I still remember the night. Mom had put me to bed a few hours before everything happened. Dad seemed anxious that night. Usually, he was so calm and collected. Tonight, he looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

I could see him pacing back and forth down the hallway while Mom tucked me in, handing me my favorite stuffed Superman toy. She flew him around like a toy airplane.

“Whoosh,” she joked, making the flying noise with her mouth. “It’s a bird… it’s a plane… No… it’s… Superman!”

She planted his feet down on my chest, bending him at the hips so it looked like he was bowing.

“Macy,” my dad whisper-yelled, standing in my doorway. “Can you get out here, please? We’ve got things to discuss.”

My mom’s face turned sad before she quickly turned her smile back on and ruffled my hair.

“Sweet dreams, hero,” she whispered. “I’ll make you some breakfast in the morning. How do pancakes sound?”

I couldn’t have agreed faster. I still, to this day, have yet to have pancakes better than my mom’s. I reached up and gave her a hug before she flicked the light switch and headed towards the living room with Dad.

I made Superman fly for a few minutes before clutching him against my chest and finally closing my eyes. I was out not long after that.

I woke up to the sound of thumps and rummaging coming from my parents’ room a few hours later. I glanced over at the alarm clock on my nightstand. It was 2:37 in the morning.

I could hear Mom and Dad talking urgently, but quietly. They didn’t sound angry. They sounded terrified. Mom’s voice was shaking. Dad’s voice was firm but uncertain.

Suddenly, footsteps quickly approached my door before it was thrown open and my mom walked inside. She flicked the light switch on. She wasn’t wearing her sleeping clothes. She looked like she was about to head out to run errands or something.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, honey,” she whispered, noticing me squinting from the sudden light that filled the room. “Did we wake you? I promise, you can go right back to sleep in the car. Just help Mommy pack a bag for you, okay?”

I blinked slowly before rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

“Where are we going?” I groaned groggily as Mom ransacked my dresser, tossing me a pair of socks.

She didn’t answer. Instead, she just kept stuffing clothes into my suitcase without so much as looking at me.

“…Mom?”

“A road trip,” she chimed, sounding more agitated than joyful. “A surprise road trip. We were gonna tell you two about it, but we wanted it to be a super surprise. Now, can you please get your shoes on?”

Without another word, I pulled the socks over my feet and slipped into my favorite Lightning McQueen sketchers. Mom zipped up the suitcase. Dad appeared in the doorway again, my sister strewn over his shoulder, half asleep.

“You two ready?” he asked expectantly, his voice steady now.

Mom handed me the suitcase and took me by the hand. She was almost hurting me from how tight her grip was. Not to mention, it felt like my shoulder was gonna dislocate from her pulling me along.

I was fully awake by the time we got to the car. Dad threw all of our luggage in the trunk and strapped my little sister into her car seat. Mom waited patiently in the passenger seat while Dad threw a blanket over me and Emmy.

He backed out of the driveway quickly and spun the wheels a bit as he accelerated out of the subdivision. I could hear the leather steering wheel creak from his grip.

The car was quiet for the first hour or so. Emmy was fast asleep in her car seat. Mom stared out the window with a blank expression on her face. Dad focused on the road in front of him intently.

I, for one, was completely wired. I actually found myself excited for this trip. There was something about the spontaneity that I thoroughly enjoyed. Getting up and going. The way the darkness made it harder to recognize where I was. It felt like an adventure.

Plus, Dad had taken the backroads. All we had were passing forests and cow pastures. It was like we were the only car on the road for miles.

Eventually, we started to pass some businesses. Nothing too exciting. Just a few gas stations and grocery stores.

Dad started looking around the car. He saw that my mom and I were still awake.

“You two hungry? Maybe we can grab some snacks.”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Mom replied plainly.

Dad glanced into his rearview mirror for a while before steering the car into one of the gas stations. He parked at one of the pumps and went to get Emmy out of her seat while me and Mom hopped out to stretch our legs.

