The dating game hasn’t changed much. The goal is simple, but the method involves a minefield of, well…crazy! It comes from both sides and always appears when it’s too late. But these people have stared straight into the barrel with their recently and not-so-recently dumped ex-boyfriends. The twists and turns and surprise endings are just as exciting as new young love—and just as dangerous.
1. Trash Schedule
I was having doubts about him and was discussing it over text with a guy-friend of mine. Later, my boyfriend went through my phone. His reaction was deranged. First, he accused me of sleeping with my friend. Then he went berserk and made a huge production out of packing up his stuff and leaving. We'd only been together two months, so there wasn't that much.
After leaving, he stood on my porch for a few moments collecting his thoughts, evidently changed his mind, and begged to be let back in. I refused, and he sobbed and scratched at my door for the next two hours like some emo zombie. Days later, he demanded to get back the microwave that he had given me as a surprise present.
It had originally belonged to a friend of his, and he’d left it in our kitchen when I was out of town. So, to avoid confrontation, I left it out on my porch and then watched him take it and toss it in my dumpster. Then I sent him a message about how it was not only immature, but it's hugely wasteful. I should’ve known better.
He could at least use it or give it away. So, he drove back, fished it out of the trash, and put it on my porch. I disinfected it and put it back in my kitchen. Then I got another message demanding the microwave back on behalf of his "friend." Again, I put it on the porch. Later, I watched him throw it in the dumpster.
2. Nothing But The Present
When I was 21, I broke up with a guy who started leaving notes and little gifts at the back door to my parents' house. I threw them out, except for a mug that had a ceramic cow at the bottom. I named it "ex-boyfriend" and played "drown the ex-boyfriend." A few weeks later, I realized that I had some stuff at his house.
I arrange to get them, and when I got there, we had an awkward moment for small talk when he blurted out that he had been planning to lock the door behind me and attack me, so I’d take him back...
3. We All Sing For Ice Cream
I am a guy who’s been the crazy boyfriend. I was about 18 when I broke up with my high school sweetheart. We lived in a foster home together. And when we turned 18, we moved and got our own place. When we broke up, I moved out. I was there to pick up some of my stuff, and her new man was there. He was our acquaintance.
I thought he was a tool. I was stressed out and sad. When I found out, I really felt like being a jerk. But I kept it in check. The ice cream truck came by, and they went to get ice cream while I packed. So, I went out to have ice cream too. I got a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. It really helped with the sadness.
He was holding her right in front of me. I was offended, and he told me that we weren't together anymore. I have no idea what came over me next. I flipped out, grabbed my ice cream, and started to rub it all over my head and face. I was making kissy noises and saying my ex’s name and telling her I loved her over and over.
I don't know why I did that. I think I just wanted to creep them out. Years later, we still talk and see each other for the holidays or special events. We talk about the crazy times and that story always comes up. She said that she acted really upset by it, but as soon as the guy left, she started laughing really hard.
4. Take Another Little Pizza My Heart
I was studying in a different building on campus. My boyfriend didn’t want to come with us to this building and told me that it would be great for me to spend some time with my friends without him. This building was really close to a local pizza place, so around 11 PM, we decided to call it a night and grab some pizza.
I returned to my dorm around 12 and went to visit my boyfriend. He asked how my night was, and I told him about my interesting bio homework and ended with the story about getting pizza. He then started to yell at me for not buying him a slice of pizza. I left because he was mad at me for not bringing food back for him.
Over the next month, he would withhold random things from me because I didn't bring him pizza that night. Very mature.
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5. Going The Distance
My friend Barry was mentally unstable when he was on the rocks with his girlfriend Sam. Barry had moved across the country to be with her and came back again about half a dozen times over their seven-year on- and off-again relationship. So finally, she decided to call it quits. Sam was best friends with my friend Kelly.
Kelly asked me to take her and Sam to a club to go dancing with them. So, I went and avoided the subject of the breakup for the night. We arrived only to find that Barry was already waiting at the club. Well, we got super hammered then an argument started. I stood back to watch everything unfold. Barry and Sam went outside.
They never came back. Then Sam called Kelly an hour or two later to tell her that Barry gave her a ride home. So, we left. Two days later, Kelly called me—and what she told me was seriously chilling. She said that Sam messaged her saying that Barry would not let her leave his place. No one wanted to escalate the situation, so I told Kelly that I’d take care of it.
I knocked on the door, and I got no answer. Then I went around back to try to look through the windows. I saw shadows moving in the upstairs bedroom, so I took out my picks and started on the lock. When I got in, I crept up the stairs and heard shouting. Barry was yelling about how he gave up everything to be with her.
I made it to the bedroom and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Barry was holding a piece pointed to his head threatening to end his life if she left him again. Sam was just sobbing. She tried to calm him down and told him that she would stay. That was when he put the piece down. I came up behind him, took it, then pointed it at him.
I told Sam to meet me outside and slowly backed out of the room keeping the piece trained on Barry. I dropped the clip and took the slide off before tossing it to the side. He looked at me and opened his mouth to ask me why, but I just silenced him with a look. I brought Sam home, and Barry called me a couple of times.
I finally picked up his call and told him to get help before hanging up on him. He left the state, and I haven't heard from him since.
6. Peaceful Stills
When my ex and I broke up, I went over to get my stuff and delete any incriminating photos he had of me on his computer. What I found was so horrifying, it’s unforgettable. He had hundreds of photos that he had taken of me when I was sleeping. I don't know what he planned on doing with them, or what provoked him to take them, but it still creeps me out to this day.
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7. Scarlet Letter
I dated a guy for three months who was horribly lazy, incapable, and happy being sad. He felt bad because he did not hurt himself, so he started. I broke up with him for that. Months later of no communication, I got a letter. It was tear-stained, and in the envelope was a picture of his arm with my name carved into it.
8. Next Move
I met him playing D&D when I was 16. He was the manager and a couple of years older. We shared a lot of firsts, so there was that emotional attachment. I got along with his family well enough. But they were religious, and I wasn’t. So, his mom didn’t care for me much because she thought that I was “corrupting” her son.
We dated for almost three years. After the first year, I was done with him, but again, he had been my first and wasn’t terrible. But D&D was a big part of his life. It’s all he’d ever talk about. He had a temper too and flew off the handle at the smallest thing. It eventually got so bad that I actually became afraid of him.
