My Encounter with the Drunk Man

On my way home from a late night at work, I was still hungry after eating a late night snack I had boughten a little while earlier. When I got off my stop, I walked to the deli acouple streets away from home. As it was late night and my healthy conscious was screaming at me in the back of my mind, I went to look in the nuts and granola bar section of the deli. While I was checking it out with the screaming voice of my concious in the background, I heard a man coming from behind. The man was a short and stout black man wearing a hooded coat and some run-down clothes. He had his headphones in and was clearly anebriated. He was talking on his headphones as he was looking at me. Naturally I was confused. I became more confused and startled as he raised his hand at me. I stared at his hand for a moment and then I decided to defuse the situation with an innocent high five. I then realized this deli wasn't for me, so I left. I went a couple streets down instead and decided upon another deli. In the same section, I then noticed the same man walk into the store. This time he was talking to his buddy about me. "Yeah she's this nice caucasian girl. She's real cute, she's wearing this gray hat and has this cute smile. She ain't got a manicure doe, but she still cute." Laughing, I didn't think anything major would happen. Then things turned when he stated, "yeah you should come through." I knew then and there I had to grab my food and get the heck out of there! He started to talk directly to me as I was headed towards the line. "What's yo name?" "Maya." "Where you from?" "Minnesota." "What you doin in New York?" *If he only knew.* I finished paying and was out. He followed me out and told me to hit him up when he wasn't drunk. Sure. While I was walking my normal, relatively fast paced walk, I noticed some screaming coming from the background. But not like normal screams, more of a drunk moaning, know what I mean? I then noticed he started to run, as I was about a couple hundred feet away, he started to catch up!...So you may ask what I did next? There were two options: haul a** or just walk it out. What do think I did?...I BOOKED IT! I wasn't playing around with no drunk man half past midnight. Thankfully I was only an avenue away from home, but I ran fo my life! I got home rather quickly and rather than be super scared, I actually laughed instead. Not only was this such a great and random story to tell, but it reminded me that there's never a dull moment in New York. This is not only amazing, but a little scary. Scary because you can only hope good things come, but amazing because this is the city where dreams happen. Maybe it's not necessarily in my dream to encounter drunk men on the way home, but it teaches me to expect the unexpected and embrace every moment. Ever had an experience like this? If you did, I feel you on another level. Embrace it, live it and try not to drink too much. But most importantly, expect the unexpected and keep it positive.