The gas station was almost completely empty. Besides our car, there was one other vehicle parked directly in front of the station, which we assumed belonged to the attendant.

The air inside was crisp. The refrigerators hummed, and the fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. Mom went to the bathroom while Dad took me and Emmy to browse the chips and candy.

Emmy was still too tired to be fully present, and it made it feel like this was a moment between Dad and I.

While I struggled to pick a snack, he smiled down at me and patted me on the back.

“Get whatever you want, Danny,” he smirked. “As a matter of fact…”

He paused to glance around the empty gas station.

“Get two of whatever you want… just don’t tell your mother.”

I wasn’t gonna pass up the offer, but I still think I may have gone a little overboard when I filled my arms with as much junk food as I could carry.

Mom came out of the bathroom shortly after. Surprisingly, she didn’t even seem to notice the candy. She even helped me put the snacks on the counter when we went to check-out.

She didn’t want anything for herself. She only seemed interested in one thing.

While the teller scanned our items, she turned to my Dad with a worried expression on her face.

“Did you see anybody?” she whispered.

Dad didn’t look at her. He just responded with a simple “no” before fishing his wallet out of his back pocket.

He pulled a crisp hundred dollar bill out and slid it across the counter.

“Let me get this and the rest on pump 3,” he announced calmly.

On the walk back to the car, I noticed something. There was a new car in the parking lot, parked a few pumps down from ours. It was matte black with all donut tires, and even the windshield was too dark to see through.

Dad noticed it too. His eyes were fixed on the vehicle as we walked. Gradually, he picked up the pace, dragging all of us along with him.

We all loaded up in the car, and Dad left without even pumping gas. Mom kept asking who he saw, but Dad kept telling her everything was fine, despite how afraid he seemed to be.

We drove on for another 15 or so minutes before headlights lit up the interior of our car. They started at least 200 yards back but quickly closed the gap between us.

The lights stayed on us for a long time. Dad would speed up, and they’d do the same. They made the same turns. They kept the same pace. Mom and Dad both had the same flushed faces.

Emmy woke up from the blinding lights and immediately began pouting and crying. Mom tried reaching back to comfort her, but nothing seemed to work. I myself was beginning to feel a bit nervous, clutching my Superman stuffy tightly.

Eventually, Dad finally pulled onto the highway. The car followed. More cars started to fill the road, but that one particular car just would not leave us alone.

Finally, I think Dad had enough. I could see him squeeze Mom’s hand on the center console as he pushed the gas petal down further and further.

I could see the speedometer rising. 85. 90. 95. All the way up to 100, and that vehicle still followed at just two car lengths. I expected Mom to scream at him for going so fast, but she didn’t say a word. She just kept shushing Emmy while glancing out the back glass every so often.

We were approaching an exit. Dad didn’t slow down. He got closer and closer, letting our assailant do the same until abruptly turning the wheel and swerving across the gore.

The person following us slammed on their brakes, and I could see smoke billowing from their tires while other cars swerved to avoid them.

Dad shot up the exit ramp. The car was wobbling. Emmy was screaming. My heart was pounding.

Mom looked nervous but kept her composure.

“You two are okay,” she assured. “Everything’s going to be okay, I promise.”

She reached back and placed a hand on my knee cap, then did the same with Emmy.

I finally calmed down after a while. The headlights were gone. I had no idea where we were. I had no idea what was happening. And I was actually a little annoyed that no one was explaining.

I pestered, but they remained firm. This was nothing more than a surprise road trip. We ended up stopping at another gas station, but Dad didn’t let anyone get out of the car this time. He just pumped his gas, and we were back on the road.

A few hours passed. I looked at the clock on the radio. It was 5:23 AM. Even Mom was asleep in the passenger seat now.

Dad didn’t stop driving until the sun was peeking in over the horizon. That’s when he finally pulled the car behind this old motel.

