Straight off the crazy farm

I'd been dating her for about three months, so far so good. She was a senior in college and I was a year behind her. Amazing musical abilities, incredible on the piano and a great singer.

One day she says 'we need to talk' and when I get to her house she proceeds to tell me that it's just not working out for her.

I've never been a lady killer but I've also never had a problem finding a date. This was the first time I'd been broken up with, bound to happen.

A couple weeks later she came by my apartment, tells me she 'really misses me' and would 'love to hang out'. Ok, so we start hanging out and before I know it things are more serious than before.

All was normal until one night a month later when I was dropping her off after a date. We were in my car and I was saying good night to her.

It was maybe midnight and summertime, so the windows were rolled down. In the middle of the goodnight hug something seemed to come through the passenger side window and pull at her shoulder from behind. I looked up just in time to see an arm go back out the window and out of sight.

What the f was that??? My instinct was to immediately get out of the car and figure out what the hell was going on. My girlfriend stops me. She says, that's just my x-boyfriend. He was in the bushes and must have slid under the car.

Oh, that explains it. NOW RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN??? She proceeds to explain how he's usually in the bushes when I drop her off at night, and that she'd told him to knock that off.

Now I'm at a complete loss for words.

So let's start at the beginning I tell her, you've never mentioned an x-boyfriend, who is this guy? Turns out they had dated for a year or two and had broke it off just before we started dating. But she said he was really jealous about us going out and extremely protective, and would always come over after our dates, often climbing through her bedroom window. She knew it was wrong but thought it was 'sweet'. Lately she said he'd been hiding in the bushes and watching us say goodnight, something she said was going too far. She concluded by saying that he must have felt like we were hugging too long or something which explains why he tugged at her through the window.

I of course ask the next logical question, 'where is this dude now?' She says he's still under the car on her side. While my gut told me to get out and confront this guy, it was clear that my girlfriend was every bit as crazy as he was. Who knows what the hell I was in the middle of. Now I'm thinking that I need to get as far away from this pair as possible.

I tell her I should probably let her get inside, and to make sure her x wasn't under the car so I didn't run over him on the way out. She responded with a smile, 'don't worry, he's back in the bushes now'. Excellent. Felt like I'd somehow stumbled into an alternate universe ... population: 2 total wack jobs.

Bailed out of there quick and on my way home from school the next day I broke it off. She took it well, didn't seem to have any emotional reaction one way or the other. That was odd, but it didn't matter, it was over.

That's when the things started escalating.

Later that week she drops a letter off at my house, the letter explains how she was up all night on the swings at the park thinking about when she was a little girl and how happy she was when she was with me. And those things are related how??? The letter concludes by saying 'I don't think I can live without you'. Normally this is a figure of speech, but in this context it was just plain spooky.

The next morning my roommate was headed out to an early class at 5:30 AM and when he opened the front door he found this girl just standing outside on the front doormat staring at the door smiling. She'd obviously been there for a while and looked freezing, was like 40 degrees out. She told him she was waiting for me to come out. He says, 'Ok, do you want me to go wake him up?' No, she says she'll wait until I come out. Fortunately, she was gone when I woke up. The craziness was getting much worse.

Next came another letter, this time she said she just didn't know what to do. She said she had sat at the kitchen table for a long time just holding a knife.

Yeah, now I was flat out scared of her.

Two days later she comes by the apartment in the afternoon and 'demands to speak with me'. I was fortunately not there, but she didn't believe my roommates, thought I was back in my room hiding from her. They said she was pissed as hell and sat for an hour fuming in the living room, just waiting, before she left. On her way out she says 'he can't avoid me forever! I'm going to find him if I have to wait here all day!!' Alrighty then.

My roommates sat me down that night and said they were seriously freaking out that she might come by with a knife or weapon next time, and that I needed to talk to her. Obviously avoiding her wasn't working. I called her that night and she immediately came over, I had no idea what to expect but the roommates were in the back ready to call the cops and jump out to help if necessary. Fortunately, she was acting as normal as ever, as if nothing had happened. I let her control the conversation, and after a 10 minute discussion about what she'd been up to since we broke up she seemed content and went home. No idea what that was all about.

Never heard from her again after that.

Talk about dodging a bullet, literally. Just imagine discovering this craziness only AFTER you've married someone!!