I glanced back again. Yup, he was still following me. The walk from school to my mom's uptown office wasn't very long, but this guy- this creepy, dark-haired, scraggly guy-was making it seem endless. He had been following about 20 feet behin me the entire time. I didn't know what he wanted, or if he just happened to be going the same way as me, but he was certainly freaking me out. The guy was dressed in all black and had on dark sunglasses. He looked oddly familar, but I couldn't place it.

To make matters worse, the one thing I couldn't get out of my head seemed to get even worse when I looked at this guy. It was Jason and I's 2 year anniversery of dating. He was in school today, but he didn't even look at me, much less say something like, oh, I don't know...'Happy Anniversery.'! Somehow looking at this guy made this situation seem even worse. And suddenly, I knew why. THAT is who this guy looks like- Jason, of course! So looking at him makes this day about 100 times worse. It reminds me of Jason not even mentioning-oh...never mind. I mean, we've been dating for TWO YEARS, and he doesn't bother to say anything. Maybe he doesn't like me anymore. I immediatley counteract this though with another: We went out last night. If he's not feeling it anymore, he would've said something then, right? Right??

Oh, well. I'll deal with him when I hear from him. Right now, this creepy stalker dude is making this whole situation, like I said before, much worse. Every time I look at him, he looks even more like Jason, which just brings me down. I cross Main Street. He's still following me. I stand and wait for a bus at one of New York's many bus stops. He stands and waits too, not 10 feet away from me. I inspect him more closely until he walks over to me.

Suddenly we're standing face to face, and yeah, I'm scared, all right. I hold my backpack tight and try to see through his impossibly dark sunglasses.

He pulls his body against mine, and I'm about to scream for help when he throws off his hoodie, whips the sunglasses from his head, leans toward me, and whispers into my ear...

"Happy Anniversery, Valerie."