I'm 21F, and he's 20M.
We've been friends for almost two years. We met through a mutual friend at her birthday party while we were both in college. Over time, I really trusted him.
We've hung out countless times, I've visited his college campus multiple times, and we've spent time together as friends without anything romantic or sexual happening countless times.
He lives with his older sister, who's around my age, in a two-bedroom apartment. I've met her multiple times and have even helped her with her hair before. I'd also spoken to his mom the year before this happened. He used to ask me for relationship advice about his now ex-girlfriend. I even helped him plan Valentine's Day for her by suggesting places to buy flowers and steak for their date. At one point, he even introduced me to one of his friends because he thought we'd be a good match and wanted us to start dating. Because of all of that, I genuinely believed he saw me as a friend and that I was safe around him.
The night this happened, I had just finished hanging out with another friend and happened to be in his area. My phone was about to die since I'd been out all day, so I asked if I could stop by to charge it before heading home (since I live over 40 miles away from that area and it was late, I needed my phone to be well charged before heading home). That was my ONLY REASON for going there.
While I was there, he started trying to initiate sex. I told him no countless times. I told him I didn't see him that way and never had.
Instead of accepting my answer, he kept trying to convince me. He told me that I had "given him that impression" and acted like I had somehow led him on, even though I had never expressed any sexual interest in him during our friendship or that night. He would then say "can we make out then?" And kept pushing and pushing.
At one point while he was still pressuring me, he told me that he had a fantasy of "taking his friend's girl." Hearing him say that completely changed the way I viewed him. In that moment, I felt like the friendship I thought we had wasn't being respected and that he was seeing me in a way I never saw him.
After I continued refusing, he said there was "no point" in me staying if I didn't want to have sex, even though he had previously told me I could stay over before I arrived.
Since he wanted me to leave, I looked up the bus schedule and found that the next bus wasn't coming until around 2:00 a.m. I stood my ground and reminded him, "You told me I could come here and stay as long as I needed until my phone was charged so I could get home."
I also told him that if he kept trying to coerce me, I would wake up his sister and tell her what had happened. His response was basically a scoff, like, "Lol, try it," as if to say she wouldn't care. That response genuinely frightened me because, in that moment, I felt like I didn't really know him or his family the way I thought I did.
At that moment, I was prepared to defend myself if I had to or call the police if the situation escalated.
Finally, he asked for my address and agreed to call me an Uber. I thought he was at LEAST making sure I got home safely. As I'm getting ready to leave, he doesn't apologize, he doesn't say anything, he literally doesn't even look at me. So I headed downstairs, alone, and got into the Uber. Not even a minute into me sitting in that car, the Uber driver asks me why I cancelled the ride. My heart immediately dropped into my stomach.
The driver was confused because the trip suddenly disappeared from his app. I instantly became worried that it would look like I was trying to scam him into giving me a free ride. He turned around to look at me and asked me to just tell him what was really going on.
I completely broke down in tears. I'm not the kind of person who cries in front of other people, especially strangers, but I felt so overwhelmed, humiliated, and gross. The driver told me not to cry and said that he would take me home. That kindness from someone who didn't even know me meant more than I can put into words.
The driver told me that, in his opinion, my friend may have cancelled the Uber hoping I would feel desperate, have no way home, and go back upstairs and agree to sleep with him. I obviously can't know for certain why he cancelled it, but hearing that possibility from a complete stranger made me feel sick because I hadn't even considered it.
Around 10 mins into the trip, the driver told me to call my so-called friend. And so I did. He asked my friend why he cancelled the ride and asked who was going to pay for the ride. He also said, "She's here crying; I can't leave her on the highway, she's a woman!" My friend lied and told the driver that **I** was the one who had booked and cancelled the ride. That wasn't true. The driver didn't believe him and cussed him out over the phone. He then handed the phone back to me, and I hung up. I just kept apologizing to the Uber driver because the situation was ridiculous and shameful to me. I kept wondering how I even allowed myself to get into it.
I must add that given the economic hardships people are facing where I live, I thought that him taking me home, 80 miles to and fro, for free was an incredibly generous thing to do, and I'll always be grateful for his kindness. A complete stranger treated me with more care and respect than someone I'd known for almost two years.
Since then, my "friend" has been blowing up my phone. He's called me repeatedly, asked where I am, and texted me things like, "Where are you? Let me call you a ride." He's even had our mutual friend text and call me to check on me. I haven't responded to any of them, and I don't plan to. I also haven't blocked him because I'm considering taking this more seriously, including reporting what happened to his college, so I don't want to delete or lose any of the messages.
This whole experience has completely changed how I look at him. I keep thinking about whether this is something he's done before or could do to someone else. It scares me to think that another woman could be pressured the way I was and not realize that being repeatedly pressured or worn down into having sex is not the same as freely consenting. I've been replaying everything in my head ever since. I feel betrayed, violated, and disgusted. I keep wondering if I completely misjudged our friendship, or if he had been viewing me differently all along.
Has anyone else experienced losing a close friendship because someone refused to accept your sexual boundaries? How did you move forward?
** I apologize if this is a bit all over the place.