AITA for accepting a hangout thinking it was just as friends, then refusing to see him again?
I met this guy because one of my friends introduced me to his friend group. I'd only met him once before, and the second time he asked if I wanted to go get sushi with him. I said yes, but during that week we barely talked, and when we did it was completely normal, like friends. There was no flirting from my side at all.
I agreed because I thought it would be nice to expand my social circle and make more friends. I also regularly hang out one-on-one with my guy friends, and it's never been a big deal. It's always just platonic, so I didn't think anything of going out alone with him.
At dinner I started noticing things that put me off. He kept talking himself up, saying everyone at work was jealous of him because he was so good at his job, and he suddenly started acting a lot more flirty than he had before.
After dinner we took an Uber to another friend's house to watch a soccer game. There were going to be six of us there. During the ride I casually mentioned that I was talking to someone, but he lives in the United States.
His entire attitude changed immediately. He started saying he hated the U.S. and hated Americans. Then he literally opened Wikipedia and pulled up a list of identified and unidentified serial killers, shoved his phone in my face, and kept saying, "Look, look. I don't trust them." He made jokes about how he'd rather be lied to by someone local than end up chopped up in a suitcase "like those American guys who come here to date Colombian women." It honestly felt like his ego had been bruised.
Once we got to our friend's house, it didn't stop. By 2 or 3 a.m. I was exhausted and told another friend I wanted to leave because I was uncomfortable.
He kept making comments about everything. If someone played a song, he'd say it was music for idiots. He kept bringing up how many guys probably liked me, asking why I only liked white guys, and saying that apparently short, Colombian, or unattractive guys weren't good enough for me.
Then he grabbed a stuffed animal from our friend's bed while all five of us were sitting in the room listening to music. He started punching it while saying things like, "Damn you... damn you... but I like you so much... you're awful."
That was the moment I actually got scared. It felt like he was taking his anger out on the stuffed animal, and I just wanted to leave.
Around 3 a.m. I ordered an Uber and left. Even before I left he was playing breakup songs, telling me to listen to the lyrics, and asking questions like, "What do you do when you dream about someone?" I just answered, "Nothing. It's just a dream."
The friend whose house we were at walked me downstairs while I waited for my Uber. Since they're close friends, we talked about what had happened. He told me that, from this guy's perspective, he probably assumed that if I agreed to hang out and kept talking to him afterward, it meant I was interested romantically.
That made me wonder if I had been naive. Was I missing obvious signals? Do I really have to tell every guy I meet right away that I'm seeing someone so they don't assume I'm interested?
The next day, after he had clearly seen how uncomfortable I was and watched me leave early, he texted me: "When are you free? We should go out again."
I have absolutely no interest in seeing him again. He made me uncomfortable, annoyed me, and by the end of the night he genuinely scared me.
Now I'm wondering what to do. Should I explain why I don't want to see him again? Should I just ignore the message? Should I block him? I still want to hang out with the friend group, but I never want to be alone with him or spend time with him again.
So, AITA for accepting what I thought was just a friendly hangout and then deciding I never wanted to go out with him again?