When I was 19 and really naive, I was working at a movie theater, and a pregnant girl about my age walked up to the ticket counter and acted like she knew me. I had no idea who she was, but she insisted we knew each other from high school and had been great friends. I figured it must have been one of those classes that wasn't Drama or TV Production, so I didn't remember anyone from them. I took it on her word that we knew each other. I didn't consider until years later she may have just read my name tag and pretended.

Anyway, she was without a ride home for some reason, and asked if I could take her there when I got off work. I didn't see any harm in it, so I said yes. She hung around the theater lobby until I clocked out.

That's when Mr. Toad's Wild Ride began. There were people chasing her. They'd been waiting in the parking lot while she hid out in the lobby, and they followed my car out of the lot. I didn't notice until we were in a relatively deserted part of town after dark.

She had me take her to what looked like a crack house in the worst part of town, but asked me to wait in the car for her, because she just needed to get something from the house. She wasn't staying there. I would have driven away at that point, but a guy I actually knew came out of the house and started talking to me. He was the older brother of a girl I knew, and we'd met before. He said he was doing some kind of "pennance" by being there, and that I should NOT be there.

The girl came back out of the house and got back in my car, directing me where to go, and the car following us began to get right up on my bumper, nearly forcing me off the road a few times. I pulled into a brightly lit gas station, hoping that would offer some safety, but it didn't. The car of followers pulled in behind me so I couldn't back out of the parking space, and then a very angry, large dude got out and started banging on MY driver's side window so hard, I thought he was going to break it.

I was pretty upset at this point, which seemed to confuse the girl, and she asked me why I was acting that way. She got out of the car and told the angry dude he was scaring me, and they argued, which resulted in her eventually getting back in the car. I ended up pulling out sideways to get away from them, because the other car wasn't moving to let me leave.

We went on a wild chase through the town, and I got a little bit ahead of the bad guys. Eventually, the girl said to drop her off at this abandoned gas station, because the angry dude would see her there, and they could have some privacy to talk. But, she wanted me to be sure to come back and pick her up in ten minutes.

I dropped her off and drove away, thinking about what the right thing to do would be. I wasn't sure if I knew her or not, she was pregnant and in a bad situation, but she seemed to be playing me, too. I drove a very circuitous route around town to make sure I was no longer being followed, because the angry dude's friends had dropped him off, too, presumably to pick him up later. I did not want those friends on my tail, and drove all the back streets and weird routes I could think of to make sure they were gone.

When I hadn't seen them for a while, and was relatively confident I wasn't being followed anymore because I lost them, I made my decision.

I went home and locked the door.

Fortunately, I never saw her or her angry friends again, as I was concerned they might come back to the theater. They didn't. THAT is the worst favor I ever did for anyone.