CATFISHED.
Back in my day, we didn’t have social media.
I mean, we had MySpace, but I wasn’t allowed to use it.
Before Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, all I had was email and my house phone to keep in touch with my friends after the final bell.
When I was in 8th grade, I hung out with a group of girls who I considered to be “friends.” They were seemingly nice people, came with no drama, and could actually talk about things with substance.
One day, one of these girls told me about a guy she was talking to, and he had a little brother that was interested in me.
“How does he know about me?” I asked her.
“Because I told him about you,” she answered matter-of-factly.
I told her to give him my email, and what do you know? He emailed me a little while after.
His name was “Caleb.”
So we emailed back and forth for a while (I think about two months), and I realized I was developing a crush on him. I asked him for a picture since my friend (allegedly) showed him one of me, and he told me he was camera shy and we should meet up in person. I told him that was fine, but we needed to talk a little more. I didn’t feel comfortable meeting up with a complete stranger. He asked for my number, and we did talk on the phone, but he said he couldn’t talk like that because his minutes weren’t free until after 9 p.m. (Oh, GOD!)
Meanwhile, I was telling the friend who hooked us up how sweet he was, how funny he was, how nice he was… Basically, just giving her all the tea. She kept hinting at a double date with Caleb and his older brother, but I was just hoping he wasn’t a wash. I still didn’t know what he looked like, but she swore up and down he was cute.
Anyway…
When I got home from school one evening, I went straight to my dad’s computer to check my email. Of course, the first thing I noticed was a message from Caleb. When I opened it, I was utterly shocked. He asked me to be his girlfriend. Of course, I said yes!
(And looking back, that was kind of stupid because I still didn’t know what he looked like, but also, I saw a sign in a window one day that read, beauty is only skin deep. So I had to remind myself that looks aren’t everything, even if he turned out to be not-attractive.)
So the following week, me, the friend that hooked me up with Caleb, and another girl we hung out with went to the Junior Beta Club convention. We were on the charter bus and I told them that Caleb asked me to be his girlfriend.
“What did you say?” my friend asked me.
“I told him, I’d be more than happy to be your girl.”
Both of them exchanged looks and bust out laughing.
I knew what I said was corny, but I didn’t think it was that corny.
“Well, I ain’t say it like that!” I tried to downplay it.
But they just kept laughing.
Anywho…
After me and Caleb became “official” I noticed that the emails started to slow up. One day, I reached out to check on him, and all he did was respond with this dry message saying we need to talk.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him. Does he have another girlfriend?, I thought to myself.
I had no idea what was coming next. Didn’t see it coming, didn’t expect it at all.
His response started out with a bunch of jumbled up letters and numbers, like this:
kjd09fdfjknbe756fjkfndlfn2jlfbd9fkbdfknv3fnclv
But it was a whole page long.
I had to scroll all the way down to the bottom to see the real message.
Basically, the girl who hooked us up… WAS CALEB.
This bitch catfished me!
And in her little confession, she tried to justify it by saying that she set me up because I told her that she and a guy in our class who had a crush on her would look good together. (She didn’t like him back, but he wasn’t a bad-looking dude.) Her last words in the email were “revenge is sweet!”
Who knew that an innocent comment would turn someone against me like that?
Of all the reasons anyone has ever gotten “revenge” on me, this was the most petty — to date.
I didn’t speak to her for days, and even after she emailed me this PowerPoint presentation apologizing, I still couldn’t really forgive her and our friendship was never the same.
As for the other girl? The one who went on the convention trip with us…
She was in on it, too! And this was somebody I talked to on my house phone damn near every night! I felt like she was my closest friend between the two of them, and she swore it wasn’t her idea, but she knew the whole time and never told me. But we’re friends? Were we really?
Not to mention, the phone call I had with “Caleb” was actually her! She called from her sister’s phone! So how the fuck was she not in on this? How was this not her idea, too?!
I was telling her all about the situation and how I felt about it when we were on the phone one night, and that’s how I found out she knew. At least she had the balls to confess…
Then she had the nerve to tell me that I should talk to the “friend” who set me up because she was really sorry!
“Yeah, she emailed me…” I told her.
I really wanted to hang up in this girl’s face, though.
I couldn’t even open the file my “friend” sent, by the way. So technically, I never saw the PowerPoint. I just approached her the day after my phone conversation with my other “friend” to ask her what she sent me, but before I said anything, she asked if I already spoke to our mutual.
I nodded my head.
She apologized again to my face and asked if I saw her PowerPoint.
I lied and said I did.
Even though there were no more incidents after that, I still didn’t trust the bitch. And I don’t think I ever really forgave her, either. Essentially, I didn’t do anything wrong. Despite the reason she gave, I’m convinced that she catfished me just to be mean. I’ve never done anything to this girl, and I hardly doubt that saying she would make a cute couple with someone is offensive enough to get revenge on me. Like, really?
And yes, we were kids, but what I said still stands: that shit was petty as hell! And if someone can get revenge on somebody for something that small, there’s no telling what else they’re capable of.
I’m just thankful that we didn’t have any classes together in high school. Or none that I can remember… And I ended up transferring schools anyway.
And I was gonna post this story on Valentine’s Day, but I didn’t want to taint this special holiday with a depressing story like this. I mean, the memory doesn’t upset me as much as it did back then, but still, we had enough people throwing a bunch of shade and negative energy on the 14th, and I’m not one to rain on people’s parade and I reject invitations to pity parties.
But I still needed to get this off my chest, if for no other reason, my healing.
I still wonder what the real reason was behind my “friend” doing this to me, because that comment just can’t be it. Maybe she was jealous of something I had. Maybe she secretly hated me. Maybe she was mad about something I had no control over. Who knows?
The bottom line is, girls are evil. I don’t care what nobody say! 😂
