Catfish: The Other Side of the Screen

Chapter 7

Messages kept piling up from men and I was truly enjoying it.

One day after having done a thorough research of all of these men on Facebook, I found a profile from the most HANDSOME guy I had ever laid eyes on – virtually that is. He was unbelievably hot. He was very athletic, tall, he had dark black hair, light colored eyes, that man was an absolute dream! So, I decided to message him. His name was Matt.

Me: Hey Matt.

Matt: Hey, you're extremely good looking. Do I know you?

Me: I don't think we know each other. I just saw your profile and thought you were very attractive and thought I should let you know.

I CRINGE every time I think of this. Those were literally the same copy-pasted words I used on every guy. It must have been a great ego boost to receive messages like that because I can assure you the answer was positive at least 95% of the time. Add Rachel's picture into the equation and BAM!

Matt: Thank you so much! You're not too bad yourself! So, what's your number? ;)

Ha! That was easy. Stupidly, I had once again given one of these random guys my actual phone number. Can you imagine? I was never even able to set a profile picture on my phone because on one side I had my real friends and on the other, I had these men. Of course, it was not too long before Matt started to ask me for more pictures, more voice notes, phone calls, facetime, skype. This guy was NOT playing games.

I became one hell of a photo shopper! I downloaded as many apps as I could find to enhance and make my pictures more attractive. The model whose pictures I was using had brand deals and pictures with watermarks that I had to blur out to make them look like they were just random fakebook pictures. Mind you, I was busy editing the fuck out of these pictures while the semester in college kept running and my grades sucking.

With time, Matt started to become more insistent on wanting to at least talk to me on the phone. He even joked about possibly being catfished. I found this guy so irresistible that I took a chance and finally answered one of this voice calls.

Nervousness was coursing ALL through my body. My heart was beating out of my chest. I could not believe this beyond attractive bachelor was calling me. No matter what I did, I refused to mess that up. He was truly one of the best-looking men who had ever taken the time to call me or text me. How was I going to give up on that and ruin it? Somehow, I had to make it work.

Matt: Hey! You finally answered!

My heart was beating out of my chest.

Me: Hey, how are you? Yeah, I was nervous to answer at first.

Matt: Wow! You have a really, really hot accent. Why on earth would you be nervous?

Me: Because, I've never been on the phone with someone I met on Facebook and have never seen in person before.

Matt: Fair enough. Don't worry, you have absolutely nothing to worry about with me. I'm pretty laid back and am definitely not going to judge you.

Okay. Let's analyze these first few words we exchanged. The compliment he gave me was bittersweet. Because I knew he was talking to me because of the pictures but that was MY voice. It was MY accent. That that little compliment was enough to get me attached and I began investing every minute of my life in trying to make this man addicted to me. I made up my whole entire life. I portrayed myself as the perfect woman and made him think HE was the lucky one who got to talk to me. He believed every single word and bullshit lie I fed him. There's a word in the English dictionary that accurately describes what I did with Matt; manipulation.