"So he isn't the other type?" Mia asked through a text message after she saw my messages with crazykid. By the 'other type', she was referring to guys like Phil who fall for every girl they meet online. But I knew by now that crazykid was obviously far from that; I don't really trust him yet, but I trust my own gut feelings that he's a decent guy compared to other online jerks. 

I replied, "Yeah, he isn't. He seemed to dislike my fake cousin for asking him such a question, and he even told her to get lost."

Mia: Not surprised XD

Me: Anyways, what's up?

Mia: Chatting( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Me: Wow. No shit Sherlock.

Mia: Then why'd you ask me, 'Sherlock'?

Me: I was just testing to see if you had brains.

Mia: And the test results?

Me: Brain not found.

Mia: Whatever -_-

Me: Thank you, I know I am awesome.

Mia: - _ -

With a laugh, we ended the chat with some random emojis. Then, taking Instagram, I switched to my main account from my puppy's account and saw one message from crazykid again. Again? I thought he might actually be holding a little grudge against me, since after all, it's supposedly my cousin who had messaged him asking him about me and she had been insinuating that he might've a crush on me because of his chats. But it seems like he doesn't care that it's my cousin and would keep chatting. Well, honestly, I appreciate him for that; that's how a person with no bad intentions should be. If I were in his place and someone asked me the same thing, I'd tell them to get lost and continue my chats with absolutely no awkwardness because I know what I'm doing and that I haven't got any intentions. On the other hand, if I really had some evil intentions in mind, I'd bring that up in our chat every now and then and hesitate to chat with them anymore.

(We're not native English-speakers)

After one final laughing emoji from my side, the next thing crazykid asked me was what I was doing, just like always.

'I'm watching TV. But after some time, I'll go outside to walk my puppy.'

'Ohh'

'Yeah'

'Mm
*upside down smiling emoji*'

'*Random emojis*'

Seems like his craziness is contagious and now it's catching up to me too. I'm using completely irrelevant and useless emojis here and there, even while chatting with my friends. I really am mirroring his texts a lot, especially his legendary 'lol'. Being a person who talked a lot, I rarely used the internet shortforms of words though I knew all of them well. But here I was, using 'lol' and 'lmao' every now and then.

'Lol'

What the hell is wrong with both of us? I'm wondering why I became so awkward suddenly. Maybe it's the after-effect of the prank I did, and its guilt. But I shouldn't expose myself; craykid already hates my 'cousin' so much, he'd be furious if he gets to know that it was me. And why did I care so much? I don't have a single clue. Maybe I really did start to trust him. I didn't want him to know the truth. 

'Which is your favourite place in India?'

Now that was a question no one ever has asked me before, not even my family members or friends. Not that I didn't like that they never asked me that, it's just that no one usually asked such questions and it was a pretty rare question compared to 'What are you doing' and 'How are you'. I mean, what use is it knowing my favourite place anyway? He's not going to bring me there, even if I have one. Even then, it felt good to have someone ask me that question. The usual 'how are you's' and stuff really bored me out sometimes and that question lost its value when people started using it without any genuineness to it. But this question, a unique one, spiked interest in our chat again. It somehow gave me a satisfaction that he wanted to know more about me, about my favourites.

'Well...uh... My own place *laughing emoji*'

Okay, dumb. Wait, but don't you really have a favourite place, Rose? Australia, Switzerland, any of those? Years ago, Australia used to be my favourite, but once I heard about the large spiders there, I stopped thinking of ever going there. Well, that's what arachnophobia does to you. Even a creepy horror movie or heights or even a snake doesn't scare me much, but a spider? I'm out of there. Especially large, hairy ones. Once I saw such a large spider in my toilet and didn't use it for one whole year. I used my parents' toilet instead. Only when I was completely sure that it had gone, did I dare to step back into my own toilet. Another time, in forth grade, this hairy brown spider entered our class and I screamed and ran out of the class. This tall guy named Antrix had casually taken the spider with a piece of paper and put it outside while others watched in admiration. I cringed at it but thanked him. However, he and our friend Alan always made it a point to tease me about that, even till now in eighth grade.

Another favourite of mine, is Switzerland, since I've heard that it's a snowy place. But that had also faded over time. So what else do I tell this guy? I can always just lie and say some random place that comes in my head, but that would make the chat less interesting and less genuine. I had to remember some place I liked.

'Outside *my place*'

Uh-oh, knew it. 