We mentioned marriage once or twice, and then I went away for college. On the weekends, I came back to stay with him and his family. I’d arrive Saturday and play D&D all day. On Sundays, I went with his family to church. Then later in the evening, he brought me home. Those were my weekends for my first year of college.
I was finished with him because he wasn’t doing much with his life and his temper never got better. Except I didn’t want to break up with him because I knew that it’d end badly. So, I just suggested that we go on a break. He actually believed it and was devastated when he learned that I liked somebody else from school.
He did nothing alarming until I met him over Thanksgiving break months later to return his Xbox and take my things back—that’s when it all fell apart. He was nearly in tears the entire time and told me that I’d ruined his life and how horrible everything was. I did feel bad about it and apologized over and over again. He wouldn’t let it go, though.
He said that he’d ordered the ring already. Upset, I went home and didn’t talk to him. He kept trying to contact me through friends, but I wasn’t having it. I transferred to a private college out of state the next semester. In April, I got a text message from him on my new cell phone number wishing me a happy birthday.
I assumed that a well-meaning friend had given him my new number and didn't respond once I figured out who it was. I came home that summer and stayed with my mom and got a new boyfriend. When I was with some old friends, one asked me if I had spoken to my ex lately. I told her that I hadn’t since the past Thanksgiving. That’s when she said something that made my blood run cold.
Confused, she told me that she’d heard from him that he was driving up to my college town quite often. She assumed that we were speaking again. I was horrified. It’s a 45-minute drive without traffic, so it was kind of a stretch that he’d been going there for some other reason. A month later, I woke up early to a text.
It was him saying that he just needed to see me and wanted me to talk to him. It was sent at 3 in the morning. When I went upstairs, my aunt asked if my boyfriend had been over that night. I denied it because he lived about an hour away, and I never sneaked him in. I asked her why. Her answer was terrifying. She told me that she had seen his car.
It was parked by the house around 6 and gone at 6:30 or 7. I immediately felt chills and texted my ex back asking if he had that make and model of car. He responded that he had traded in his old car for a new one…that looked just like my boyfriend’s car. I stupidly agreed to meet him after that. It was a very bad idea.
We went out to dinner, and I made sure that everyone knew where I was going and kept my cell phone on hand. He wasn’t acting weird at first, and I was surprised. He tried to guilt-trip me again at one point leaping up from the table and almost running to the bathroom when I answered his question about my new boyfriend.
When he got back, he apologized and said he couldn’t stomach the thought of me with another guy. I asked him to take me home after we were done, but we drove around instead. I was terrified. He kept trying to be kind and cheerful, but I was done. I had him take me home, and at my front door, he wanted a hug and a kiss.
I hugged him, and he tried guilting me again, so I lost it. I told him off for being a creep and sitting outside the house at 3 AM and trying to make me feel bad and I was done feeling bad. I told him to go away and leave me alone. I didn’t hear from him after that. I found out that he badmouthed me to all our friends.
Then he started dating a girl who was 5 or 6 years younger than him and had just turned 18. They got engaged after six months, married three months after that, and then they had a kid last August. Crazy.
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9. Encore! Encore!
I dated somebody who was the guitarist and singer for a popular local band who was a tad too young for me. I meant to have a quick summer fling, but he immediately posted online that he had a girlfriend after we slept together. He begged to tell his best friend, a singer in the band, who then told the rest of the band.
Then the band announced that we were dating at a huge local show. So, that cat quickly jumped out of the bag in 48 hours. I moved into my own apartment, and he slept over one night, two nights, then five nights when I finally told him to go home. So, he did for one hour before returning to my place with all his things.
While he stayed with me somehow, he caught mono. He also used my toothbrush without telling me and got his germs on my bristles! After he got mono, he went to his parent's place to see a doctor and for a funeral of one of his aunts. When he was away, he stopped talking to me or responding to my voicemails on his phone.
So, I figured that was done. Nope. He cruised into town for band practice or hanging out only to show up at my place late at night looking for sexy results. Since his band was huge, he also played every big show that I’d attended that year, so it was impossible to avoid him too. He showed up at my place late one night.
He was wasted and refused to go away. I had taken to ignoring him, and once, he tried to crawl into my first-floor bedroom window. I finally said that I wanted to just be friends. At first, he was cool with it, and we went out to eat. Then he decided to be a jerk at a show where his band played and I was photographing. It was such an embarrassing disaster.
He tried to break my camera with his guitar, and after the show, he punched me when I tried to tell him off. Then I started dating my best friend. The guy still randomly showed up early in the morning and on holidays. He had a cell phone but never called. He did this for three years when I was living with my boyfriend.
After hearing that I had rejected my boyfriend’s proposal, he came over two years post-breakup to return a cookbook that I'd lent him. Four years later, he called me to get closure when my boyfriend broke up with me. My friend, the guy's roommate, said that he asked if he could read my locked posts through his account.
He told me that the guy used to stalk my online accounts and talk about me like four years later! We’d only dated for two months.
10. Can’t Be Without You
I had called my ex to say goodnight since I was running late and my phone was out of battery. When I got home a few hours later, I got the scare of a lifetime. I felt a creepy hand grab me through the window, and I freaked out. He had been sitting there the entire time. I thought it was weird but was weirded out even more when I plugged in my phone.
I saw that he had left eight messages ranging from "goodnight baby" to "Why are you doing this to me?!” When I asked, he said that he’d thought I was lying but saw that my phone was off when I got home. We broke up after a few more similar incidences. But he had a habit of sitting in the lobby of my building for hours.
He also got his friends to look out for me when I was out and report any guy who they saw talking to me. I was having dinner with a male friend, and my ex called me up screaming about me moving on with another guy before sleeping with him one last time. A year later when I’d moved into a new place, he turned up wasted.
He was buzzing my apartment and yelling at me through the intercom. It stopped eventually. The security guard later told me that he "fell" down the stairs and would not be bothering me anymore.
11. Bar Keepaway From Me
During a rough drinking binge, I started seeing this guy who I met at a bar. After making out the first night, he told me that he loved me. I ignored it thinking he’d said it in the moment. And the next night I saw him, he turned on the computer and told me that he watches videos of his home country and cries at night.
And then he put on a video and cried in front of me. Even in my tipsy state, I wanted to run. After two nights of seeing him, I started ignoring his calls and told him through text to stop messaging me. After I finally mustered up the courage, I was back to the bar where I had met him with my friends. He came over to us.
