There's always one extra person with me (creepypasta)

I wasn't going to post this but it's been haunting me so here we go.

So there was this college guy, let's call him A. His whole thing was pranking people by insisting there was always one more person in the group than there actually was. Like he'd walk into a restaurant with 3 friends, the server would go "table for 4?" and A would yell "LOOK AGAIN, there's 5 of us!!" and just cackle at everyone's confused faces.

His friends begged him to stop. Multiple times. He didn't. Honestly at some point people started wondering if he was actually seeing something... but nah, he'd just laugh and move on.

One day A went to eat alone for once. Sat down at a window seat. The waitress came over and placed a glass of water in front of him.

And then placed another one across the table.

Where nobody was sitting.

A just tilted his head like "...huh." figured maybe someone had been sitting there before him, wrote it off as a mistake. Ordered his spaghetti. Waited.

The spaghetti came out.

Two plates.

He got SO MAD. called the waitress over like "why are you bringing two dishes when it's just ME??"

And she looked genuinely startled and went "oh my, but there were two of you when you came in..."

The cashier said the same thing. Confirmed it. Said A had walked in with someone.

A left. Decided okay, the prank era is OVER.

Except.

It didn't stop.

Every single place he went after that. Every restaurant, every shop, even when he traveled. Didn't matter. Staff would always count one extra person with him. Didn't matter if he was alone or with friends, always one MORE than there should've been.

Once, on a completely packed train where every seat was taken, the seat directly across from A was empty. Just his seat. In a full train.

"Someone is following me."

That's when he stopped going outside. Lost a ton of weight. Barely looked like himself anymore. Spent months just. not leaving. Not because he physically couldn't, he just didn't want to deal with whatever "it" was.

Eventually he thought okay, enough time has passed. Maybe it's gone. Maybe it got bored.

So he went out. First time in months. The air felt amazing. He was almost laughing at himself for being so scared.

He walked into a restaurant. Bright, busy, normal. Sat at the counter since regular tables still felt like a lot.

The server smiled and came over.

Placed a glass of water in front of A.

Then one to his left.

Then one to the left of that.