But hey, I think I remember. The only places I have visited outside my state is Bangalore, Chennai and Malaysia. Out of these, I did like the Malaysian trip the best, but I preferred to tell some place inside India. 

'Bangalore *grinning emoji*
Yours?'

'Goa *angelic face emoji*'

Hm, good choice. The place of beaches. I do like it too - though not a favourite, again. But to keep the chat going and to show my interest, I pretended that it's also one of my favourites.

'Goa is my second favourite *smiling emoji*'

"Lol. It's a nice place than Bangalore."

I was sort of taken aback by that. The crazykid until this one text had been very nice and better than ever before. What suddenly changed? Okay, Goa isn't my favourite, but he doesn't have to say that just because Goa has more fans and popularity. Every place has its own uniqueness and Bangalore has its own attractions, just like the other. But anyway, I figured that making a big deal out of such a stupid thing was silly. I also figured that this was crazykid's usual self, his sarcastic and sometimes rude self. I'd ignore those most of the times but if he ever dares to underestimate me or bring me down in anyway, I'd really explode. 

'Maybe but I've not went there.
But I've went to Bangalore so...'

I was rolling my eyes as I wrote this. When will crazykid realise that not everyone has the same taste as him and that some people do like some places over the other popular ones? Idiot. 

'Lol
I only go there.
Full of beach, bar and pub.'

RED ALERT, ROSE!

I, as fast as light, exited the chat and tapped on his profile, beginning my stalking session yet again. Fortunately, I finally found his pictures unlike the first time we met, when his pictures had been deleted; he'd re-uploaded them now. What I found weird is that he was not an adult, he was a kid, and he was already was going to pubs and bars. I've read somewhere that pubs are mostly meant for adults and not for underaged people. In his pictures, he looked about my age or maybe a year or two older. But you've got to be cautious; it could always be a fake account, or someone who looks 13 but is 18 or above. That's when I felt the need to ask him his real age, if it was under 16. Since I was 13 and I found it comfortable only to chat to people at most two years older or younger than me, I needed to ask. Besides, even if he was allowed to go, the way he told 'Full of beach, bar and pub' made me feel a little... uncomfortable. As if he was going to bars and pubs all the time. Beach is fine, everyone loves them, but pubs and bars, I hated people who were drunk all the time. I considered them equivalent to violent, angry criminals who did stuff to others.

'Cool
Wait, you're allowed to go to pubs? But you're too young right?'

Yes, exactly, play it as smooth as that, Rose. Always pretend to be oblivious even though you already know the obvious. That's how you trick online tricksters and catfishers into telling you the truth themselves. 

'But I go with my cousin.'

I squinted my eyes suspiciously, though he obviously couldn't see that. Could that be true? It's possible, but it could be false too. How do I find a way to find his real identity, age and name? Ugh! Maybe this guy is smart enough to understand that I felt suspicious although my reply expressed only curiosity and not suspicion. 

'Oh OK.'

Don't think I believed you entirely, crazykid. I'm not dumb, just doubtful, but my heart tells me to believe you for now and so does my brain. 

'What about you'

Ha, me? Drinking and smoking? Never! Maybe I might enter a pub when I'm older just for partying, but no alcohol or smoking. I hate that shit as much as I hate unicorns. The only thing I like that's at least near to alcohol, is coke. People who drank everyday were disgusting to me. I avoided them as much as possible.

'We have never went to Goa *disappointed face*'

I'm far from being disappointed, but just for the sake of the chat, I pretended to be so.

'Nor any pubs.'

Glad for that, actually. Who cares, anyways? I party enough and more at school, at my house and with friends. Pubs and bars at Goa honestly don't feel anymore special to me than a great party at a nearby restaurant with my family and friends does. I'm fine with wherever I am going to party as long as my friends are present.

'In kochi there is pub.'

...Okay, and?

'Hmm but I've not went there.'

Not planning to, either.

'Ohh'

'Yeah.'

I posted this reply only by about 11 in the morning. That wasn't because I was sleeping till then, I was just busy with Sunday chores. But on Saturdays and other holidays, I sleep till 11 and sometimes even noon. What else do I do? I've to wake up on every other day at six or at least half past six in the morning since the online classes start by seven. The only two or three days I get to sleep well are on Saturdays and other holidays. Sometimes, classes are kept even on Saturdays, so the only day left in that week is Sunday, which gets interrupted by the house chores. 