He asked loudly if I was going to introduce him to his "new friends" as my boyfriend. I told him that we were never boyfriend and girlfriend. He cried openly while telling me that he loved me. I can never go back with him there because I’ll probably get in trouble for all the glasses that I want to break over his head.
12. Strong Feelings
I was with this guy for a year and a half who ended up dumping me a few days before my 18th birthday. So, I made plans with my friends for the evening. The day before my birthday, he came crawling back and begged to see me. So, I caved and told him that he could come to the pub that evening with the rest of my friends.
Then I gave in and let him come round a little earlier with my friend there too, which was uncomfortable as they did not like each other. We went to the pub later where he got jealous about all the attention and free drinks that I was getting. I didn't pay much attention to him, and he stormed away without me noticing.
But when I did, I went after him, and he shouted and screamed in my face. That was bad—but it was just the start of my nightmare. Then I got sent home in a taxi, very tipsy and upset. He came over later that night and convinced me to "talk" to him, which ended up with us fighting and him headbutting the road, splitting his forehead open, but then going into the house to grab a knife.
He was crying and shouting something about life not being worth living anymore. He tried to drag it across his throat, and I got it off of him, cutting my hand in the process. That was when his mom came out thinking that it was all my fault somehow.
13. Dragon Heart
I started dating this guy who I knew vaguely from high school when I was in my early twenties. It was one of my first relationships, which was why it lasted about four months and not two weeks. He was friendly and raised by Southern Baptist parents. But he was “otherkin” and had melded together a crazy dragon religion.
This religion mixed with quasi-historical Druidic lore made him believe that the main dragon god lived in a Hawaii volcano and these dragons could take human form. The biggest surprise was that he was not alone in his dragon religion. And he told me about how he felt very ashamed of his past experiences with other men.
Except by the end of our relationship, he had three more experiences with other dragon-god guys. A year after we had broken up, I bumped into him at a renaissance fair. We were checking out the same guys. I looked him up online for fun, and he’s gone completely off the wall and can’t keep a job due to his “repression.”
14. Dear Diary
I dated a guy for two months who had kept a journal specifically about me. I found this out when he came over before I moved and left it on my desk with a note telling me to read it. The notebook was full with every entry was blaming me for his life problems and addressing me as an awful person for not loving him back.
15. You Make Me Feel
I was with my boyfriend off and on for about two years. Everything was completely fine for the first six months. Then, it was like a switch flipped. He cheated on me constantly. After nonstop gifts, begging, and promises, I took him back every time. When I didn't answer his calls, he would call me every name in the book.
He was on a lot of medication for his bipolar disorder, which I didn’t know he had until a few months into our relationship. He always threatened to take his own life if I didn’t go and see him. I had to break up with him after he ran me over with his car. He was upset that I couldn’t stay long. I had to see my mother.
After that, he went off his rocker, started using illicit substances, and overdosed a few times. And every day, he called me to berate me telling me that his misery was my fault, calling me all kinds of names, and in the same breath, asking me to take him back so he could be happy again. By the end of it, I had to block his number.
I couldn’t deal with all the threats. But I still received texts from him and his mom saying that something life-threatening was happening and I needed to check on him. Once, he left me a message sounding strung out saying that he overdosed and I was the only one he was telling, and if something happened, it was on me.
I called for emergency, and he was in a coma for a few days. And after that, I didn’t hear from him in a while. I thought it was over—I was so, so wrong. Then he messaged me saying that if he ever saw me again, he would end his life. Then I saw him for the first time in a while at a party. My heart dropped, and I left immediately. He ended his life that night.
16. Who’s Calling Please?
I had a boyfriend in the seventh grade who, when we broke up, submitted my information to an online phone hotline for "lonely housewives." So, weird old men started calling and asking for me, and my hilarious English-as-a-second-language Italian mother yelled and screamed about how they were calling for a 12-year-old girl.
Somehow, this was traced back to my ex-boyfriend who had to write me a letter of apology.
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17. Do What I Can
I dated a guy who ran a popular website dedicated to a videogame series. It began as an online relationship with video calls. I visited him, and he visited me. Then I was in college. Things changed—me, our relationship, the time I had for it, and my feelings about being in a long-distance relationship during college.
I broke up with him and met a new guy. When he asked if I had kissed the new guy and I told him that I had, he literally made a mess in his pants. He told me. Then he came to my college for "closure" despite my insistence that it was not a good idea. We hung out, and things were awkward at first but then became normal enough.
However, he simply was not able to keep his hands to himself even though I was now in another relationship. So, when I told him that I was going to leave, he blocked my path and followed me around screaming so loudly that a woman stopped in her car to ask if I was okay. Then he went home and banned me from his website.
18. See What I Can Do
I was in a really bad relationship with a much older guy when I was in high school. I used to sneak out of my house and drive an hour to see him. Then one night, he got physical and had me locked in his room with him while he was hurting himself, threatening me, my family, his family, and anyone else he could think of.
He had me take him out to the store, and as we were walking back to the house, he took my car key and chucked it on the sidewalk in the pitch-black darkness. He told me not to get it. Inside, he destroyed everything I had brought with me including my phone, clothing, wallet, money, shoes, but the worst, by far, he absolutely destroyed my glasses.
It ended up a heap of metal. My eyesight is so bad that I can't see much more than colored blurs six inches past my face. After being stuck in the small room with a raging crazy for almost six hours, I convinced him to calm down. He fell asleep under the terms that I slept as well, and that I didn’t leave while we did. I had to come up with a plan to get out.
So, I faked sleep until he woke up to shower. I remember him sticking his face about two inches from mine for well over a minute before he went to the bathroom and started running the water. I managed to get out of the house without so much as creaking a board. As soon as I was outside, I dropped to my hands and knees.
I was groping around for the key to my car. I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that someone had picked up the key and I should be running to the station, but I was 17 at the time and just wanted to get in my car and get home. By luck, I found the key wedged in the crack between two squares in the wet sidewalk.
I then drove the hour home praying frantically that I wouldn't be pulled over in my shoeless and bruised state. After driving with my face an inch from the steering wheel, I got home safe.
