Catfished

Morin, Ty. Friend Request: Accepted. Digital image. Kickstarter. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2016. <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tymorin/friend-request-accepted>.

She knew what catfishing was. She’d seen the movies, the TV shows, and the Youtube videos. But this one was different. This one was real; she felt it. Zoe jumped at the sound of another message. It’s him. It’s Jack. He had just asked for her phone number. This had been going on for two weeks now. Jack Benson sent Zoe a friend request two Mondays ago, and counting on the fact that she had 18 mutual friends with him, she accepted. They had been typing to each other multiple times a day since. Of course, it seemed strange that someone she had never met or heard of before suddenly complimented her every day, talked about how beautiful she is, and how nice of a person she seems. But who doesn’t like being complimented? She checked his profile and saw that he was a teenage boy living in upstate New York, only a few hours away from her. He only had one photo, which seemed weird, but he had told her it was because his account was new. The photo seemed familiar to Zoe, but she could never figure out where she had seen it before. Remembering what he had just asked her, Zoe said to herself, “What harm can it do if I give him my phone number?” And about five minutes after she had hit send, her phone rang. “Hello?”

“Zoe?” an unrecognizable voice said.

“Yes?”

“It’s me, Jack,” his voice was lower than expected, but Zoe didn’t care. He still sounded young. “I called because I want to see you. I’ll be in the city with my friends later today, and I want to meet you somewhere.”

“Um, I don’t know-” Zoe started as she was cut off by Jack.

“Oh come on, Zoe. Don’t you want to finally see me? I’ve been thinking about you a lot,” Jack insisted.

“Okay. Where?” Zoe asked.

“Come to Starbucks on Broadway in one hour. I’ll be waiting outside,” Jack said and hung up. After Zoe contemplated it for a few minutes, she decided to go. Yes, he could be a kidnapper. Yes, he could be a rapist or even a murderer. Zoe was expecting the worst, but she had a plan. She told her mom that she was going to her friend Emma’s house, and then she called Emma and told her the plan. She was going to take a bus to Broadway, and once she met Jack, she was going to secretly have Emma on the phone with her the whole time in her pocket so that if anything bad happens, Emma would know.

“Emma, I just got off the bus. I’ll reach Starbucks in a minute,” Zoe said to the phone that was on speaker in her pocket.

“Are you ready?” Emma asked.

“I think so, now don’t talk,” Zoe answered and moved her head away from her coat pocket. She got to Starbucks, scanned the area, but didn’t see a teenager anywhere. All she saw were middle-aged workers getting coffee during their lunch break and a few men standing outside. She started to think this was a mistake, and was about to walk away before whoever Jack was noticed her. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Zoe?” Zoe’s heart started racing as she turned around and pushed the man’s hand off her shoulder.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Jack. You know, the guy you’ve been talking to on Facebook.” As she heard the man’s answer, she started backing away and turned to get ready to run, realizing how stupid she was that she came to meet a stranger, and that he could be a murderer. But she abruptly stopped when she heard him say, “Wow, you look even more like me in person,” Zoe turned back to look at him.

“What did you just say?” she asked.

“You really don’t recognize your own dad?” Jack asked. Zoe’s father had left when she was little, and she hadn’t seen or heard of him since. “I know this is a shock, but please, this was the only way I was able to find you. Your mother made sure you were unreachable, so that you would never have to see me, but I couldn’t go on like this any longer. I had to find you,”

“But the photo?” Zoe managed to say while trying to stop herself from crying. But he didn’t have to answer, because she just remembered who the photo was of. A celebrity that she had seen in a magazine. Jack made a 16 year old celebrity his profile picture so that Zoe would be fooled into thinking they were the same age. But in reality, she didn’t know anything about this man, even if he really is her father, which it was becoming clear that he was. Jack tried to speak, but Zoe turned around and ran. She didn’t have a ride home, but that didn’t matter. To her, this was worse than if the man ending up being a kidnapper. At least then, she wouldn’t have been this hurt.

“Zoe? Zoe, are you there? What’s happening?” said the muffled voice of Emma in Zoe’s coat pocket as she ran.