Kaonashi Ga Suki

When I was a Freshman in college I roomed with two sophomores in a dorm. They apparently were already friends by the time I moved in with them. I don’t know why they bothered getting a third roommate since they pretty much ignored me the whole year. Mind you, I never really had anything against my roommates. They weren’t rude nor were they mean. We just didn’t have a lot in common. I was very shy and naive back then, and the party scene wasn’t really my type (that changed soon enough though…), whereas they were always going out to one frat party after the other. I did eventually make my own friends, and soon I was spending less time in my room and most of the time hanging out with my friends.

Not that I would have wanted to hang out with my roommates anyway. They seemed, shall we say, “very friendly” with guys- especially members of the football team. They were the biggest flirts. I know that one of them was actually dating a player, but the other one had a boyfriend back in her hometown. Nevertheless, both flirted with athletes and frat guys like crazy. Anyway, these big football players were always coming to our dorm, and while they were relatively nice guys I would often get annoyed since all of them were so noisy. I sometimes was forced to leave my own room just so I can get some studying done. Fortunately though my roommates and their football player friends didn’t hang out our room long enough, for they were always going to some frat party or athlete party.

As I mentioned before, my roommates and I had reached a point in which we lived separate lives. Sure, we’d take phone messages for each other but other than that we knew nothing of each other’s lives and weren’t connected in any way. Or so I thought.

One night I was alone in my room studying when the phone rang. When I picked it up and said hello, an angry male voice started shouting at me. I figured he had dialed the wrong number. Mind you, I couldn’t remember the whole conversation because he was screaming and cussing a lot, so the following dialogue is incomplete. I kept trying to ask who he was and who wanted to talk to, but he kept babbling and cussing.

“I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong number,” I tried to say.

“This is the right number! What are you trying to play me?” he growled.

“Look, I don’t know you. I think you have the wrong number,” I said.

“Don’t you hang up on me you fucking bitch! Fuck you!” he screamed. I was starting to get scared.

“Who are you looking for? Are you looking for A___ or M___?” I asked, giving my roommates’ names while trying to remain calm.

“No, I’m looking for you!” he said.

Me? Why?

“Look, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me.” I said.

“Yeah I know you. Your name’s Toni, right?”

The blood curdled in my veins.

“Heh heh heh. Yeah…I got you now, don’t I.” It was a statement, not a question.

“I’m coming for you right now. I’ll be there soon.”

At that point I hung up and ran to my friend’s (who’s now my boyfriend) room. I felt pale and shook like a leaf. We called the campus police from his room. I told them as much as possible about my terrifying phone call. They (and my bf) accompanied me back to my room to make sure everything was ok, and proceeded to check out the whole building. Meanwhile my (future) bf kept me company in my room.

I surmised that one of my roommates had maybe used my name as a fake name and perhaps accidentally pissed off a guy, but when I told my roommates about it they didn’t mention anything like that. They seemed just as confused as I was. I wondered if it was a stupid frat prank phone call, but I still don’t know how he got my name. I really doubt that it was any one of my friends- why would they do something like that? At any rate, in spite of my roommates’ denial at being involved in the situation, I still believe that they had something to do with it, even if they didn’t mean any harm.

And if it really was a stupid practical joke, it wasn’t funny at all. He scared the shit out of me. I was just a young girl, living away from her parents for the first time. I had heard all these stories about young coeds being killed and raped in their dorms and I was truly afraid I was going to be next.

To this day, I don’t know who that was, how he knew my name, and why he made that phone call.