19. Ball And Chain
I was going to hang out with a guy friend when I lived with my boyfriend. He took the fact that I was wearing ankle socks with a pink stripe as a sign that I was going to cheat on him. He also was on a lot of heavy medications and didn't tell me until I asked one day why he wanted me to wait at the other end of the pharmacy where we were.
By then, we had been together for four years, I had moved into his apartment in a rough city thousands of miles away from home. I was depending on him financially as well as emotionally since he was my only friend. We were also a step away from getting married. I just didn’t realize how crazy he was. He stalked me too.
He was really good at it! I never would've known if he hadn't left postcards. It was touching in a strange way. In the end, I think he just got bored of stalking me. On one of the postcards, he wrote "boring." Rude!
20. I Need You
I only dated him for a month, and he was a jerk for most of it. After we broke up, he sent a huge bouquet of flowers to my work. He also called me all the time. Once, I was hanging out with a co-worker and some friends, and he did not stop calling. Finally, I answered one of his calls, and he asked me what I was doing.
I told him that I was hanging out with a co-worker, Harry, who happened to be a large man, and gave him the phone to talk. Harry had quite the pleasant conversation with my ex. But when he went to his car, he made a chilling discovery. All his windows had been smashed. Yup, the culprit was my ex. Another time, I somehow ended up at his house wasted.
He managed to get me into the garage "to talk." The talk turned into him throwing around and smashing all of his things while screaming about me not loving him. I ran into him once, made eye contact, and not a word was spoken.
21. Back To You
I finally got the courage to break up with a guy I was with from 15-27 years old. I kicked him out of the house and tried to cut all communication. After a few days of not responding to him, he showed up at my job. I called for officers immediately, and he left. About ten minutes later, I was preparing the room for a patient.
I looked up and my blood ran cold as ice. He was standing behind me. He then beat me and kicked me in the head. Thankfully, officers soon arrived, since I’d already called. When he saw them, he calmly walked outside and put his hands up. He served less than three months total. For a month, I was off work from the concussion and had trouble driving, walking, and writing.
22. Raining Down
After breaking up with a guy that I’d dated for two years, he went crazy. He called to make up stories saying that he was bleeding and didn't know what to do and needed me to come over to take care of it. He called sobbing and left me countless voicemails. The worst was one night, about a month or so after we broke up.
He called me, and I ignored it because I was on the phone with a friend. Since I didn't pick up, he got "worried" and drove over to my house. It was about two in the morning. I continued talking on the phone and started hearing weird noises outside. I figured it was just some random person and dismissed it. It was him.
All of a sudden, I felt something wet on my face. He had taken the hose from my backyard and was spraying water into my bedroom window on the second floor! I yelled outside to stop, said goodbye to the person on the phone, and went down to talk to him. His excuse? He needed to use my Wi-Fi. I moved far away after that.
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23. Sick Of You
When I was a college senior, I dated an older guy with the logic that older meant more mature. I’ve never been more wrong in my life. In the few months of being together, I realized that age was nothing but a number when it comes to sanity. Everything was normal until some of my old health problems popped up, resulting in hospital stays and a need for really good medication.
He went to get my refill and disappeared for a few hours while I was lying in the fetal position trying to not pass out from the pain. He returned wasted with only half of my prescription because he snorted some. So, I took care of him that night. Once, he was too hungry to wait for me to be released from the hospital.
So, he went to get fast food while I was being checked out. The rest of the relationship blurs into one long episode of him drinking, me crying, and male friends being threatened. Once my health had recovered, my first order of action was to take advantage of graduation and my move to a new city to get away from crazy.
During the breakup, he confessed some illegal actions on his part. He was suffering from the delusion that since I was now aware of what he had done, I was complicit and had to stay with him. First, I contacted the people who needed to know about that and then filed a restraining order. That was when things really went into overdrive.
He crashed my graduation, which had enough drama thanks to my mom, and followed me to the graduation party where he tried to punch me in the parking lot before getting thrown out of the restaurant. In the morning, he showed up wasted at my boyfriend’s apartment where my cousin reminded him what a restraining order was.
The lesson didn't sink in, and after calling my mom and convincing her that I needed to be with him, he stalked the parking lot at my cousin's place waiting for us to show up. We got in the apartment to finish packing her up while my aunt showered. A few minutes passed before we heard him knocking. He was on the patio.
Again, we warned him that we were going to call the cops. He responded by pulling out his piece and doing the whole "if I can't have you nobody can" spiel. We made good on our warning, and he was escorted away in shiny bracelets. Last that I heard, he had just been released on parole due to his break-up confession.
24. Time Keeper
My childhood friend JJ called me one morning to tell me about his mom’s passing. She was like a second mother to me while I was growing up and my mom’s best friend. I told my boyfriend about it and that I was going to the funeral the next day. So, after the funeral, I offered to take JJ out for some coffee and to talk.
No one at the funeral really knew his mom—they were all friends of his grandmother. When I told my boyfriend, he flipped out saying that I spent the whole day with JJ, because watching your childhood friend from across the room cry for a few hours was the best way to spend the day, then he left mad calling me a liar.
JJ declined my offer, and my boyfriend stayed mad. Since I had no other friends other than my boyfriend, I went to the movies alone. I was back late, and he asked me where I was. I told him, but he still accused me of being out with JJ. His proof? I’d shaved my legs earlier that day. It was the first of many arguments.
25. Rollercoaster Ride
I was that crazy ex. When I was 17, I started dating Kay. It wasn't dating so much as we simply became a couple, and it all happened rather quickly and organically. We shared many friends, and that was how I’d met her. Six months into our relationship, I was in a period of my life where I was having wild ups and downs.
I had intrusive thoughts and relied heavily on drinking. One day, I had it in my head that Kay and I didn’t have a lot in common. So, we broke up. She was crushed. I also think a big factor was just the fact that I liked the idea of stirring the pot. I didn't want things to stagnate and used drama as a way out of that. I only ended up persecuting her and embarrassing myself.
Once, I laid down in the middle of the road saying I was going to let a car run me over. She cried and screamed at me the whole time. We had so many friends in common that I couldn’t avoid her, and I still wanted her back. Then I got really wasted at a party. I was cursing at the top of my lungs while everyone laughed.
This eventually became a breakdown where I had a knife and begged her to tell me what she wanted and if she wanted me to end my life, I would. Everyone started freaking out, and I slashed my arms up pretty good. I calmed down and apologized saying I needed to go home. They told me to get to the hospital. I went to bed.
