Catfished, Part 1
Catfish -- Create a fake or stolen online identity used for the purposes of beginning a deceptive relationship.
"I'm telling you, she just looks familiar, dude," Jake said, shaking his head as he looked at the picture of Vince's new stepmom on Vince's phone. Well, new as of 6 months ago.
Vince's parents had divorced three years ago and his dad finally remarried in the Spring. Due to his college class needs, his dad's work schedule, and the fact that they decided to elope to Vegas, he hadn't been able to attend the wedding nor visit home since the marriage.
It was Saturday before the long Thanksgiving weekend and the two were sitting around watching the college football games. Most of the college had left for the Thanksgiving break already, since there were no classes all week. But Vince wasn't leaving until Thursday morning.
Vince pulled his phone back and looked at the wedding picture again. "Everyone looks familiar to you, Jake," he laughed.
"No, seriously. I've seen her somewhere before." Jake started scrolling through his own phone as Vince went back to the game.
It took an entire quarter of the game and three touchdowns, two of which excited the two college students, before Jake finally figured out where he saw her.
"Found her!" he said loudly, turning his phone to show Vince. Intrigued, since the picture did look really close, Vince took his phone and looked further.
"SlutDate? Seriously, Jake? Debbi Dee? Shit, man, I'd bet anything this was just someone who found the picture online to use." Vince shook his head and gave Jake his phone back.
"Maybe," Jake said, scrolling through her SlutDate profile and looking at the pictures she'd posted. "But it looks pretty legit to me. According to this, she became a member ten years ago and she has pictures going back that far."
"What the hell? What are you doing on that app anyways? That's whacked." Vince had heard about SlutDate. It was well known to be a hookup for young people, where you were guaranteed to have sex on the first date.
"Hey! No judging!" Jake said. "I enjoy some guaranteed sex in my dating every once in a while. It can be tiring waiting a month or two before my dates will have sex."
"Whatever, man... you do you. Oh! What a catch!" Jake yelled, standing with his arms up high, as a receiver made a diving catch at the two yard line. "We are so going to kill them!"
Try as he might, Vince couldn't get the Debbi Dee SlutDate profile out of his mind. Could that really be his new stepmom? Is that how his dad found her? He just couldn't be sure. Long after the Jake left, as he lay in bed, he downloaded the app to his phone and started it up. He was immediately required to create a profile.
"Geez... I just wanted to look," he mumbled to himself. "Fine. Name... Danny Doesmore," he typed, laughing to himself. "City... State... Email... gotcha. Age... nineteen... no, twenty two.... gotta sound like I can at least go to the bars. Man seeking Woman... no specific fetishes... well, maybe multiple partners. Geez, bondage? Pissing? What the hell! Date range for my date... uh... I don't know, twenty to fifty. Ok... picture... what picture should I use?" He scrolled through his phone and found one from last year, one in which his hair is longer and his smiling face a little obscured in shadow. But one in which he looked like he was having a great time.
It took him only about five minutes before he had his profile loaded. Instantly the app provided him a list of potential dates... all within twenty miles. "But I don't want just anyone close by," he said, talking to the app. "How do I find someone specific? Help button... help button... where are you? Ah, there you are," he said, pressing it. He immediately typed Debbi Dee and her profile was quickly found. Like Jake, he scrolled through her pictures first, and, Jake was right. She looked a lot like the picture of his stepmom and the pictures did go back ten years. If this was fake, someone took a lot of effort to create it and maintain it.
He went back to the top of her profile to check out her answers. She was a woman seeking a man... and she clicked off a couple of fetishes. "Wow, she's into bondage, spanking, slapping, breath control... biting? What the hell!" he muttered in surprise. "And her date age is eighteen to thirty. She's really interested in younger guys." He shook his head. "She's gotta be in her forties."
He put the phone down a second and wondered if he could really do this. He wondered if he could schedule a date with her and see if that really was his stepmom. What if it was her? What would he do when she found out it was him... her own stepson? What would he do... tell his dad? There were so many consequences...
"Ah, screw it!" he said, pushing the button to request a date. A window where he could select multiple dates and times appeared, so he click on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, 5:00pm through 11:00pm. "It's not like I have much going on before I leave for home anyways," he reasoned.
He put his phone on his nightstand and fell asleep, dreaming wonderful dreams and nightmares about meeting his stepmom. It was the next morning when he got a notification from his app that a date was arranged for Wednesday, the night before he left to go home for Thanksgiving, at 7:00pm. Since all of his roommates were gone already, he typed in his address for the meeting place. He wasn't sure if she'd drive the hour to get there, but what the hell.
In just minutes she had approved. His date was arranged.
His mouth went dry and he started to worry... this was fucked up.
*****
Wednesday came before he realized it. He'd cleaned his room a bit and a bit of the common areas of the off-campus house he rented with three other guys. He took a quick shower, dressed, and even put on a little cologne. He had to admit, he was sexually excited. If he were honest with himself, he was more excited with the prospect that it really would be his new stepmom that came.
His room was on the second floor, so he bound down the stairwell anxiously when he heard the doorbell. He went to the front window and peered out, and saw a woman dressed in a black dress standing at the door, patiently.
"Ok," he said softly. "This is it." He opened the door and the beautiful woman, definitely the woman in the pictures, stood there. Her dress fit perfectly on her, hugging her curves well and accentuating her breasts in front with a low-cut neckline. "Hi," he said, nervously, backing up to invite her inside.
"You must be Danny," she said, smiling, looking very cool and confident. She obviously didn't recognize who he was, but he was still so nervous he was shaking.
"Yeah," he said, and after a short, pregnant pause continued. "Oh my God, you are so hot. So much hotter than your profile picture. My friends are never going to believe this." He pulled his phone out of his pocket, moved beside her, and began taking a few selfies with her.