When I sat down in the eerily quiet room, the officer shut the door behind me and took a seat across from me, hands folded. It became a night I could never forget.

No matter how hard I tried.

In February of 2024, me and my friend had just finished watching a basketball game and we wanted to go get something to eat. We got our food like usual and ate somewhere quiet so we wouldn’t be bothered while we waited for our ride back home.

We were watching a show and talking when we saw someone casually walk up to the seat across from us and sit down. My friend didn’t know who he was, but I did recognize him from college. But never spoke to him or anything of the sort where it seemed like he would come up to me like that.

I was so confused.

When you first meet someone while in college, they ask the basic get to know you questions. Like what is your major, do you dorm or commute, what year are you, where are you from? I have been asked these questions so many times, so I genuinely did not think anything of it, it seemed normal to me.

So I answered them like I usually would. Short and to the point.

When he told us he was from Staten Island, I made a joke about having beef with Staten Island because our team had just lost to them not long before. He took it offensively and got sensitive about it. Which in my opinion was so stupid but whatever.

As he continued on speaking, I started to get a weird feeling in my stomach. But I brushed it off and acted like nothing was wrong because I didn’t want to accidentally come off as rude.

He asked us how old we were and before I even thought about saying anything, I asked him first.

Me and my friend knew in that moment why he was asking us our age. We were able to see it in his eyes. It was a matter of time before he verbally confirmed it.

He was 26 and I was 20.

He then said he didn’t know who’s number he should get first because he found us both cute and adorable.

We asked him didn’t he think he was a bit old for us? The age gap isn’t the worst it could be but we still felt uncomfortable about the whole thing.

His response was we weren’t too young at all because he has dated younger than us by a lot more than six years.

He said it with a smirk as if that would change our minds.

We politely declined and said no thank you, you’re a bit too old for us.

This is when the situation escalated.

“Well I could rape you both right now.”

When those words came out of his mouth me and my friend looked at each other with pure fear in our eyes. I felt my skin crawl and my body tense.

But I knew I had to do something, I wasn’t just going to let someone say something like that to me and get away with it.

I put my hand in my pocket and grabbed my taser.

I flipped the switch on and pointed it at him and made it go off for a minute.

His words were scary, but him having zero reaction to the taser was what scared me the most.

Not a blink, a flinch, a jump.

No emotion behind his eyes.

He just laughed and asked if I have used it before.

I looked him dead in his eyes while my entire body was shaking in fear and told him “No, but I will fuck your shit up with it if I have to.”

All he did was shake his head, call us weird, before finally walking away.

I let out the biggest breath I didn’t even know I was holding when he left.

We waited until we didn’t see him anymore before finding the nearest security to report what just happened.

Now, when two young girls report that a guy just pretty much threatened to rape them, common sense would be don’t leave them alone because they are probably freaked out and feel unsafe. Of course, in my scenario, we in fact got left alone while the people we reported him too went to look for him.

My friend immediately texted our friend who she know was nearby and I texted someone I knew to see if we can get anyone to stay with us while we waited for security to come back.

When they came back, the situation got more mind blowing.

Instead of putting a target on the guy who threatened us, they put a target on my back for having a taser. I got questioned on why I had it, why I would pull it out, questions that just made zero sense to ask. Clearly, I had bought myself a self defense item in case of situations like this ever happening.

Eventually, they had figured out who the guy was and they went to go talk to him. Sitting outside their office door, I was able to hear their conversation with him and it sounded way more light and less targeted than the conversation with me. Could’ve sworn I heard some laughter too.

At this point it had already been a half hour of explaining what happened, describing the guy to help identify him, doing my own write up of what happened, and waiting for them to finish with him. I was exhausted. I just wanted to go home and ignore the whole thing.

I practically shut down. I was sitting down zoned out hearing everyone speaking at once but sounding as if I was underwater while listening. My friend was more involved the whole time.

They made a snarky comment about how instead of going home they have to deal with reports now. That sent her into a spiral. She told them off for leaving us alone, for focusing more on my taser than us being threatened, and made it clear she wanted to bring this to the police.

That’s when I heard the security say they let him go, that if we went to the police they wouldn’t help us anymore, and the whole thing would be swept under the rug. I knew they would sweep it under the rug regardless because before they even started the questioning, they told us to keep it to ourselves and not tell anyone about it.

All I could do was laugh at that point.

I said to myself this is just so unreal.

It was a fucking joke.

When it was finally time to leave, I sat quietly the whole way home. I ignored every time I got asked if I was okay. I didn’t want to hear anything from anyone. For the first time in my life, I was so shut down even my thoughts stopped. I was just numb and in genuine silence. When I got home, my whole ‘I don’t care’ act stopped.

I got in my bed and just cried.

I never thought I would have to try and scare someone off like that.

My mind didn’t want to process it.

So I did what I did best, I blocked it out.

I didn’t think about it, talk about it, nothing.

Just moved on with my life.

Until that process came to a halt. Unwillingly of course.

My mom and my friends mom decided to take this to the police to press charges.

I was miserable as this was the last thing I wanted.

I went from work, to therapy, to the police.

When me and my friend sat down in the interview room, the officer shut the door behind us and took a seat across from us, hands folded, everything came flooding back to me. I had to relive it once again. As we were recounting the night to him, I remember he was so sympathetic. He was upset with how we were treated and made sure we knew we were in good hands with him.

Fast forward to a month or two later, we finally get the call with the outcome.

He pled guilty to two counts of sexual harassment which lead to a one year sentence, we got a two year order of protection against him, and he got a two year ban from our college.

He was able to lie to security all he wanted, but whatever story he told to the law enforcement did not work.

That day after the phone call, I wiped my mind and my hands of him.

He officially wasn’t my problem anymore.

While it was a shitty situation to be in, I know I was able to hold my own against someone like that and I am proud of the fact that I stepped up and became the reason any other girl from our college won’t have to be in the same situation.