No Groveling Allowed

For ten agonizing years, I was stalked by my former middle school classmate, Aria.

She had absolutely zero concept of boundaries. She would show up uninvited to my basketball games with sports drinks, or wait outside in the freezing winter snow just to hand me a thermos of hot soup. She single-handedly ruined two of my relationships. Worse, she somehow brainwashed my coworkers, my friends, and even my own family with her sickening brand of "deep devotion."

They constantly lectured me, saying no one in this world would ever love me as much as she did. They told me I should just man up and put a ring on her finger.

Finally, after I rejected her confessions for what felt like the millionth time, she turned around and started dating my buddy, Liam.

"Derek, I don't want to have a crush on you anymore," she told me.

My friends secretly placed bets on how long it would take for me to realize my true feelings and start crawling back to her on my hands and knees.

They had absolutely no idea that I was thrilled. I was practically throwing a party in my head.

I was finally free from that suffocating nightmare.

Aria and I went to the same middle school. We were in different grades and different classes, so we rarely ever crossed paths.

But one afternoon during my eighth-grade year, I was walking home and stumbled upon Aria being harassed by some local street punks. I had inherited my dad's genes and was already hitting six feet tall. Just standing there with a heavy scowl was enough to scare off those scrawny losers.

Back then, Aria didn't even look like a middle schooler. She was tiny, frail, with dull, stringy blonde hair. She was crying so hard her knees were buckling, so I figured I might as well just walk her to her front door.

Later, Aria would tell me, "No one has ever been that nice to me."

I didn't think much of it. It was just a random act of kindness. I had no idea I had just planted a ticking time bomb that would blow up my entire life.

After that day, every time I glanced over my shoulder on my way home, I would see Aria trailing silently behind me. I figured we were walking in the same general direction anyway, and maybe she was just terrified those punks would come back. So, I silently allowed it. I even chased off a few creeps who tried to bother her again.

When high school hit, I moved into the dorms at a prep academy across town. I thought my paths with Aria had permanently severed.

I was dead wrong. On the very first day of my sophomore year, Aria materialized right outside my homeroom door.

She had grown taller. She looked entirely different. She shoved a sickeningly sweet-scented pink envelope into my chest and sprinted away down the hall.

Over the roaring cheers and catcalls of my classmates, I chased her down, shoved the letter back into her hands, and looked her dead in the eye. I told her I only cared about my GPA and getting into a good college. I had zero interest in dating.

I thought I was being brutally clear. I thought a rejection that blunt would instantly sever whatever romantic delusion she had cooking in her head.

It didn't.

She began weaving herself into every microscopic crack of my existence. If I played ball, she was on the bleachers with water. If I went to the cafeteria, she was fiercely guarding a seat for me. Even on holidays, she would stand like a statue outside my classroom, waiting to walk to the bus stop with me.

I told her over and over again. I told her I didn't need a stalker. I told her she was suffocating me.

At first, she would just stare at the floor in silence. Then her eyes would turn bloodshot, and heavy tears would splash onto the back of her hands.

"But I have feelings for you. I want us to be together. I want to do these things for you."

But I didn't want it!

Since polite declines and harsh warnings bounced right off her, I resorted to throwing the water she brought right into the trash. I treated her like she was invisible in the cafeteria. I started taking massive detours through town just to shake her off my trail before going home.

But barely half an hour after I arrived, Aria would magically appear at the front doors of my apartment complex, her knees scraped and dripping blood from tripping on the pavement.

She had actually tracked down my exact address and apartment number.

My dad brought her upstairs and chewed me out relentlessly. My mom cleaned her wounds, applied bandages, and demanded to know why I was bullying a defenseless girl.

I was practically screaming in frustration. "I didn't touch her!"

"Then why did she drag herself all the way here looking like this? If you didn't do this, who did?"

I was completely defenseless. Aria just sat on my family's couch, letting the tears stream down her cheeks in silence, allowing my parents to rip me to shreds without offering a single word to clear my name.

I stopped caring about saving her pride. I spilled the entire twisted truth right then and there.

My dad just burst out laughing. "Damn, son. You've got some serious charm."