26. Need To Know
There had been many issues with the relationship, but I tried everything I could to salvage it. He was a compulsive liar, a cheater several times over, immature, and abusive. We had been together for nearly three years. We had an apartment together because he had moved into mine with none of his belongings but clothes.
During the exceedingly long breakup, he came to pick up some of his things. I had a few friends over. He requested that my friends leave. I didn't want that just in case anything bad was to happen. So, they hid in the hallway up a flight of stairs. Once he was inside, he seemed to go through all of the stages of grief.
He got pushy and forceful and tried to sleep with me. He got angry and punched a wall several times inches from my face, blamed everything on me, and tried everything. He then laid face down on the floor and refused to go away. I demanded that he leave my apartment before joining my friends on the stairs until he left. I thought it was over, but it was about to get so much worse.
When my friends and I settled back into my apartment, my phone went off. He was in the parking lot sitting in his car. He's yelling into the phone how everything was my fault, how he wanted my friends gone, and for me to let him in. He’s armed and threatening me and my friends. One of my friends sat down to comfort me.
I was in tears and begging him to leave us alone. His tone dropped, and he threatened to end his life. My friend beside me quietly left the room to call for the police to come. He described the car, my ex, and his possible intentions. I was sobbing uncontrollably from what was going on with the call and in the apartment.
I could barely speak when I told him that we had called law enforcement. I hung up. He sped out of the lot. Officers came by and talked to me as they put a word out for him. He was caught doing 90 in a 30 zone, cuffed, and taken to the hospital to have a psych evaluation. My friends got his car so that it wouldn't get towed.
I spent the night sobbing in the arms of an officer and my friends. We will never forget that night. On a lighter note, I am now engaged to the man that called for officers that night.
27. Guilt By Association
My ex was my first. We met at work and dated for two months before anything happened. We were both planning on waiting until marriage. After things got out of hand, we slept together. We were cuddling when he stood up. What happened next was terrifying. He screamed at me to leave. I was confused and tried to calm him down when he threw my clothes at me.
He grabbed me by the arm, and while he walked me through the house, he was going off about how I’d just destroyed his life and he hoped that I suffered for what I'd done. He pushed me out the door. I was literally in my underwear in January crying and standing on his front porch. The next day, he called me apologizing.
He told me that he felt like he failed God. A week later, I forgave him. Then it happened again. But this time, he resorted to force to release his anger. I ended up with bruises on my ribs and handprints around my wrists. His roommate broke up the fight, and I went home. The worst part? I still had to see him at work.
28. First Love
My first real relationship started my freshman year of high school. He was older, a junior, and one of my big sister's best friends. He was sweet, funny, and handsome and also had a girlfriend. We texted all the time, sent each other secret notes, winked, and did other cheesy things that made me think that I loved him.
The whole time he had a girlfriend who was crazy about him. We even went to homecoming in the same group. He went with his girlfriend, and I had a date too. He ended up breaking up with her to be with me, and we dated for 18 months. I have never dated someone so controlling or paranoid or passive-aggressive in my life.
He was jealous of my guy friends, charmed his way into my circle of girlfriends, and pushed me to sleep with him, which I wouldn’t. But whenever I tried setting boundaries, he just crossed over them, and I was too young to understand why he could not be happy with just making out. He also tried to fondle me in school.
That left me open to a lot of ridicule and embarrassment from classmates. After a year and a half of jealousy and threats whenever I tried ending things, I just snapped. I broke up with him and said that maybe we could be friends but I didn’t want to be with him. I tried to be friends, and we still talked all the time.
But when my sister tried to introduce me to someone else, he actually had the nerve to ask her to keep an eye on me and report back to him. She refused then told me. I told him not to talk to me. He started cutting that day. When he showed me, I flipped, screamed at him in the hallway, and refused to talk to him again.
What made things worse was that he knew my schedule and which route I took across the school to get to all my classes and followed me. He was also in theater with me. He even joined the varsity choir to spend more time around me. He did it inconspicuously as if nothing was wrong with him purposefully invading my space.
He got some of my girlfriends to sympathize with him, especially one girl who was his shoulder to cry on. They’re engaged now. He sat with us at lunch and hung out with us after school. But no amount of begging or yelling got a response. Finally, I had to get a whole new circle of friends. He still tried talking to me.
He followed me to try to keep other guys away from me and even asked me to prom. Two years later, he had the nerve to give my new boyfriend advice on how to "handle me." This was while he was in a relationship with the girl who picked up the pieces after me. He bought me drinks to try to get me trashed on her birthday.
29. Flung To Dry
I was sleeping with my rebound fling and just interested in having a friends-with-benefits type relationship with him, which I made very clear. He wanted something more serious, but I was all heartbroken because I’d just gotten dumped. He was pretty creepy, so even if I wasn't suffering heartbreak, I wasn’t interested.
One night while lying in my bed he said something super cringey—not to mention creepy. He told me that I was sleeping with a dangerous man. Needless to say, I was grossed out. A few weeks later, we ended things, and he started sending me some really stupid e-mails. He called me a fat cow, a horrible person, and in the next paragraph tell me how beautiful and amazing I was.
He went on and on about how he was convinced that we were right for each other. He also told me that my favorite band was awful as if that was supposed to incite some kind of response from me. Two and a half years later, I still get the odd, and ignored, e-mail from him attempting to rekindle some kind of relationship.
30. Driving Dirty
I went out with a guy in my senior year of high school who went to an all-boys prep school. But neither of us was really feeling it, and we went our separate ways. Over our freshman year of college, we talked maybe once or twice, and then at the end of the school year, we both came back home to the city for the summer.
We didn't speak all summer, and I had completely forgotten about him being so busy getting ready to go back to school. My whole family went out of town for a night and left me at home. I went out with some friends, and it ended up turning into an all-night party. I finally headed home at about six. I pulled up to my parent’s house and made a bizarre discovery.
I saw a huge pile of dirt in the driveway. It was right in the middle of our three-car driveway and as high as an entire floor of the house. Then my phone went off, and I looked to read a text from this guy saying, "That's what you get for not being with me." I parked in the street and ran inside locking all the doors.
31. Call Me By My Name
I was dating a guy in college. When I went home for the summer and was away from him, I began realizing what a manipulative jerk he was. So, I broke up with him and started seeing somebody else. He found out about it and called my parents and left messages on their answering machine calling me all kinds of awful names.
