So tonight I think this girl thought I was going to attack her(?).
I was walking down from campus back home, it was about 23:30, and as I go toward the entrance from the road to the path that takes me down the hill every night, a girl coming from the other side enters the path in front of me. The path, which is unlit, goes between a bunch of houses and the rim of a gorge. So as I start to walk down the path, I see that the girl in front of me keeps looking back over her shoulder at me and quickly turning back. She is also holding on harder to her handbag all of sudden. Wait a minute, is she afraid of me attacking her? Do I look frightening? Heck no, I'm just a guy minding his business listening to Yo La Tengo under the hood of his sweatshirt. Oh, maybe it's the hoodie! But no, maybe I just got the wrong impression, maybe she doesn't think I'm a mugger or a rapist. In any case, next time she looks over her shoulder back up at me, I nod and make a peace sign at her. I think we make eye contact, but it's hard to tell because she turns her head down the path again so quickly. You know what, I don't think that helped! I think it might have scared her even more, because when we get to the place where the windy road that goes through the houses meets up with the path (which cuts through the winds of the road to meet up with it at each wind) she takes the road, which is obviously the longer way if she's trying to get all the way down. Sure enough, when I come out the path where it meets back up with the road and look behind me, I see her coming down to the end of the path, so it's obvious she was trying to avoid me following her. Also, when I do look back, she has been looking in my direction but avoids eye contact.
So there it is. Now help me out here, what was I supposed to do to make clear to this girl that I was not going to attack her? What should I do next time? Is there some protocol to be followed in these kinds of situations? As unflattering as it is being mistaken for a creep, my concern here is for the assuredness of girls everywhere (well, unlit streets and paths mostly though).