If you’re a woman, it’s likely you have some kind of story about interacting with a man that is toxic.
And when a gal turns down a guy’s advances, those story can turn from toxic to downright terrifying.
Buzzfeed asked its community to share their stories, and they certainly did.
Check out 20 of the scariest stories you’ve read in quite some time.
1. “No you don’t, you’re racist!”
“It was 9 p.m. and I’d just left a party, so I was wearing a dress and heels. I was walking up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan when this man in a suit approached me, saying I was the most gorgeous girl he’d ever seen. I thanked him and kept walking. He said, ‘I’m serious. I stopped my car for you,’ and motioned to a car parked along the avenue. He asked me out and, feeling a little uncomfortable, I told him I had a boyfriend.
He instantly became angry and screamed ‘No you don’t, you’re racist!’ He kept yelling and backed me against a nearby wall. I debated running away in my heels, but he decided he’d had enough and went back to his car. FYI NY-based women: The Safe Trek app is great for moments like these. I’ve used it ever since.”
2. Don’t. Ever. Kick. Plants.
“I was on a date with a former co-worker and got the sense he thought we were something serious when I did not. I told him I’d just gotten out of a really bad relationship and wasn’t ready for another one, but was cool with us dating casually if he was.
Well he started fre*king the f*ck out! He got out the car and started screaming, calling me a liar, crying, laughing, throwing rocks, and kicking plants.
I would have driven off, but it was his car and he had the keys. I considered making a run for it but I didn’t want him to chase me down and make matters worse. He eventually got back in the car and, still screaming, drove me home. The next day he acted like it never happened.”
3. “No one believed me.”
“When I was 13 and at my grandmother’s house, her next door neighbor—my older brother’s friend—asked me to hang out.
I said no, but he ended up chasing me into my house and pinning me to the wall, forcing my arms above my head.
He stared at me for what felt like forever before eventually letting go and leaving.
No one believed me.”
4. Mom? Really? Really?!?!?
“After I politely turned down a classmate in college, he made the class we shared hell for me.
He physically confronted me along with two of his friends, all three of whom were twice my size, and threatened to hit me. He began showing up at events that I attended with friends outside of school, and once even followed me out of the classroom all the way to the parking lot.
Eventually I began skipping that class a lot to avoid him.
To make matters worse, very few of my male friends understood how his behavior was problematic or terrifying.
My mom even said that I should have just given him a chance.”
5. The worst is when you think you need a boyfriend/bodyguard
“After having a friends with benefits situation for a few months, I broke it off.
He became very emotionally abusive, so I cut him out of my life. When I started dating another guy exclusively, he would message me on ALL forms of social media and text me back-to-back throughout the day, several days at a time.
In the end, I had to decide between having my boyfriend confront him or having a no-contact order from the college. On top of everything, I was terrified to break up with my then-boyfriend because I felt like he ‘protected’ me in a way from my ex. Only men.”
6. Mom shows up out of nowhere to save the day!
“I was bar hopping and bumped into this guy who was a friend of a friend.
He followed me to at least three bars and we ended up making out consensually. He asked if I wanted to have s^x in his van in the parking lot, and I said no. He seemed pacified and bought us more shots. He asked again and I still said no, that I was too tired and wanted to call it a night. He got angry, claiming I’d been leading him on all night and saying, ‘You know what? We’re doing this.’
He proceeded to physically remove me from the club and drag me toward his van.
Luckily, my mom was just finishing having dinner at a restaurant in the same shopping complex, saw a strange guy dragging me by the arm and shouted, ‘What are you doing with my daughter!?’
He fre*ked out and drove off after my mom gave him the scolding of his lifetime.
Thanks, Mom.”
7. Okay. What was the point of that my guy?
“A guy who I was texting with got mad that I wasn’t responding fast enough (while I was at work).
So he sent me a picture from outside of my apartment building.”
8. Guys, these ladies never forget your bullsh^t!
A guy I used to take the same bus with tried to hit on me a couple of times. We had the same exit stop but always left in separate directions.
When I finally told him no, he began silently walking behind me from the bus stop and following me home.
He did this more than once.
He was in his twenties and, even though at the time I might have looked older.
I was 12.
9. Martial as$hole
“When I was 15, I’d been friends with this one boy for a very long time. He’d asked me out no less than 15 times, but I was never particularly flirty with him.
One day I was staying after school for a group project and he decided to walk me to the classroom. In the corner of the staircase landing, he pushed up against me, trapping me between him and the wall, and asked me out a final time.
