Cat Fish

cat·fish   (ktfsh)

n. pl. catfish or cat·fish·es

Any of numerous scaleless, chiefly freshwater fishes of the order Siluriformes, characteristically having whiskerlike barbels extending from the upper jaw. Also called regionally bullhead, mud cat.

A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.

Did you hear how Dave got totally catfished last month! 

I've been cat fished. Am I embarrassed? Yes. Ashamed? Yes. Do I regret it? Sometimes. Sometimes I think to myself how did I ever let it get that bad? Then I think, well shit, I was sixteen when that happened. I was young and naive. I was going through a rough stage in my life at the time and I just wanted to feel affection from another person. I'm about to tell you the whole story behind my story. So grab some popcorn and lets begin. 

    It all started when the whole Myspace ordeal was in. I was in sixth grade when I first created my profile. I still remember my background page and my profile picture. It was a cute Tweety Bird image. I didn't have a computer of my own. So every time I had the opportunity to check my myspace, best believe I was on that for literally hours straight. 

   One summer night, I was scrolling down the most recent online people. I came across this gorgeous guy named Tyler. Tyler Bowen. Instantly, I was in. I had to talk to him. So, I added him and once approved, I started commenting on a few of his pictures. "You're so gorgeous." "Any girl is lucky to have you." "Hottie with a body." And back then I would typee lykk thiiss foor eveeryythiingg. Annoying, right? Apparently to Tyler, I was interesting to talk to because he had never met someone who wrote the way I did. 

   We would message back and forth and I swear every time I had a chance to get online, id be so anxious to see if he wrote back to me. If he hasn't I'd get super bummed. Eventually he gave me his number and we would text whenever anyone lent me their phone. Since I didn't have a phone of my own. We would text so much that when we had to go, we couldn't stop texting one another. We were both so interested in each other it was crazy. So crazy that I did whatever it took to text him. My mom even bought me a prepaid phone. And believe me, I ran outta minutes like this: *snap* 

   When I was in high school, my freshman year I had plenty of people that lent me their phones so I had a chance to talk to my Sweet Prince. Every period it'd be a different number. One period we were texting and he asked me to be his girlfriend. I was too ecstatic. I immediately said yes not thinking of what I was about to get myself into. All I knew at that time was that I wanted to be with him. His looks were what caught my eye and the more I talked to him, the more I started to fall for more than what met the eye. There was a time when  we broke up after a week of being "together" because he lived in a completely different state. I lived in Texas and he lived in Alabama. We couldn't possibly see each other, ever. 

   I was so bummed. I wanted to be with this guy I barely knew so bad that it was just driving me crazy. All I wanted to do was text him and get so deep in our conversation like always. He finally texted me after two or so weeks and told me it was a complete mistake that he broke up with me. That he was so sorry and he wanted to be my boyfriend again. So, me being the stupid young teenager I was, I accepted and we were back to what we had been doing for the past month. He started calling me on the phone. I found it a little awkward that he would always whisper, but I figured that he whispered because it was always late and he didn't want his parents to hear that he was on the phone. We'd always talk late at night, so I got used to his whisper. Sometimes, he wouldn't even talk on the phone. But I really didn't think anything of it. After awhile when he started calling me in the middle of the day and he'd still be whispering, that rang a bell. Why is he whispering? It's 5 in the evening? 

   The first real suspicion was when I was online and I came across another profile with his same picture. I thought wtf? I raised my eyebrows and felt real confused. I immediately confronted him about it and he claimed that someone was stealing his pictures. He informed me that there were quite a few impostors. And being naive, I believed him. 

   Every time I would ask him to send me a picture either he would say not now or maybe later. It would get on my nerves because he had such a problem with doing something so simple. I had no problem sending him pictures of me, so why was it so hard for him? After he would insist on not sending me a photo, id start to doubt and call him fake. And when that happened, he'd get so pissed and just be short and not text me back. So right there and then was another suspicion. This went on for months and yet I was still dumb enough to believe him that he was real. 

   This one girl *Brianna, his ex had messaged me saying he was fake and stealing someone else's photos. She said she been through it before with him and made me realize that he was truly fake. How could someone so good looking have a long distance relationship with someone when he could get any girl he wanted in person? It didn't make sense. He was suppose to drive down that summer to meet me but his "friends mom passed away" that same week. I was so furious. And that was that. I still stayed with him having SOME hope that he was who he said he was, considering that I was the one who added him in the first place. I found it hard to believe that this could really happen to me. After awhile of having sleepless nights of constantly thinking how could someone that "loves you oh so much" lie to you about something so important like their identity? I started getting into some serious investigating. I found over 20+ different profiles with the same guy in the pictures. My mind was running with thoughts. I finally found the real guy behind the photos. I found out where he lived. But the one thing I never found out is who was the person that I fell in love with behind the phone. Who was the person I was so infatuated with? Months went by and I couldn't take it anymore. I broke it off for good. And it was so hard. So hard. Because I had gained real feelings for him. There were about 5 different girls that contacted me saying the same shit happened with them. I couldn't believe it. I was so humiliated. How did this happen to me out of millions of people in the world? I no longer had contact with him. I didn't want anything to do with him. I felt so much more worse because I sent him nudes, he knew my address, he had pictures of my family. What if this guy was a serial killer or a rapist or a kidnapper? How could I be so stupid?! 

   It's been four years since I last heard from him. He recently sent me a message on Facebook saying how sorry he was and that he wanted my forgiveness and possibly a friendship. I had so many unanswered questions for him. So I became interested in him once more. But not for the attraction, for the truth behind everything. To this day I don't know if the person behind his Facebook account is real or if his name is even real. I've learned to never trust anyone over the Internet and find it to be a real good experience. I'm thankful I'm alive today to write this. Who knows what he could've been capable of. I just hope that I can get my message out through to the young girls that might be a target. You never know who you're truly talking to. Don't trust anyone. Even now, I'm still very curious to meet the real guy I fell in love with and maybe one day before I die I get the chance to at least see who he is. But until then, I will go on with my life. 

            -@Ohhh_Ashleeey