Let's Not Meet Again

Homeless Shelter Love Scare

  My name is Todd. I was seventeen when this happened. I lived in a homeless shelter with my mother. I met a girl that was the same age as me, named Stephanie, and she was with her mother as well. Neither of our moms had their other children with them, so we really had no one else to hang out with.

We were both new to the shelter, having moved in within only a few days of each other. We had came to be quite fond of one another and eventually started dating. It was summer time, so we spent most of our time outside until around nine when we had to go back. We were usually doing normal teenager things.

I had a car, a little Honda civic that I was very happy had tinted windows. We usually walked or rode our bike's if we were going somewhere close, since I wasn't keen on wasting gas. It was really nice where we were, and we were both somewhat attractive teens. We were actually both pretty athletic.

 One night, on a weekend, we had decided to take a walk to the park we frequented often. It was a nice little park with a very dark corner we had claimed as "The Spot". No one really went there at this time of night, except the occasional person cutting through or walking their dog.

We got started doing what we usually did there (I don't need to get into details). We heard someone coming up and stopped to listen. As soon as we did, the person stopped walking. There was a fence that came to a corner, we were on the darkened side, while the person was on the lit side. We heard a lighter being lit, and then shortly after we could smell the faint aroma of a cigarette.

We figured the guy was sitting at the bench around the corner and decided to move down the fence line a bit. We got ourselves zipped up and started walking on the path that cut through the park. We decided to walk around the block, then cut down the path again to our spot.

When we got there, the person was no longer at the bench. We decided to go over to finish what we started. We got back to our "frolicking" and weren't really paying attention to anything. We were standing, so you all have an idea of how this part happened.

It was really dark, and we hadn't really adjusted to the lack of light. Out of nowhere, Stephanie, jumped up and screamed. She was terrified, and I wasn't really aware of what happened. I thought maybe I had done something that hurt her, but she seemed to scared. She pointed to the ground as she said, "something was rubbing my leg. I thought it was you until I felt both of your hands on my waist". She was hysterical, but neither of is could see anything. I was about to turn away when I heard a noise. It sounded like a sigh. I don't exactly know what overcame me as I slammed my foot down as hard as I could over and over again. I heard someone gasping for air, and before I knew it, we were running.

We had been so terrified we hadn't known what to do. We just ran back to the shelter, smoked a cigarettes off to the side away from everyone else, and tried to get calm. We sadly didn't call the police, figuring the person had to have ran off by this point.

The shelter had a very strict "AWOL" rule. If you didn't show up before midnight, you would be kicked out. We found out the next day, since we were the need-to-know-all drama teens, that one of the newer residents hadn't shown up. He wasn't even from the state we were living in, so it wasn't unusual for people like him to leave after a few days. We both knew he was probably the creep that was at the park the night before. We decided to not go back there, and just do our thing in my car.

It turns out, the guy had been in an "accident". The police report said he had been hit by a vehicle and was in the hospital. We kind of felt bad for assuming it was him, but we both still had that feeling inside us. Since he was in the hospital, we decided we would go back to the park. Nothing happened for weeks, even after he returned to the shelter.

Fast forward a few years. I was a junior in college in the area and had taken up a part time volunteer position serving food and doing dishes at lunch at that same shelter. It was helping go towards my credits as well as my job experience. I had full time classes and a part time job on top of that. I was always busy.

Stephanie and I had broken up, but still hung out and had eventually became roommates. That ended in us dating again eventually, but that's for a different story. That guy had also stated in the area, usually staying at the shelter during winter months. I saw him almost every day, and then he stopped coming. He just, stopped showing up.

I came to find out through the cool at the shelter that the guy was in jail. He apparently had been stalking one of the teenage girls at the shelter, and was caught trying to break in to her bedroom. Her father was a night worker at a cannery down the road, as were most residents. The guy had apparently been following her from the bus stop, the store, pretty much anywhere outside the shelter. He was never in trouble, since he hadn't done anything physical.

Turns out, he was a registered sex offender from another state. He was using his brothers name and information to reside at the shelter, since they didn't allow sex offenders due to the minors they had there. He got extradited back to the state he was wanted in.

To this day, I don't know who, or what, had been rubbing Stephanie's thigh. I also don't know if the guy had been involved or not, but I am still convinced that it was him. Stephanie and I are still together, and haven't really talked about that situation since I found out about his arrest six years ago. 

Don't worry, I won't say "let's not meet again". I will, however, say this. If you're young, and in love... Stay away from the dark corner of the park that has the gorilla and and dinosaur play structure. You might just have a thrilling experience.