This weeks boy is the clingy type! The clingy boy type seems so cute, and all “Aw he’s so protective! He cares about me!”, but it can get real stalker-like and clingy real quick. First things first, remember that you won’t know if you are in a clingy relationship until about midway through, because they won’t show that side immediately.

So, let me break it down for you. There are 4 stages to a Clinger:

Stage 1 = he/she makes you feel really good. He/she seems to care about you. You don’t get into fights

Stage 2 = start to notice that he/she doesn’t have a life outside of you

Stage 3 = feeling suffocated by their presence

Stage 4 = stalker status, they won’t allow you to break up with them. Constantly there. Restraining order vibes.

The first date will go like this: He will ask you so many questions about yourself, you’ll feel like you’re being interviewed. He won’t take his eyes off of you. You’ll feel like a princess for now…you just wait and see honey bun.

Next thing you know his phone is taped under your car, and he’s tracking your every move, or at least that’s what happened to my friend Emma.

Emma was dating her ex-boyfriend of two years, until they broke up before senior prom. He was a stage 4 clinger, and did not want to leave her side. He would show up unannounced at inappropriate times.  Think of Edward Cullen waiting for Bella to leave school and get to her car, but like way worse and more creepy.

I asked Emma what kinds of things he would do and she said the following: he was just always available to hangout due to him not having friends, he would show up if she wasn’t answering texts, he would hack into her google drive to look at her homework schedule and would do it all for her, had all her passwords to social media and would log in frequently to see who she was talking to, after they broke up he’d hid behind her car and wait for her till she got done work, and all this led to her eventually getting a restraining order.

Now, Emma wasn’t my only friend with this stage 4 clinger boyfriend…..

My friend Kim had a horrible stage 4 clinger who also doubled as a stage 4 stalker. She got herself a restraining order against him. This guy even threatened to beat me up for sticking up for her. How disgusting. Think of like Sammie and Ronnie from Jersey Shore, but like on steroids.

Anyway, he would call her up while she was out with her friends and say if she didn’t leave to go be with him, he’d kill himself. To get serious here for a second, suicide is no joke, and it is NOT okay to guilt someone into doing something using suicide especially when it’s used as a ploy. While she was home alone, he tried sneaking into her window, but she saw him and quickly tried to hit him out, but instead he grabbed her by her braid and pulled himself in. He threw her against a wall in school and choked her. He was obsessed with her and acted out when she was around other guys, and with other people. In fact, he hated when she left his side. Imagine being that insecure.

Basically, if your boyfriend or girlfriend exhibits any behavior in any of the stages, leave now. You do not want to be trapped, or feel like you are. This is not a maze.

Your life becomes their life, and wh0 wants a shadow? This is not Twitches.

If they seem too good to be true, they usually are. Remember that.

Don’t forget to watch out for this type on campus.

-N