Leave Me Alone

I’d been online dating for a while. There was one guy, Roo, who I decided to add onto my Facebook to see if our conversation would flow a little better through Facebook chat instead of messages.

After adding him, it became clear we were more like online friends than anything else. We’d comment on each other’s stuff and occasionally IM, but we never flirted and never talked about meeting up or anything.

Nine months went by and I was on a night out in my hometown when I got a message from Roo. He said he was in a bar in my hometown and had thought of me. The bar he was in was the very same one my friends and I were planning on going to later. I messaged him back saying I’d probably see him then, thinking that it’d be nice to say hi in real life to someone who’d turned out to be a decent Facebook friend of mine.

So, a while later I popped over the road and there he was, standing outside the bar. We had a hug, said hello, and headed over to the bar. I ordered my own drink, but he pushed money into the bartenders hand before I could open my purse. I told him I’d buy him a drink later.

His friends came over; they seemed to already know who I was and were saying things like ‘So what do you think of Roo?’ and ‘He’s *such* a nice guy you know! He just has bad luck!’ I said ‘We’re just friends,’ and they seemed to accept this and drop the conversation.

Roo, one of his friends and I sat down with our drinks while my friends did their own thing by the bar.

‘So, do you want to dance?’ he held out his hand to me.
‘No not really, I just got my drink and I don’t really like this song.’
‘Come on! Let’s dance!’
‘No really, I’m happy here.’

I turned to the friend and tried to spark up a conversation we could all join in on. This went fine for about 5 minutes before again, Roo turned to me and said, ‘Shall we dance?’
‘I’m not really the dancing type. Besides, your friend would be on his own!’
‘Oh he’s fine, come on’
‘No.’

This uncomfortable begging me to dance with him went on for a few more minutes before I decided I should escape to the bathroom. I told him I was just going to the ladies room and stood up. Not abruptly, not in an angry way, I just stood up. Roo brought his hands up to his face and flinched really melodramatically backwards. I asked him what was up, and he said ‘Where are you going?’ I repeated myself – he smiled and stood up too. He grabbed my wrist and started walking in the direction of the dance floor. I pulled my arm back and told him very clearly, I was not going to dance, I was going to the toilet and I had already told him this. I walked off at that point with no intention of finding him again.

When I’d finished washing my hands, I checked my phone and saw Roo had already messaged me. It was a long apology about how he’d misheard me and thought I wanted to dance. I walked out the bathroom and there was waiting for me. Again he said sorry, over and over. I said it was fine, but this had not been a date to me, I thought we were just saying hello and now I was going to find my friends. He told me I was completely mistaken, he didn’t think it was a date either. He told me how he actually really fancied someone else right now and wasn’t at all interested in me. I said that’s fine, I was still going to find my friends.

I spent the rest of the night with my friends and not giving him much thought, when around 2:00 am Roo came up to me at the bar. I was stood with a male friend. Roo said he was leaving and put his arms out for a hug.

I politely said it was nice to meet him and hugged back. Once his mouth was near my ear, he shouted in it ‘Why are you at the bar with this guy? You’re clearly not over your ex.’

I pushed away from hug and looked at him, totally baffled. He repeated that I was obviously not over my ex. I replied with ‘Go away.’ He apologised, over and over. He wouldn’t leave, he just kept saying how sorry he was for saying that. I put my hands up and just repeated the words ‘Go away.’ Eventually Roo walked off, looking very downtrodden. When I got home that night, I checked my phone; these are the messages he sent me after he left and the times he sent them:

om.so sprry im rubbish at talking – 2:15 am
Lets start over? Xx – 2:16 am
Sowwy – 2:34 am
Om.that awkward guy lol – 2:38 am
Sorry im v.drunk – 2:56 am
So sprry of yoi thought iy hot wierd im.jist tjat kinda giy lo. Hence why im o. Pof hahahahahahaha xx – 3:27 am
Sorry…. we cool? – 3:37 am
I was v drunk lol x – 4:01 am
I was sooooo drunk lol xx – 10:53 am

I didn’t reply to any of them, and never spoke to him again.