I, fortunately, intercepted those messages. When I got back to college in the fall, I no longer had a place to live. So, I struggled to find a place to stay while I tried to arrange housing. But a couple of my things were at his apartment, so I went to get them. He knew that I was coming and spray-painted my furniture.
I called for officers to accompany me. By the time I got there with them, he’d spray-painted over the words and claimed not to have any knowledge of what had happened. So, I collected my things and moved them to a friend's apartment. He conned said "friend" into letting him in and destroyed all my things. I called for campus security.
They told me that they couldn't do anything because it happened off-campus, and the city officers told me that I had no evidence. I went to the courthouse to get a restraining order against him. But I made the mistake of telling him that I was going to do that. And he called the place where I was staying to talk to me.
After I got to the courthouse, the clerk told me something infuriating. He said he didn't want to give me a restraining order because he’d come in earlier with his parents and told her not to give it to me saying to her that he was going to leave me alone. I was floored. Officers had told me that I could try pressing actual charges, so I asked if I could do that.
The court magistrate told me that I did not have enough evidence. So, I started sobbing telling them that I was afraid for my life. The magistrate told me that I could get a restraining order, but I said that I had tried and wasn’t allowed. The magistrate made the clerk fill out the paperwork for the restraining order.
But then she told me that my hearing was at 1 but scheduled it for 10. So, I showed up for my court date to get the permanent restraining order in place, and I was told I had missed my date. I was out of luck despite the fact that I had a paper that said my court date was at 1. By then, I knew that I could no longer stay in that city.
I skipped graduation and moved home. A mutual friend of ours told me that my ex told him that it was a good thing I'd gotten the temporary restraining order because he wasn't sure what he would have been capable of.
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32. Just A Regular Guy
One evening, I was in a bar with a girlfriend, and some guy started talking to me. My girlfriend was talking to someone, so I talked to this dude for about ten minutes. After my friend was done talking to her friend, we left. I ran into this guy a couple more times in the next few weeks at various local establishments.
One of the nights when I ran into him, my lanyard for work disappeared, and this guy magically had my number after that. I asked him if maybe he had picked up my lanyard, and he said no and that I had given him my number. I hadn't. I even asked both my girlfriend and the bartender that waited on me the night I lost it.
I never once arranged to meet the guy anywhere, and he had figured out which places I went and was just there. Since I go to bars, I just figured that he was a regular at a lot of places. Then one evening, I was talking to a friend of mine who worked at another place I frequented. He said that the guy had talked to him.
The guy told him that we were dating. Because ripping off a girl's phone number and showing up at places she goes was “dating.” By then, I had a boyfriend so I was really confused. But it didn’t end there. A few months later, my boyfriend and I were out watching football, and this guy showed up trashed and almost got into a fight with my boyfriend.
But he was so wasted that no one knew what he was saying or doing. He showed up two weeks later at the pub where I was waiting for my girlfriend to get off work so I could give her a ride home. He came up to me and poked me in the ribs and asked me why I hadn't been around lately. I told him politely to leave me alone.
He was kicked out of the bar, and when I went to drive my girlfriend home, I realized someone had punctured the back tire of my car.
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33. Time Out
I was going to a party with my girlfriends, and when we were walking to the house, my boyfriend pulled up next to us and demanded I get into his car. When I refused, he started to threaten to call officers and have the party busted since I was underage. We fought, and I finally took one for the team and got in the car.
He then drove out to a park, got out of the car with the keys, and disappeared for about an hour and a half. I wasn't from the city and had no idea where the park was, so I was stuck there until he finally returned. He claimed that he had done that because he didn't want me to go to the party. Instead, he kidnapped me.
34. The Little Things
Once, he wanted to go to the mall about 45 minutes away because he wanted to get a salad at a particular place in the food court. We went with a friend of his, and I got food at another restaurant. He totally went mental on me right in the food court. Then there was one night that our roommate had made chicken alfredo.
He flipped out on me for the stupidest reason I’ve ever heard. He was mad because the chicken had been cut into varying sizes instead of being all the same size. When I told him that the roommate made it, he stopped talking. He was over 30 years old when these things happened, and it was not long after the second incident that I told him it was over. He was fine with it.
Later, I learned that it was because he already had a new girlfriend. But then he learned that I was dating and reported me for neglecting my child. He also hacked into my e-mail and sent messages to everyone in my address book saying that I cheated on him and gave him STDs. He also claimed to be allergic to mushrooms.
Except one time, we saw that a sandwich that he was eating contained mushrooms, and he didn't know it. Nothing happened.
35. Up And At Em
I was in the bathroom getting ready to go to my roommate’s mom's house. My ex was passed out on the couch when suddenly he woke up and came into the bathroom. He asked me where I was going, and I told him. Out of nowhere, he shut the bathroom door with both of us inside, and he started screaming and punching the wall.
I could tell that he was wasted by the smell of his breath. He pulled out the towel bar and started hitting himself. I freaked out and pushed my way out of the bathroom and into our room. He got through the bedroom door and on top of me then pinned me to the bed. Blood was pouring from his nose from beating himself up.
It was all over my face and upper body too. I don't even remember what he was saying, but he was going nuts. I got loose, grabbed my laptop bag, and got to the living room. I was trying to make a run for it. As I grabbed the doorknob, he grabbed the back of my shirt and threw me. I landed on a table breaking the glass.
Somehow in between, I had called a friend who was on her way over to get me. We fought in the living room for a while until I somehow managed to jump out of the living room window onto our front porch then down the apartment stairs onto the parking lot where my friend was already. I jumped in her car, and we booked it.
I was in panic and shock when I got to her house. I was in the bathroom changing out of my bloody clothes and cleaning the blood off my body. Then I heard a terrifying sound. There was yelling and thumping, and all of a sudden, my ex burst into the bathroom. He had driven all the way there. He, "just wanted to talk.” My friend was outside the door.
I yelled for her to call 9-1-1 right away. She did. Once he knew that they were on their way, he left the bathroom. I had left my laptop bag sitting in the hallway, which he grabbed to throw my computer across her hardwood kitchen floor. He also grabbed a golf club and ran outside and started clubbing her driver-side door.
He got the front windshield before running into the night. Officers came and took him in. I was a nervous wreck for the rest of the night.
