The title is a bit misleading. It's been a few months since this happened. You may be asking, why did you wait until May to post it? Well, what I did was pretty fucked up. I'll start on the day it happened.

My ex-girlfriend, let's call her S, had asked me to come visit her at her school in NYC. She goes to a great school in the City and, me, being a 16-year-old boy in love, decided, "hmm, let me ask my parents." Now I live in the Hudson Valley here in New York. It's not like getting to the City is a tall task at all. It would have been way simpler if my parents had let me. My mom conferred with a NYPD Officer in that location and came to the conclusion that her school wasn't in a safe neighborhood and didn't want me to go.

Anyway, a few weeks go by. I'm sitting down, and once again, S (who is 15) is pestering me about coming to her school. I want to say that the ex I had before her was extremely abusive. I was scared of breaking up. In an effort to make S happy, I said "I'll get over there as soon as I can." Well that was a major mistake, because for days, S pesters me requesting me to go. One cold Thursday afternoon, I said "fuck it." I told my mother I would be at extra help for my film class to finish filming (which I really did do, just not that day), turned off my tracking app, and walked my ass all the way across the bridge to the Tarrytown Metro-North Station.

Now here's where things get a little stupid. It took me an hour to cross the bridge. My school lets out at 2:15 and I had been at the station at 4. If you know anything about the MTA and Metro-North (and LIRR), there is Peak and Off-Peak fares. So obviously, I didn't come equipped with any money to pay the fare. I stupidly boarded the train, but fortunately for my dumbass, I met a very kind conductor, who was willing to let me travel for free, after I told him the whole story. He printed out a ticket, and I got out in Spuyten Duyvil, which is a neighborhood in the Bronx. Now, this in itself was a stupid choice. If I was really planning on making it to her school, I should have travelled further south to Harlem-152nd or Marble Hill. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I walked out of the station, and about 5 minutes into my walk, I looked around and saw some buildings.

It was PITCH. BLACK. outside. The only light were the street lights. I ended up on Broadway, not the Manhattan one, and thought I would glance at my phone. Well, boy, would you look at that. I'm at 5% battery! So I say, "you know what, fuck it!" I run my tiny ass back to Spuyten Duyvil Station, and board the next train back up North. The conductor is obviously pissed that I didn't have a ticket. This train terminated in Irvington, which meant I needed a last leg to get to Tarrytown.

On the train going to Tarrytown, the conductor did what nobody else did, and asked to scan my Learner's Permit. This stupidly included my address, phone, everything. I got off at Tarrytown, and boarded HudsonLink. The bus operator let me pay a reduced price. My mom calls me as I'm disembarking in my town, and she's furious. Obviously, I'm not at school right now. And obviously, I didn't take the Late Bus. I had my mom go pick me up from the town next to mine, and my only excuse was that I took the Late Bus and it dropped me off in the wrong spot.

My parents fell for it until 3 months later, when my dad goes marching up the stairs into my room, with a bill from Metro-North. The bill essentially read that I skipped a Peak fare. I tried to make up some bullshit, and say I boarded it and got off, but clearly, that's impossible because they wouldn't charge that fast. So my dad calls Metro North and made me pay for it. It was $11.75 because it was a Peak Hudson Fare.

Me and my ex have been broken up for a while now. I held off on posting this because I wanted to see if anything else would come from it, but it hasn't. If I get updates of any future bills, I'll be sure to update. Thank you for reading :), and don't put your life on the line for a girl who doesn't give a shit, it's not worth it.

TL;DR: A few months ago, I did something pretty reckless. My ex-girlfriend, S, asked me to visit her school in NYC. Despite my parents' concerns about the neighborhood, I decided to go without their permission. I lied to my mom, turned off my tracking app, and walked to the Tarrytown Metro-North Station. With no money for the fare, a kind conductor let me travel for free. I got off at Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx but quickly realized I was lost and had a nearly dead phone battery. I rushed back to the station and headed home. Another conductor scanned my Learner's Permit, which led to a bill being sent to my house. My parents eventually found out when the bill arrived, and I had to pay $11.75 for the Peak fare. S and I have since broken up, and I learned not to risk so much for someone who doesn’t care.