My friend, coworker, and former room mate Bill called John a creeper.

The slang emerged in the mid 1990s and meant someone who slinks around peeping at another person. Usually, a creeper in this context has romantic designs on whoever he or she is watching. While a creeper has the potential to become a scary stalker perhaps, generally a creeper is merely someone who’s socially inexperienced or fiercely shy and afraid to talk or move forward with the object of his or her affection.

There’s also the creeper who does things on the down low aka in secret. The pop group TLC tackled the topic in the Grammy-winning song “Creep.” The song, coincidentally, was released around the same time that this aforementioned John was creeping.

John did indeed pop up at the most unusual of times. He appeared at the restaurant where he, Bill, and I worked but on days other than his designated shift. He would loiter a little longer than necessary at whatever part of the restaurant I was working.
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