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36. Insecurities Incognito
My ex wouldn't let us be friends online until over a year into our relationship. He freaked out when I talked to his friends or twin, didn’t introduce me to his other brother, and was very vague about if anyone knew about me. When I asked him how his nights out went, he accused me of being controlling and suffocating.
I got upset when he had become friends with an ex, and he said that he hated me and called me immature, naïve, and controlling for trying to control who his friends were. Near the end of the relationship, he treated me badly, especially when I said that I didn't trust him fully. I was right. He was seeing someone else.
When I went to visit him before I found out he’d been cheating on me continuously, he tried to pressure me into sleeping with him, which thankfully didn't happen. After we broke up, he continued to lead me on one day blaming me for his cheating and in the next breath telling me he cried himself to sleep over losing me.
I finally figured out how to block him on most fronts. The last message that I got from him was almost two years after we broke up. I told him to take a hint and go away.
37. Get Grossed
My mom’s ex-husband, my ex-stepfather, came into our lives when my twin sister and I were five. At first, he was really cool compared to my dad who never cared much about us. He would take us out on day trips, drive us around, and a truck! It was huge, and when you’re five, that was the definition of ultimate coolness.
As we started getting older, we realized that he wasn't the guy we thought he was. He watched dirty videos often, too often, like 8-9 times a day. Both of us walked in on him a few times but never said anything for obvious reasons. In my teens, I’d also discovered online videos but only watched them once or twice a day.
He was hired as a doorman at a bar and finished his shifts at 12, but he came back past 2 in the morning. We learned that he was spending his nights assaulting women from the bar, taking advantage of their vulnerable state. Worst of all, he knowingly infected my mom with STD that he caught from one of his affairs with random people.
I got involved when he found inappropriate videos on the computer and ratted me out to my mum. I took the lecture like a man, and before I went back up to bed, I said, "It's not as if he doesn't do it." I showed my mom his Internet history which even for a young teenage boy on heat, I found disgusting. My mom was sick.
My sister was 11, and it turned out that he’d also been looking at her. My mom kicked him out, and for the next six months, he went absolutely crazy. He came over at 4 in the morning to stand outside or shout things. He tried ending his life, getting taken into custody, as well as touching my mom and sister on separate occasions
One night after the break-up, I heard my mom crying downstairs, so I went down and comforted her. He had been ringing and texting her for hours calling her names then apologizing and asking to come back. All of a sudden, he was outside and kicked in our front door. He came at us and attempted to take a swing at my mum.
He didn't see me, so I kicked him out of the house into the garden and beat him up good.
38. Along For The Ride
I dated a girl who had a crazy ex-boyfriend. They were still "friends" when we started dating, and she constantly talked about him. A few nights a week when I'd hang out with her, she was either crying or had just stopped crying because he had called her and threatened her in some way. These threats varied in severity.
He threatened to end his life or take her dog and called her bad names. Still, for whatever reason, she stayed in contact with him. Their fights always upset me because she wouldn't allow me to do anything about it. She cried harder when I suggested reporting him or just showing up at his house with a few of my friends.
Later, I made a disturbing realization. I eventually figured out that she was just as nuts as him. But, for the six months that we dated, he made her cry at least three times a week, and then we would get into an argument about whether he was, in her words, "just messed up" or, in my words, "a big jerk." When I was with her to visit her family, we hung out with him.
I had to get this jerk at work and drive him to her house. The entire time he flirted with her and I'd never wanted to beat someone up that badly. I'm a calm, cool, and collected person. It takes a lot to upset me, and this guy seemed to be an expert at it.
39. As We Go On, We Remember
My first boyfriend lasted around two weeks, and we were both all over each other because neither of us had ever had a boyfriend before. He broke up with me after saying that people were talking about us behind our backs, including my sister. Now, I'm the kind of person who people don't really talk about behind my back.
And I was right. No one had been talking about us. A few months later, and I'd been dating this other guy. I had just gotten home from an awesome date with him, and got a message. It was my ex. I mentioned to him that I was dating someone new, and he responded by telling me that he had made out with him a week before.
I learned that it was true and forgave my boyfriend. But then he broke up with me a few months later after constantly avoiding me and being a jerk. So, the first ex decided to try and get back at me despite getting my last ex to cheat on me with him. It took all of my willpower not to punch him on the spot.
40. Over Capable
I had "ruined prom" for him because I was sick and wanted to go home choosing not to attend the after-prom party. He told me that he was so mad about it that he could hit me. I freaked on him. These police officers who’d been observing this entire debacle unfold brought me home, but I was locked out and lived alone and quite tipsy.
I had to wander over to a neighbor's party, call my parents, which took me a while as I couldn’t figure out how to dial properly, and get my keys back from this jerk. The next day while I was at work, he called 30-40 times. Then the following week, he left me letters in my mailbox saying that I’d completely overreacted.
41. Stroked The Wrong Way
I married the crazy who kept it well hidden until we were married. Then it all came out. When I got into playing games online and making friends, my husband got crazy jealous. He put a keylogger on my computer and logged into my email and social media to make sure that I wasn't cheating on him. He never even bothered to talk to me about it.
I found out when I found the keylogger in a spyware scan. When we were going through our divorce, he called me to say he’d give me something if I slept with him. I refused. And he took my doormat! When I asked him about it, he admitted to it. I asked why, and he said, "because that was the only way I could get to you."
42. Poisonous Intentions
I dated a guy who I had met online. I’m still suffering from what he did to me today. Well, he slipped me something and I ended up unconscious on his couch for days before his roommate realized that I wasn't sleeping and brought me to the hospital. This “perfectly nice guy” didn't like that I wasn't going to be able to see him for a couple of weeks while I was out of town, and didn't want me to leave.
I had to take medication for two years after that to fight kidney and liver damage. They think that he injected me with insulin and something else that they were never able to identify. Many of my symptoms were related to insulin shock.
43. Angel Watching Over Me
In high school, I dated a boy who was "Wiccan," which I didn't think was a big deal. Well, we started dating, and he started giving me crystals that I needed to wear. He was actually the High Priest despite being a 16-year-old high school freshman. I wore them to bed to keep his nemesis, a scary demon, from finding me.
One day, I came to school without it on because I guess it fell off in my sleep. He lost it and ran home to make me a new one. When he came back, he splashed cologne on me and said some faux Latin saying that he got rid of some of the demon that was inside me. Two weeks later, he said there wasn't a demon in me at all.
