Park

this story still freaks me out a little bit, so i thought i'd share.

when i was 16, a couple of friends of mine came over one night to spend the night. at the time, i was pretty much the goody-two-shoes of the whole friend group. most of my friends had done drugs/smoked weed, but i had never done drugs in my life, and had only ever had alcohol a few times.

this particular night, i decided i was okay with smoking weed for the first time. i was getting older and all my other friends had tried it, so i figured i'd just give it a go; if i didn't like it, no harm no foul. we went to the store and picked up a bunch of snacks and drinks for if we got the munchies, and headed home in my friend's car.

we didn't really want to start smoking in the house with my parents home and wide awake, and there was a park right around the corner from my house, so we decided to smoke there. it was about 9 at night and we knew no one would be there, so we figured it was the best option. at the park, there was an awning with a couple tables underneath, and if you walk a bit further, you get to the actual playground itself-- a jungle-gym structure with slides, climbing walls, the works.

we got there, and set up all of our food and drinks on one of the tables and just got right to it. all of my friends started passing it around, and when it finally came to me, i was scared, but worked up the courage and just did it. i honestly didn't feel much, except a bit of hunger. we got into the snacks and just started talking for a while, enjoying each other's company.

after about half an hour of us just hanging around, we hear 2 slurred voices from behind us. it's dark and there's no lights at the park AT ALL, so we were using our phones as flashlights. the figures pass us and move towards the playground. we quickly realize it's two drunk girls, around our age. we say hi and they say hi, extremely slurred and staggering about. they go onto the playground structure and just sit and talk. eventually they invite us to come sit with them, so we do, leaving all of our snacks, keys, wallets, etc. on the table. one of my friends and i both took our phones, but our other 2 friends left both of theirs on the table.

we climb onto the structure and start talking to the girls. i learn both of them go to my school, and they're drunk out of their minds off some raspberry vodka they'd stolen from a nearby store. i brush it off as i went to a public high school and a lot of kids my age shoplifted. my friends all took a shot, and we just hung out with the girls for a while. we started talking and goofing around, most of my friends at least a little crossed. after a while it's about 10 at night, and though it's not too late, it's EXTREMELY unusual for anyone to be at the park this late. my neighborhood was primarily religious families with tons of kids, and the park was, well, reserved for those kids. it was only inhabited during the day and i had never seen anyone at it anytime past 8.

it's about 10 pm and we see a black pickup truck pull into my neighborhood. nothing unusual at first, until it parks directly in front of the park. the engine runs idle for a bit, and we try to see who or how many people are inside of it, but with the lack of light, we don't see much. one of the girls says she thinks she just sees a man sitting in the driver's seat.

we start to get a little creeped out. there's not really any reason for a creepy truck to be parked directly in front of a park at 10 at night. we joked around and said maybe it's two teens messing around, but one of the girls said she was pretty sure she saw only one person in the car, and by the shape of the figure, that it looked like a man. we started to get a little paranoid. i've had anxiety my whole life. my dad was a veteran who trained me to basically be paranoid at all times, so naturally i am usually the first to overreact-- but the fact that all of us were uneasy let me know that it wasn't all in my head.

we all start thinking that the driver saw us (6 teenage girls without any adults), when his headlights shined onto the structure as he turned into the neighborhood. i know it doesn't seem that weird, but trust me. it was weird.

as i said, we were all creeped out. even the girls who were drunk and acting totally out of it sobered up immediately. we decided it would be a good idea to head home.

except for the fact that all of our stuff, including my friends' car keys and phones, were all lying on the tables.

directly in front of the truck.

we all knew that if whoever was in that truck was some kind of creep, if we tried to grab our stuff, he could easily get to us. the distance between the tables and the truck was only about 10 feet or so.

we could walk home, but we didn't want to leave any of our phones/valuables at a public park overnight.

i know there's 6 of us, but half of us were high and the other half drunk out of our minds. the odds didnt seem to be in our favor.

i looked at my phone to call my mom so she could pick us up. it had 1%. i tried her phone several times, but to no avail. i tried my dad a couple times, and no answer. my friend who had brought her phone as well said it was dead/dying and she had no one to call either. i started thinking of every possible person i could text or call to get us out of there. we could walk home, but ALL of our stuff was on the tables. even if we tried to run, he could easily circle around to the other side of the park and catch us.

at the time, i had a cousin who lived in the neighborhood, only a couple blocks away. she was about 20 and still technically lived in the house with her parents, but was gone 99% of the time, with her boyfriend. i figured it was worth a try, as my phone was dying and we were out of options. i texted her and asked if she was in the neighborhood, and she said yes. i was extremely relieved. i explained to her the situation, and she said her boyfriend would come to the park and help us gather our stuff and leave.

thankfully, after only 5 minutes, her boyfriend came. he was extremely tall and wore rather baggy clothes, so he looked like a big guy. he was nice and i'd known him for years, so i trusted him. he saw us on the park structure and escorted us to the tables. he turned on the flashlight on his phone so we could have light to gather our belongings- and the second the truck saw this very tall guy, it IMMEDIATELY sped off.

we thanked him and my cousin and went home after that, pretty shaken up about the whole thing. my friend was so shaken up about it she refused to drive her car back to my house, so we left it at the park overnight.

to this day i still wonder what could've happened to us if my cousin and her boyfriend hadn't been in the neighborhood that night.