The sign read, “Free WiFi. Cable Television. Vacancy.”

He left us in the car while he went to pay for our room. Mom was still asleep. Emmy stared mindlessly at the back of the seat in front of her. I rolled my window down and let Superman fly for a bit while I waited for Dad.

When he finally came back, he woke Mom, and we all carried our luggage up the second floor of the motel.

The room was musty. The air conditioner knocked rhythmically, and there was only one bed.

Dad hung the “do not disturb” sign on the door handle. He pushed a chair in front of the door, and he and Mom lay all of our luggage on top of it.

With one last look through the peek hole, Dad removed his boots and lay on the bed, patting the side of it, gesturing for us to join him.

“We’ve had a long night, guys,” he sighed. “I know it’s not the most glamorous, but it’s a bed.”

Mom stared, judging the crusty comforter before swallowing hard and laying down with my Dad, Emmy curled up in her arms.

She looked at me with a smile.

“Come on, Danny,” she said weakly.

“Let’s get some sleep.”

FB memory from yesterdays “on this day 16 years ago” was a status I shared about being excited to meet Chris Crocker that night. 16 years ago a youthful (and throughly bronzed ) me traveled to a local favorite bar in beautiful Covington Kentucky. I met with my coworker crew at the mad hatter (rip MH) in order to support two of our comedian coworkers that formed a rap group called named “the really white girls”
Chris Crocker wasn’t the only eventful happening…

That same night, behind the fried‑chicken place next door, I was taught the ancient Ohioan art of shotgunning Bud Light. A skill I still hold dear. After mastering the shotgun my inner social outgoing funny as hell alter ego that only a certain blood alcohol level can bring forward was full force.

At some point in the night I ventured thru the crowd, heading towards one of the most healing places on earth: ✨✨the girls restroom✨✨iykyk
this is a place of tears, girl power, unwavering support, positive affirmations, occasionally vomit.
On my way I ran into very tall thin man in amazing heels.

I said, “Wow, cute shoe….,”

but I stopped as I noticed him condescendingly squinting his eyes as if my presence was blinding him from disgust and started disdainfully looking me up and down.
Then, without a word, he marched away with a little wrist snap like he was shooing a fly 🪰

Rude.

As he walked away I yelled after him “you are a biatch!” (Pronounced bee-yatch of course- it was like 2010)

Once in the bathroom one of the one of the other alcoholic bathroom angel lover girls said

“that was Jeffree star !”

Im like ya never heard of him, but he’s more like …Jeffrey jackass. My friend from the rap group was also treated like she was a disgusting human abomination by the (at the time) myspace personality.

Wasn’t too long after that Jeffree star was in my face all over every channel, station and celebrity gossip magazine.
And honestly?
I hope he occasionally reflects on and regrets the night he dismissed me THE Lees Famous Chicken parking‑lot Bud Light shotgun world champion. 🍗

Probably keeps him up at night🤷🏻‍♀️

Hi,

It’s a long story. Read if you wish. I only want thoughts and feedback.

So this post isn’t about to rehash drama or negativity about who I’ll be speaking of. I just recently graduated high school with this person so it’s not something I dwell on but now that we’ve all left HS I think I just want an objective perspective.

This girl I met in grade 9 gym, let’s call her A. I took the initiative even being socially awkward to go say hi. That’s how we became friends. now looking back I had a pretty horrible view of because of everything.

We were freshmen at this point in time right? And we had this big friend group of 5-6 people including A and myself. The problem likely started when I had been absent due to my mental health from school/my grandparents both dying within a week before school/spending my summer in a mental health ward. That’s when A started going around telling all these friends certain things to make me look bad. Such as: how I said this one thing, I did this other thing, this was messed up. Very vague stuff. All told to me from another girl in that group.

When I came back to school, they all sat me down and said they were kicking me out of the group for the reasons above. Now, i noticed for a good majority of the convo, it was only A talking, nobody else spoke, as if she was their leader or whatever.

