My Own Tinder Experience

Story by Ashley Probst

It was just a boring night in Orange when one of my girlfriends showed me a picture of a man with spiky blond hair, smiling wide and standing behind a deejay booth.

She had found this man, whose name I can’t remember, on Tinder and he was a deejay who had just finished performing at a local club, which he offered to get us in to for free. He even sent an Uber to pick us up and take us to his location, which was about 20 minutes away.

When we stepped out of the car, we realized that we had arrived at a hotel, not a nightclub like we had been expecting. The man stumbled out of his hotel room and flung his arms around us as if we were all old friends. He guided us inside where we were greeted with an empty room and an episode of South Park blaring from the TV. After being offered cigarettes and a cup full of vodka, both of which I turned down, I knew that I wanted to escape as soon as possible.

We settled into the couch to watch the rest of the South Park episode while we waited for his friends to return from some unknown location. No more than 10 minutes had passed when the man started having a seizure while laying right next to us.

I jumped off the couch and froze, simply staring at the chaotic scene. I watched helplessly as this stranger convulsed uncontrollably and my friend made sure he didn’t fall off the couch or hit his head.

Within a minute of his seizure ending, the man’s friend walked through the hotel door and immediately took control of the situation. After he called 911, the operator instructed us to place the man on his side while we waited for paramedics to arrive.

While we waited for the ambulance, I remember looking down at the man and being so afraid that I was going to watch the light leave his eyes. I was convinced that I was about to watch him die. Then he came back into consciousness. It was only enough time for him to mumble, “What’s going on?” and then he was slightly incoherent again. But it was in that brief moment that I knew he was going to be OK. By the time the paramedics arrived about 20 minutes later, he was sitting up in bed and talking to us.

The man was taken to the hospital and we called another Uber to take us home. When our ride pulled up to the hotel, we sprinted out of the room and crash landed inside the car. Our driver noticed the emergency vehicles and after telling him the story about our crazy experience, he vowed to get us home quickly and safely.

   

+ posts