My Bad First Time on CL in Daily Ranting

I feel like so many people who go on CraigsList in the ‘Strictly Platonic’ section, don’t really know what that means. I mean, i might be wrong and just a complete judgmental idiot. But if my sort of extensive research is correct, according to Google, “Platonic describes a relationship that is purely spiritual and not physical.” Another definition provided for me on the wonderful internet, says it is not sexual in nature.
One night–to be specific at 3 am– I ended up on CL. The most natural thing for me to do was to go to the strictly platonic section since I wasn’t there for a hookup or used furniture. I wanted.. correction.. I NEEDED a friend. I needed someone to talk to, someone who didn’t know who I was or what I looked like. I needed a friendly stranger to listen. Even if it was only for a few hours. I posted my ad. ” 19 yo. female, Houston. Just need a listening ear for an hour or two.” That was my mistake. Apparently, anyone over 18 is automatically searching for a “quicky”, “pics of my hard c–k”, or “hotbox & chill?”. I must say, my first time posting on CL wasn’t all that great. It turned out pretty bad, to be honest. I received quite a few messages not too far from the time i posted. I ignored the oh so generous offers of d–k pics and when i found someone to talk to I deleted the post. Mission successful I thought. I was wrong.
Although he has a fairly common name, let’s call him Max. When we first started chatting everything was fine. He understood boundaries. He understood my not feeling comfortable exchanging numbers or pictures. Max was nice. Fast forward a few days, we talked all day and we met up for sushi and since I’m a person who panics at the drop of a hat, my brother hid in the car while we ate because i promised fresh leftovers. And once again, because I’m such a panic-y person, after we met we drove to the furthest Walmart that was still on the way home where my brother and I got out to buy two sodas and a pack of M&Ms. Surely enough, walking back to the car, Max shows up. Uh-oh. He followed me because “he wanted to ask me out on a real date”. Which was sketchy enough since he had my number. I politely declined and said that I wasn’t looking for a relationship. He insisted a few times and I kept saying no. At first he didn’t take it so well but when I started getting annoyed he backed off.
When my brother and I got home it was fairly late. It was around 12:15am when we pulled into our driveway. We went inside the house and we started settling in and getting ready to go to bed. I had a necklace malfunction when my hair got caught and went into my brothers room to see if he could help me. My brother’s room has a window that looks into the street, and he hadn’t completely shut the blinds so while he was trying to release my hair from the necklace, I realized a car parked near my mailbox that was blocking my driveway. I asked my brother if his friend was supposed to come over to hang out and he said no. The car stayed outside of my house from around 12:40am-ish until around 4am. Around 2:30am my brother went outside and pretended to try to leave, he honked to see if the car would move but it didn’t. He texted both of our neighbors to see if maybe they might have had guests. Only one of our neighbors responded and they were out of town and their friends/family knew not to be there. After that response my brother knocked on the window of the car to see if there was anyone in the car and no response(He decided not to take a peek through the window). After he came back in the house we decided to call the cops. At this point, I was really worried and freaking out, and the cops came and so did a tow truck. When the towing company started to hook up the car, Max came out and said that he was waiting on his “girlfriend” (me) to come home and that he fell asleep in the car. The cops asked me to come outside to confirm his story. I told them that we had just met face to face that night and that i declined when he asked me out on a romantic date. Of course they got a laugh and towed his car still for trespassing on private property.
Part of me is still spooked and have sworn off trying to make friends online.
But if anyone sees this, I’d like to know your stories.

Good night
-x