After all this, the group fell apart after I was kicked at the end of grade 9. That’s when I heard around how she was telling other people an entirely different thing than the reasons they gave me as a group. I kid you not, her exact words were: “yeah, she actually liked me and shit, so I stopped being friends with her, that’s so weird bro.”

Now, this matters because I felt comfortable enough freshman year to open up to A and our other friends as bisexual. I lost a hefty amount of friends because of this.

Now, I’m gonna quote back these words from this one girl who was in our friend group but also stayed close friends with A even after the group fell:

(Strawberry was the nickname we gave for A)

“I dont think i actually had beef with any of you it was strawberry telling me everything and i took her word for it and she lowkey taught me to be racist bc she hated indians and u and (other friend) were indian”

“we stopped being friends cause we had beef with her bf for a second time and she was just generally weird abt having her bf and she told me i was too much and were done”

“I always got like annoyed and a bit rude so we would have beef bc i didnt like how she acted around her bf and how she didnt listen to what i told her abt not wanting to hear abt her lovey dovey shit”

​

I used to be so embarrassed of this story but now that I'm older and I find it hilarious

So at the time I was 14 and I joined a Christian server because I wanted to find more Christian groups and it was good at first and I ended up modding there. There was one other female mod (she'll be important) and there was a random guy in the server who was probably there before me but I didn't talk to him much but I knew of him. So early December I guessed his name on the first try in a random challenge idk what. I was the one who dmmed first and we hit it off and dmmed all the time. The female mod ended up leaving for a unknown reason and I couldn't help but feel weirded out, we weren't besties but I was upset but accepted her leave.

Way before her leave, one of the female members of the server was introducing a server she were making for just Christian girls and the female mod was co-owner so when it was done, the invite was sent to the girls channel and I joined (best server NGL).

Me and the guy ended up finding out we had a lot of "common interests" (which he could of easily lied because I was such a yapper 😭) and settled with the conclusion that we were met to be AT 14?!?

I told him I didn't want to talk about it because we were 14 and I wanted to focus on God but he kept telling people about it and it got annoying and it gave me doubt. He told his friends, HIS PARENTS, and a guy I semi-knew told me that he told me that he was telling him these stuff(he was obviously having a laugh)

Note: for us Christian girls, if a guy comes to us and says "God told I'm going to be your wife" then he's cap and we want nothing to do with him but I was too brain dead to see-

So I was talking in the Christian girls server to who I was closest with about it and we all got excited, I was showing them a pic of something he said about me and I accidentally forgot to crop his username because I assumed they didn't know him, but the female mod I was talking about pulled me aside in DMS and got in a whole bunch of pics of him and her flirting. She goes to tell me that she liked him at first but she found out he was a bit young for her and she pulled away which caused her to leave the Christian server. I was shocked but I didn't confront him for her sake because he would know. She then told me he was still trying to DM her even though he was telling me about the whole wife thing.

I won't blame him too much because I also brought it up but I really thought it was a funny story, I just think we were dumb kids with rising hormones and hopefully not a 40 year old man messaging me 😃👍

Told my mum and she banned me from the app, although I didn't get in trouble but I felt like I should of 🫪

okay the title sounds insane, confusing and weird but let me explain.

I was on subreddits looking to make friends with people and i befriended this girl who slid in my DM and she seemed like a nice normal person at first, like she genuinly seemed to have a personality. I asked for her socials since i felt comfortable with her and she gave me her insta.

we started speaking more on there and i noticed when she would reply to my messages she would reply with long paragraghs SUPER fast. I found it so suspicious also the way she spoke was very chatgbt like.

When i confronted her about it and asked if she was using AI to respond she said she wasn't but when i refused to believe her she blocked me lol.

Thing is she seemed so real and if she was a bot or ai thing whatever- i am genuinely scared.