My mom just sighed in exhaustion. She pulled Aria aside for a private chat, and then she and my dad drove the girl home.

When my mom got back, she told me Aria had promised never to pull a dangerous stunt like that again. I exhaled a massive breath, genuinely believing the nightmare was over.

But I was naive. She just stopped coming to my house. At school, she was still a parasite, constantly finding ways to latch onto my side.

It was impossible to describe the sheer disgust I felt during those years. The entire student body knew Aria was obsessed with me. My buddies would poke me in the ribs, joking about how relentlessly devoted she was, asking when I was finally going to cave.

And those were the nice comments.

Aria, on the other hand, became a prime target for severe bullying.

When someone tipped me off and I pulled her out of a pitch-black gym storage closet, she buried her face in my chest and sobbed hysterically.

I didn't want to give her even a sliver of false hope. I physically pried her fingers off my shirt, ignoring her pathetic weeping, and shoved her an arm's length away.

"Aria, stop obsessing over me. Stop doing things that only ruin your own life. It's embarrassing. It's pathetic." I glared at her. "Put all this psychotic energy into your grades, alright?"

It was like she was physically incapable of understanding human speech.

"If I get my grades up... if I get accepted into the exact same college as you, you'll finally date me, right?"

I stared at her tear-drenched, desperately hopeful face, and I felt sick to my stomach. I spun on my heel to walk away, but I stopped, whipped back around, and spat out the harshest words I could find.

"Get this through your head. I will never have feelings for you!"

"I don't care what you do. I don't like you! I will never, ever be your boyfriend!"

"Do you understand me?"

Aria stared at me like I had just shot her. She collapsed onto the gym floor, wailing. I pulled out my phone, called the dean of students, and walked away.

When it came time to apply for colleges, I guarded my list like a state secret. Everyone around me finally started to realize that I genuinely despised this girl.

When I finally moved out to the East Coast for a prestigious university in the city, I tasted the first breath of pure, unadulterated freedom. That freshman year was the absolute best year of my life.

Then sophomore year started, and my personal hell resurrected.

Aria had actually gotten accepted into my university. She even declared the exact same major.

During the fall welcome ceremony, I was on stage giving a speech as a student representative. The second the crowd broke apart, Aria darted out from the masses and blocked my path.

"Derek! You promised me back in high school. You said if I got into your college, you'd let me be your girlfriend."

"Well, I'm here now. So are we making this official?"

She was grinning from ear to ear, staring at me like I was the center of the universe.

My entire body went rigid. I was in full panic mode, turning to explain the situation to the girl standing next to me.

But my girlfriend's face had already turned to stone. She ripped her hand out of mine and walked away without looking back.

Yeah. I had a girlfriend.

When Aria realized I was already taken, she started sobbing like I had committed some ultimate betrayal.

"You promised me! You said you would wait for me!"

"I love you so much! How could you do this to me?"

I swear to God, I was losing my mind. When did I ever utter those words?

I denied it repeatedly. I told everyone in earshot I never said anything remotely like that, and I never would.

But Aria refused to listen. "I spent all these years studying just to keep my end of our promise! How can you just back out?"

I forced my voice to stay level. I asked her exactly when, where, and how I had supposedly made this promise. If I said it, there had to be context.

Aria just clammed up. She dropped into a crouch on the campus lawn, hugging her knees, crying so violently her shoulders shook.

I felt the burning stares of dozens of students. I heard their whispers. For a second, I felt like I couldn't breathe.

I knew my peaceful college life was officially dead and buried.

My girlfriend dumped me that very night. I really liked her. I didn't want my first real relationship to end in a fiery trainwreck, and I definitely didn't want Aria destroying the peace I had fought so hard to build.

I tried to explain the stalking to my girlfriend. I swore on my life I never made any pact with Aria.

She said she believed me, but the damage was done.

"I just wanted a normal college romance. I don't want to be dragged into this insane toxic drama, and I definitely don't want people calling me a homewrecker."

Her eyes were red when she apologized and handed back every gift I had ever bought her.

I was completely hollowed out. I went to a dive bar off-campus and drank until my vision blurred. When the nausea finally hit, I opened my eyes and realized the blurry figure wiping my face with a damp towel in the booth was Aria.

