At Least You're Out of the Closet

Story Sent in by John:

Cora and I met online, and we arranged to meet up at a restaurant. However, we never made it there. A half-hour before our date, she called me up in a panic.

"Can you come over here?" she asked, "There's a huge bug in my room and I don't know who else to call."

"You want me to come over to your house to kill a bug?"

"Yes. Oh God, hurry."

She gave me her address, and I drove over. She led me up to her room, handed me a flashlight, and pointed to her closet.

"It ran in there," she said, "It had a thousand legs and–and– I'm sorry. Please just get it."

I entered her walk-in closet with the flashlight and bent down. She slammed the door shut behind me, locked its doorknob lock, and from what I could see from the light that spilled under the door, she shut off her room light. She called, "See you!"

I yelled, "Very funny. Let me out, please."

She replied, "I'm going to call my boyfriend. He's going to be pissed." Then, she laughed and I heard her walk off.

I waited about ten minutes before I made a move, as I wasn't sure if she had actually left, or if she was planning any other surprises. I tried the door. Locked, as mentioned. I forced it open and stepped out, into her room.

It was still dark, but light streamed in from the hallway and I could hear a television on somewhere, and the sound of Cora talking. I didn't want to take the chance as to whether or not she was serious about a boyfriend. Her actions, regardless, made me want to escape.

I crept my way down the upstairs hall. The television was on downstairs, but I couldn't see it or who was watching it from where I was. One step at a time, I sneaked down the steps and made it to the ground floor without alerting anyone. The smell of buttered popcorn was overwhelming.

I peeked around the corner of the staircase and quickly jerked my head back. Cora was watching the television, talking on her cell phone, and eating popcorn, in full view of the front door, which is where I had hoped to go. I turned and slinked my way toward where I thought the back door would be.

The back door wasn't hard to find, and I slipped out. The screen door banged a bit as it shut, and I hurried for my car.

Just as I opened my car door out in front of the house, Cora opened her house's front door, screamed something unintelligible, and ran for me. I pulled away as fast as possible. In my rear view, I saw her running after my car and flailing her arms.

She didn't call me, and I sure as hell wasn't going to contact her again after that night.