But he remembered that night because he was crying for me and saw me and reached out to me, which shattered the crystal. Once, he told me that he dreamed of me trapped in a cage about to be attacked by his nemesis demon. He said that he had that dream when he started falling in love with someone. It’d been three weeks.
He told me three times a week about how the demon was trying to control me and break into the mortal realm. He also told me that I wasn't allowed to be near him when I was on my period because it would attract the demon. After a month and a half of putting up with this, he dumped me through a letter his friend gave me.
44. Going All Out
I started dating a guy when I was 15. He once got high while watching a movie and shaved his eyebrows off. Another time, he called and threatened his school to spend the day with me. After we broke up, I saw him running around my house crying and limping. He was on something and thought I’d called the “secret police” on him.
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45. Exit Fee
I had a boyfriend who treated me awfully. He lied to me, cheated on me, put me down, took every cent I had, and left me. And it didn’t stop when we broke up. After he dumped me, he called me every now and then pretending to want to "catch up" with me. What he really wanted was money and yet another chance to tell me that I was the problem all along.
I just stopped answering my phone. This went on for several months until one day I realized that he had been following me. I was with my husband who was the one that noticed it. My husband caught him trying to look in the house. He was a coward, didn’t want my husband to come anywhere near him, and ran when confronted.
Finally, I went to a rave and saw my ex standing outside cooling off with a friend. His new girlfriend came outside with three guys who all went into this van that was in the parking lot. He came out about 20 minutes later and asked if I’d seen his girl. I was more than happy to point to the van that had been "rocking."
He was out there for about 10 minutes. There was shouting. He came back and gave me a dirty look. I started laughing because he was crying. I haven’t seen him since but did get a call from him. He again wanted to borrow money and to tell me how everything was my fault. He told me he was dating a rich girl, and that was it.
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46. Knowing You
We dated for three weeks. He always let me know how I wasn't good enough for him and compared me to his exes. I went to dump him, and he cried begging me not to do it. I said that I’d give him a second chance. Two days went by, and I didn't see or even talk to him on the phone because I was that busy at work that week.
He called me and told me that he feared that I was becoming "too clingy" and then dumped me. Three months later, I was dating a new guy. My boss told me that she’d seen my boyfriend at a grocery store. My boyfriend didn't even live on the same side of town, so I asked her which grocery store, and she told me which one.
When she saw my confusion, she went, "he works there, right?" I told her no and that we’d broken up several months before and I had a new boyfriend. She told me that he was the one who recognized her and told her that he was my boyfriend. Uh, no. We broke up several months ago, and I am with a new guy. She tells me that he recognized her, and told her that he is my boyfriend.
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47. Crushing Solution
I was sitting on the couch after getting out of school early. My husband came stumbling in wasted. He was surprised to see that I was home and sneaked to the bedroom. I walked in a little later while he was passed out. That was when I found his phone on the floor. That’s when I made a disturbing discovery. See, I had suspected that he was cheating for quite a while.
In his text messages was a discussion with another woman who was saying, "I love you, but what are we going to do about her?” His reply to her was, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it." The next day, I confronted him about their messages. He put me in a chokehold and told me that if I calmed down, he wouldn't let me pass out.
I knew then he was trying to get rid of me permanently. I kicked him in the balls and got the heck out of dodge. Later, I found out that he put down our pets. It was a lot to deal with.
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48. Sticking Around
I was with some loser years ago who isolated me from my friends, told me I was fat, beat me, got high, among a dozen other things. When I finally got the courage to leave him, he told my new guy that I had AIDS and herpes. He said that I did indeed have herpes, and it was from some girl who he’d screwed behind my back.
I didn't have anything. He’d just wanted to hurt me. Over the years, he tried keeping in contact with me online or through letters from prison under the guise of making amends. He is still the same loser—just older. He finally stopped when my boyfriend made him look like a fool for trying to introduce himself to him.
49. I’ll Be There
After over two years, I was finally able to break up with my horrible boyfriend. He didn't take it well, kept calling and texting me trying to get me to talk to him and work things out, and telling me that I never gave him a second chance. After the hundreds of fights when he made me cry and I stayed, he’d used all his chances.
Late one night, I'd been hanging out with friends and finally made it home. I saw that he was hanging out at the end of the street near my place. He drove up and blocked my driveway, refusing to leave until I locked myself into my house for an hour yelling at him to leave me alone. I blocked his number on my phone too.
But he started emailing me, at one point just asking for help. I finally went over when he threatened to take his life, and he proposed to me. I walked away, and he fell to the ground and started vomiting. I had to call his best friend so he could come to help him. I finally moved to a new place just to get away from him.
I also created email filters to block the email addresses that he kept creating just to contact me. About three months after the breakup, it was my birthday. He had called my best friend up and lied about showing up at my old place with a car that he had promised to fix and give me two years before and two dozen roses.
I knew that he was lying about it because three weeks before my birthday, I learned that he became really upset when he showed up to my old house to find out that I moved. A few months later, I was seeing a new guy. Things were going great, but I refused to post anything about the new relationship online or any photos.
Despite blocking him and all of his friends, I was afraid of him somehow seeing it. Well, I finally posted a photo of us as my main profile photo without thinking. A few hours later, my ex showed up at my new place and began pounding on my door. I called law enforcement. But he busted in my boyfriend's windshield and ran.
50. Long Hand Of The Law
In high school, I was dating this guy, and everything was going great. I was infatuated with him. A few months into our relationship, we slept together. It was both our first time. He was holding me and kissed my forehead. Then he said something that made my skin crawl. He told me that he wanted to cut my skin off in the shapes of stars and put them in the sky.
That was so he could always see a part of me. He said this as he cried and bear-hugged me. I didn't know what to say, and when I went home that night, I called him and ended things. For the next four months, he waited outside my classes and got his friends to come to talk to me. And he just turned really angry and petty.
He posted fliers around school calling me names. I came home crying, and my dad was absolutely livid. All he told me was that he would take care of it. My dad was an officer and my ex's dad's boss. He had me tell him where my ex and his friends hung out after school, and he and his partner drove their patrol car over.
One of the boys ran, but my dad's partner caught up and dragged him to the car. My dad then made all four boys cry. Later, I got a call from each kid apologizing. My ex avoided me the rest of high school like the plague.
Sources: Reddit,
