christmas to all of you – I hope it’s better than mine was 2 years ago! Stay safe, keep warm, and let me know in the comments if any of you have a crazy Christmas story (although I hope it isn’t as crazy as this one). Oh, and don’t forget to like and subscribe!
Hey guys, It's Sarah here from My Crazy Story.
Thanks for watching this episode! Before you go, please, hit the like button and
subscribe, so you never miss a new video. Oh, and you haven't watched them yet?
Check out these other episodes that are trending right now! Thanks a lot and see
you guys next time!