I was so small compared to his 6’2″ muscular martial artist build and so terrified that I said yes and ran away.”
10. Horrible
“Told him I just wanted to be friends because I was in a long-distance relationship at the time.
His response? “Obstacles are meant to be overcome.”
So he gave me 3/4 of a bottle of wine, and when I started blacking out, he sexually assaulted me.”
11. Revenge pr0n is actually illegal now!
“My ex-boyfriend threatened to send dirty pictures of me to my family after I said I didn’t want to have s^x with him.”
12. Creepy AF!
“I was stalked in my early 20s by a guy who would often come to my job and flirt with me.
I declined dating him because he was 15 years older than me and I wasn’t interested. He proceeded to follow me at my two other jobs, making insulting/degrading comments about my body in front of my coworkers under the guise of ‘joking’.
He somehow got my number and texted me saying I was a cunt and a bit*h and telling me he knew where I lived.
I have no idea if he was bluffing.”
13. “…being verbally and physically harassed by six or seven middle aged men…”
“After our serving shifts, my sister and I would get food at a local 24-hour cafe attached to a cheap hotel. It was sketchy, but we were young, hungry, and naive. One night, a group of guys loitering in the parking lot asked us to hang out. We said no thanks and kept walking, ignoring their requests to party in their hotel room. They got angry and started following us and cussing us out for being rude.
They surrounded us at our car and tried to stop us from getting in by grabbing us and holding the doors. We managed to break free and lock the doors. If we had parked further away or not been together, this story would have a much worse ending. Every time I think of it, I immediately think of what I should have done differently; how I could have prevented the situation. That’s bullsh^t.
I was an 18-year-old girl being verbally and physically harassed by six or seven middle aged men, and that’s not my damn fault.”
14. Oh grow up you big, male baby!
“When I was 17-years-old, an ex used to threaten to harm himself when I would turn down his sexual advances. Those threats led me to stay with him much longer than I wanted to. After I finally broke up with him and turned down multiple requests of his to get back together, he texted me a picture of him lighting a photo of me on fire and called me a ‘cold-hearted bitch’ for refusing to get back together.
Later, when he found out I was dating another guy he texted me that he was going to find the new guy and ‘put him in the hospital.'”
15. What the what?!
“When I was in 7th grade, I transferred to a new school and made friends with these two boys. One took our friendship too far and became absolutely obsessed with me. He eventually began to ask me questions I was not comfortable with, so I told him so. That’s when he cursed me out, calling me a bitch.
Fast forward to a week or two later, when I get a letter in the mail…HE AND HIS MOTHER HAD SIGNED ME UP FOR A MODELING AGENCY?!?!
Fortunately, I was able to transfer schools.”
16. What a f*cking coward
“I was walking into Walmart one night. My face was glued to my phone and I didn’t hear this guy trying to talk to me.
He proceeded to call me a bit*h and tell me he was gonna wait outside for me and rape me.
Like why is that even necessary to say?
How do you feel that’s an appropriate response?”
17. Club of losers
“I was at a club on my birthday and this guy approached me to dance, which I did for a minute or so then stopped and walked away. He later came back over while I was sitting on a stage, stood in between my legs and forcefully started kissing me. I yelled at him to get off and tried pushing him away. He said stuff like ‘Aww come on, baby’ and ‘Whats wrong?’ while still trying to touch me.
Seriously DISTURBING!
At that point I was screaming and cussing and shoving him off.
He eventually gave up and walked off.”
18. Cat calling as$hole
“I was walking home when a truck pulled up beside me. The guy kept cat calling me but I ignored him…until he yelled ‘What are you, stupid or something?’
That’s when I told him to piss off.
He left when the light turned green, but then reappeared a few blocks later, screaming that he was going to shoot me in the head before driving away. I was 10 blocks away from home, so took a detour by a bar where I used to work, just in case.
Luckily he didn’t come back.”
19. That escalated quickly!
“When I was in high school, I turned a guy down and he threatened to strangle my dog with barbed wire and leave her body on my porch.”
20. Justice sometimes is served
“This man and I were in the Army, living in the same barracks building. I’d been friendly with him for only three days before he told me he was in love with me. I told him to please give me space, leave me alone, and that I did not love him. So he threatened to kill himself. When that didn’t get him the attention he expected, he planned a murder-suicide plan for the two of us.
Luckily, he told a coworker who turned him in.”
Have you ever been affected by sexual violence? Know somebody who has?
There are a lot of helpful resources at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, so click that link to learn more. Or you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to talk to a trained professional.