I'm writing this to say sorry to all the people I've hurt. My name is Jane Smithers; Janie to most of my friends. I graduated high school at eighteen and went straight to college. Big mistake! I wasn't ready and failed my courses and they chucked me out. The psychologist my parents sent me to said I was depressed, but really I just wasn't interested. I missed home and felt lonely. My folks freaked of course; Dad especially. Once I was home I just sat in my room. My friends were all off at college. The only job I could get was minimum wage slavery at the local diner. I hated it. When I got home from work I just went straight to my room; I hardly spoke to my folks at all. Everything was shit basically.
I remember the night I first went to the chatroom. We lived in a suburb and the only way to get anywhere was by bus because my Dad refused to let me use his car after dark. I was so fucking bored; I had nowhere to go and my friends were too busy with their own lives to listen to my endless complaints. I had the lights off and my music at minimum volume. I was surfing blogs and clicked my through links to a porno site. I admit I'd been to some before, just to check stuff out; more as a joke really. When the chat panel came up it was some, like, forty year-old guy which was totally weird. I guess I responded because I was so bored. I don't know what I expected but he seemed interested in me and I just complained and complained about my life. It felt so good. He wasn't pushy about the sex stuff. He did ask me about my boyfriends -- all ex-boyfriends actually. He asked me what I looked like and I explained that I was a redhead and was skinny and fairly tall. He said some very sweet things and I guess I'm as open to flattery as the next person; it seemed like someone was really listening to me, paying attention to me. I like being checked out by guys although I'm pretty shy and I have this horrible tendency to blush when guys look. He lived in Chicago, far from the Boston suburbs where I lived. I suppose that's what made it feel okay to email him a photograph -- just an ordinary one of me taken by my friend last summer in a local park. I felt flattered that he wanted to see me; I wanted to be seen and I felt this need for him to like me.
The next night he was waiting for me. I'd spent the day looking forward to chatting again. I suppose I did question myself but it all felt so safe then, so harmless. He asked about my day and seemed so interested in it, unlike my friends who were studying philosophy not serving greasy fries like me. He told me he was married but that his wife wasn't interested in sex anymore. He asked me how many guys I'd slept with. I'd only done it with two guys; my high school boyfriend and some guy at college who dumped me after just three weeks. It felt sort of weird to tell some stranger this stuff -- but also sexy.
Then he wanted to know the color of my panties. I remember pausing then, my heart beating, my face flushed. This was crazy I knew, but I told him. I told a forty-year-old man the color of my panties. He wanted to know what kind, whether I wore thongs, whether I ever went out without panties. I told him everything he wanted to know. He asked when I last masturbated. I told him. It felt exciting, exposing, exhilarating. He asked what I was wearing. I told him every detail. Then the word "pussy" arrived on my screen. I imagined him typing it out. "Do you shave your pussy?" he asked. Then he wanted to know whether my pussy was wet. "So wet, so squishy and fucky," I said. "You turn me on so much," I typed. He wanted me to touch myself, to masturbate for him.
I can't explain to you how it felt to have Bob (that was his name) in my life. It was like I had this huge secret, this specialness that only I knew about. I longed to get home from work, to get to the chatroom. I know most of you won't believe he cared about me but you weren't there. He was the only one who cared about me. I sent him more pictures of me. I was addicted to his praise and flattery I suppose. Then one night he asked me to get my Dad's digital camera and take a photograph and send it to him. I crept downstairs and lifted the camera from the office and snuck into the bathroom. I snapped the photos in mirror. In the first photo I'm fully dressed in my low-rider blue jeans and purple tank top. In the next one I've taken off my jeans and showing off my red thong. Then I took off my top and bra and show him my 36c breasts. In the next one I'm naked, my pussy exposed to him. He loved them. He was so proud of me.
I told him all about work; he seemed so interested in all my gossip and complaints, unlike everyone else. One night he asked me to go to work the next day without panties. I didn't -- I don't know why; I guess somewhere a voice was warning me. I had always been honest with Bob so when he asked that night I told him the truth. We'd been chatting for a few weeks by then. The chat panel disappeared and I waited up until three in the morning for him to come back; he didn't. I emailed him but he didn't reply. I was devastated -- even more devastated than when the college guy dumped me. I couldn't believe it. Three days went by without a word. On the third night I got a one line email: "Don't disappoint me again." I promised him I wouldn't. I was so scared I would lose him.