I was taking a walk with two friends,
When I looked behind us,
And saw a man catcalling us from afar.
I kept an eye on him,
Until he caught up and started walking beside me.
He kept saying disgusting things.
Then he said, “I want to marry all three of you.”
This one really got on my nerves.
I yelled at him,
He got scared,
And ran off.

My friends let go of my hand,
And took a step back.
We were holding hands while walking,
But when I started to yell at the guy,
They let go,
And stepped back.
One of them was laughing,
And the other one was scared.
She wanted to help me,
But she was too scared.

“How could you leave me alone?
You should’ve stayed with me,” I said to them.
“What if he had a weapon,
Or if he were high?
He could’ve said bad things about us in the middle of the street,” one of them said.
The other one wasn’t brave enough like I said.
I felt that I was friends with women I couldn’t depend on.
They weren’t going to stand by me,
If any emergency or problem arised.

I’ve experienced this several times.
My friends leave me when I stand up to harassers.
I don’t want to get them in trouble.
I know this was because of how they were raised.
And because they feared their family and society.