I stared into her obsessively infatuated eyes, and a flood of pure, unfiltered malice breached my sanity.

Since she was so desperately obsessed with me, why not just date her?

Everyone on campus already thought I was a toxic trashbag anyway. Why not lean into the role? I could date her, use the title of 'boyfriend' to completely shatter her, and inflict every ounce of pain she had caused me right back onto her. Maybe once her heart was entirely pulverized, she would finally leave me alone.

But the twisted thought vanished as quickly as it came.

I didn't even understand the root of her delusion. If it was because I scared off some punks years ago, my endless cruelty since then should have snapped her back to reality.

The only thing I knew for sure was that Aria was dangerously relentless. I had rejected her a thousand times, and she still lived in her own warped reality where her sacrifices mattered. If I actually gave her the title of a girlfriend, she would just dig her claws in deeper. The thought of spending my future chained to someone I violently resented made my skin crawl.

When I sobered up, I sat her down. I told her I didn't like her. I would never like her. I told her to stay the hell out of my life.

I had recited that exact script countless times over the years. Her reaction was identical.

She sat completely still. Her massive, hollow eyes stared at me with sickening sorrow as the tears dripped off her chin.

"Why can't you just like me?"

"I've tried so hard. I've spent years doing everything for you. Why can't you just give me a chance?"

"Even just a tiny bit."

She looked incredibly pitiful. But all I felt was a raging inferno tearing through my chest, making me want to physically shatter her pathetic facade.

What did she mean, 'why'? You either click with someone, or you don't. You can't just forcefully grind your way into a romance like it's a video game achievement.

But Aria was immune to logic. She possessed a terrifying, infinite stamina when it came to stalking me. No matter how many times I broke her down, she would lick her wounds and throw herself right back into the fire.

I stopped trying to reason with a psycho. I treated her like she didn't exist.

Thanks to my ex-girlfriend clearing the air, the rumors about me being a manipulative jerk slowly fizzled out.

Aria's reputation shifted, too. In less than six months, she went from being the tragic victim of a broken promise to the campus laughingstock, a desperate girl with zero self-respect.

"She's having a hard time. She's a good girl, Derek. Even if you don't want her, you don't have to stomp all over her feelings."

That was Liam. He had been my closest friend back in high school. He went from understanding my misery to suddenly being completely captivated by Aria's "undying loyalty." He had tried to lecture me multiple times back then, telling me to go easy on her because she was a girl.

I had distanced myself from him before graduation specifically because of that.

But I never expected him to take a bus all the way to New York just to advocate for her.

I looked at his deeply disappointed expression, catching the faint flicker of frustration and jealousy buried in his eyes. Suddenly, the puzzle pieces snapped together.

"Liam. You're in love with her, aren't you?"

He didn't panic. He just hesitated for a split second before owning it. "Yeah. I like her. She's amazing. She..."

"You're the one who told her I promised to date her in college. Aren't you?"

Liam's face hardened. "She was getting bullied every day because of you. Her grades were tanking. I just needed to give her a reason to keep fighting."

I drove my fist straight into his jaw.

"If you wanted her to fight, you should have manned up and asked her out! Why the hell did you use my name?"

"Do you have any idea that your little motivational lie cost me my relationship?!"

Liam staggered back, then lunged at me, swinging wild. "So what?! You owe her!"

Aria came sprinting out of nowhere to break us up. When she grabbed Liam's arms, I used the opening to land three solid hooks to his face.

Liam roared and tried to charge me again, but Aria threw herself right in front of me, shielding my body. "Liam! Don't you dare touch him!"

I saw the absolute heartbreak shatter Liam's eyes, and I actually burst out laughing.

What an absolute circus.

I shoved Aria out of my personal space and laid it out bare. "I never said I'd date you. Ever. Liam made that up to motivate you, using my name as bait."

Aria froze. I chuckled bitterly. "Aria, he's in love with you. Are you blind?"

"I genuinely hope you two end up together. Go ruin someone else's life. Really. Best of luck."

I turned and walked away.

Aria screamed after me, sobbing, "Derek! You're a monster!"

And Liam just muttered, his voice cracking, "Aria..."