omnomnomism: Tales of random encounters

Just watched a hilarious vlog posted by my childhood friend's sister.

It made me think back of the times where I was flirted with, complimented on my looks or asked out by strangers. Now, I'm not super pretty or extroverted and friendly, so these events are few and far between. But when it does happen, it's normally pretty awkward and funny in hindsight.

Here are some that stand out:

15 years old

When I was in secondary, I took the bus to school everyday. Normally I'd just sit and stare out the window or sleep+drool until we reached. One day, after I alighted, a girl (1 year my junior) runs up to me and hooks her arm around my elbow.

"Can I walk with you?"

For a moment, I just stared at her. I mean what do you want me to say? No? She was already clinging on to me like a lost puppy hoping for food...the time to ask her to beat it was long past.

So I shrugged and said okay. The school was only like a 100 feet away anyway, so I wouldn't have to put up with this horrible invasion of space for too long.

"Stephanie..."

Wtf how does she know my name?
She gazed deeply into my eyes as we walked.

"You know, you're really beautiful!"

Commence awkward silence.

...WTF? How am I supposed to react to a girl whose name I don't even know, who grabs me out of the blue and tells me that I'm attractive? Furthermore, I was NOT beautiful in high school. I had pimples! Oily skin! I also had a shitty haircut, braces, a uniform that was too big for me and I had NEVER been sociable.

That made her compliment even more awkward because she was either:

1. Lying (which means she wants something from me. OH GOD WHAT DOES SHE WANT?)
2. Crazy/half-blind

Anyway, I managed to shake her off before we reached school, before we could fuel rumours of me swinging THAT way. She never spoke to me that way again after that day, but she would still smile at me every time I got on or off the school bus.

17 years old

I had just started college, and was feeling massively out of place among girls who dressed well, with heels, made up faces and all. One day, one of my classmates, a guy that I was not particularly friendly with, came to me and said:

"Stephanie. My friend from another class asked for your number wor."

I was VERY suspicious, as my classmate was known to be sarcastic and slightly misogynistic. When he came to me, all smiles and speaking with a sweet tone of voice, my red flag went up immediately.

Being the unfriendly soul I am, I didn't reply. I just stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

"By the way, my friend is a GIRL! HAHAHAHA! She saw you in moral class and thought you were a boy. Then she asked me for your number! HAHAHA!"

Wow. Can you start to see a pattern here? It's like the world wants me to be a lesbian, throwing girls at me left and right.

Anyway before gathering my stuff and leaving, I sniped back.

"Well, if I'm a boy, at least I'm considered a lengchai. Can't say the same about you. She picked me, after all."

That shut him up all right. What an asshole, laugh some more la! >_>

19 years old

Downstairs on the corner of my apartment block, there is a souvlaki shop. It's open until 3-4 am so sometimes I go down there around midnight to take away some food if I'm really hungry.

Anyway, the young guy who took my order was trying to chat me up. And I was not used to being chatted up, much less have the experience to know how to shut him down immediately. He complimented me on my hair, and started interrogating me.

What's your name?
Where are you from?
Do you have a job?
What are you studying?
Where do you live?

What. The. Fuck. Where do I live? Do you honestly think I'm going to tell you, you creep?

All the while, he was giving me this huge creepy smile. And note, this was AFTER I had paid AND collected my souvlaki.

I kept trying to leave and he just kept on talking and asking me personal questions.

I'm pathetic. Can you imagine me taking one step away, and then stopping cause he shot me another question?

I should have just asked him to fuck off and leave me alone but I was just stunned, pathetically helpless in that unfamiliar situation.

Eventually, I managed to escape. I noted that he had given me extra meat for my souvlaki, which was one good thing that came out of the awkward encounter. Awkward for me anyway.

The story didn't end there. When my boyfriend visited me here in Melbourne, I brought him to the souvlaki shop. As luck would have it, the same creepy guy was there. As someone else took our order, he gave me a big smile...which vanished when he saw I was holding my boy's hand.

"Your boyfriend?"
"Yea, I brought him over from Malaysia!"

I returned that his huge smile.

To say his face turned sour was an understatement. His expression and body language was outright hostile.

HELLLOOO. You don't even know me, how are you entitled to being jealous of my boyfriend? That's just downright creepy.

Last...

19 years old (again)

I was asked out for a coffee by a stranger...while I was sitting right next to my boyfriend.
That is all.

______

Anyway, I'm already bored of this post, so to reward you peeps who have struggled and successfully reached the end of this post, I will now show you the uglier-but-not-ugliest pics of myself when I was...