I won't put up with him

I won't put up with him

I used to work in a landline service store that opened on Fridays.
I would go down to the store on Fridays alone.
All of the other nearby stores would be closed that day and the store where I worked was in a narrow passageway with a dead end.

The store was right in the middle of the passage and the rest of the shops around it would be closed.
One day I was sitting in the store and a boy of about 16 or 17 years came round and told me that he wanted to use the phone, so I gave it to him.
I used to pull the doors of the shop closer together so that the customers would stand outside the store while I sat inside it.

The guy held the phone to his ear and stared at my breasts. He stared in an indecent way and kept biting on his lips.
I got upset but I was also scared because I was alone.
I said to myself I'll let him stare as long as he doesn’t come near me.
He held the phone to his ear for 30 minutes, all the while staring at me.

I was pulling at my headscarf and tried to make myself smaller as I sat there, and he still stared at me.
I kept to myself and didn't say anything, but I cried when he left.
Why didn’t I defend myself or tell him "why are you looking at me like that?"
He was just a kid! I'm older than him and that made me feel weak.

I didn't see him again except the Friday after.
He must know that I come here alone on Fridays.
He must be someone I don’t know who works around the area.
You see, he was doing it on purpose; he was doing it on purpose!

I was right because the following Friday he came again to the shop and acted the same way again.
I was going crazy, looking this way and that way so that he would just leave.
Nothing.
I was terrified of him.

As soon as my co-worker arrived at the shop, I told him.
My co-worker said; "That's it, next Friday, I will come down to the shop with you."
He didn’t. He slept all day because he was working the previous night.
I kept thinking, am I going to wait for my colleague to defend me?
I have to stand up for myself.

There was this metal rod which my colleague used to leave in the shop.
I placed it between my knees and said to myself, "that's it, when he comes this time, I won't put up with him."
He did come. The second he held up the phone to his ear and was about to start staring, I held the metal rod and got up after him.
He was surprised; I startled him.
He dropped the phone and ran and I ran after him.
I tripped and fell, but I threw the rod at him and it hit his leg.

I felt that I was standing up for myself. I picked myself up and grabbed the rod and kept running after him. I wanted to catch him.
I didn't realize what I was doing until I was half a street away from the store.
The strange thing was that there were many men standing there and just looking at us, but no one tried to catch him.
This happens a lot. Even when a guy driving his car is harassing someone, there must be some man in the street who notices, but he ignores it.

I don't know what it is; do they really feel at times that they are entitled to this, to us? I don't know.
After that incident, I felt that I should always stand up for my rights.
I felt that I'm not a weak person.
I was happy I did what I did, because I haven't seen him since.
Maybe if I hadn't done that, things would've escalated and he would've assaulted me.

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