'You wake up only now *cat laughing emoji*'

Wow, bold of him to assume that I was sleeping just because I replied to him only after some time. I'm not always jobless and scrolling on the phone like you are. What an idiot! His behavior was really confusing. I didn't like anyone disrespecting my choice or worse, assuming stuff about me when actually I was just busy. Besides, he has woken up at times much later than mine and told about that to me, but I have never laughed at that because I do the same thing, and it's not so funny either. At least, not to me. People our age and older have a lot of work so we deserve some rest. Besides, people have various reasons for sleeping in late; why would I want to put my nose into such silly issues? This guy was turning annoying. He laughed for no reason at all.

'Nooo
I finished all my work only now.'

Because, unlike you, I'm not jobless - or in this case, 'school-less'. 

'Ohhh.'

'Yep.'

Soon enough, the chat was turning slightly boring again, just like yesterday when he started talking about pubs instead of his rapid fire questions. I wondered why this guy seemed so different at different times of the day. Could it be that he's bipolar? Or maybe because two people might be using the phone and maybe they're brothers and the better guy is the younger brother who looks about my age while the older brother might be the one who told me that he goes to pubs, and acts dumb sometimes? Possible, I guess. It's the internet, after all, where everything is a mystery.

Should I 'investigate' again? And you know what that means.

'M.'

'OK.'

'See you later.'

If you're the better guy who's speaking, then okay, see you later. If you're the other one, fuck you, I hope to never see you again. But since it's the latter who'd spoken to me until now, I decided to end the chat with a very formal 'OK bye' instead of my usual sweet 'byee's with an emoji city and a like, because that's my way of showing that I'm a bit angry even though only very close friends of mine understand this small gesture.

But yet again, he was back on the next day with another 'Good morning' message, probably having forgotten yesterday's entire chat in his possible-drunken state - or, on the bright side, this is the other guy who's messaging me now, the nicer guy who doesn't use cat emojis every second and uses his legendary 'lol's instead. I replied, wondering that if this was indeed the other guy, he would scroll back through the texts and find out that his brother or whoever the cat-emoji guy is had been chatting with me while he was away. Would he tell me that? I hoped he did. I hope this was the original guy who's nice to talk to, not the drunk annoyer. 

'Good mrng'

'Oh hey good morning'

'Haa
Had fud?'

This guy cares so much about whether I've eaten food or not, huh? 

'Yes
Did u?'

It was obvious from my chats that I was being a bit different than usual, a bit more emotionless and less of an emoji city.

However, the lolguy on the other hand didn't seem to care about yesterday's chats or why I wasn't being an emoji city today. Maybe he hasn't fully observed me yet. Whatever. Very few people observe me closely anyways. People who know me well while chatting, like Mia and Riley, would know that something's clearly up when I reply a serious emoji-less 'yes' instead of my typical 'ya' or 'yeah' or 'yup', the last one being my most happy mood.

'Yaa
Waspp'

Seems like it might be the original guy itself...hopefully.

'Nothing much
Watching TV'

'Ohh'

'Yeah wbu'

'Watch reels'

Similar to how I'm always watching TV whenever he asks me that, he's always watching reels whenever I ask what he's doing. A TV addict and an Instagram addict, what a coincidence.

'Oh OK'

'Whh'

What?

'*grinning emoji*'

This is my new technique. Use stupid grinning faces whenever he says something weird or undecipherable. Which is, half of the chat.

'*wine emoji*'

Weirdo. Why does he put completely irrelevant emojis sometimes?

Then it struck me. Yesterday's chat! Did he suddenly remember it or something, thus the wine emoji? I mean, sure, it could be just a coincidence, but why at such a time? Or could it be because he just had a drink or something and was referring to that? Geez, I'm such an overthinker!

But I still needed to ask.

'?
What's that
I mean the emoji'

'Nothing'

I almost scowled at him. Nothing? Sure thing, dude. I'm not blind, you see. And I clearly remember every single chat of yesterday's.

'Oh k'

'Idk'

Oh, poor thing, you drink a lot yet you don't know what a wine emoji is. Or why you messaged me that for no reason at all.

'*sweating emoji*
Lol OK'

Yet again, I'm not satisfied by his response. Another thing to 'investigate' about.

'Bye'

I was kind of annoyed and dubious at this point. I really needed some time away from him to go through his pictures, bio, and his tags again before deciding to continue our chat. I know it's stalkative, but I preferred stalking someone to make sure of who they are rather than being oblivious to their intentions or blocking them.

'Search on Google.'

And can you tell me... Why should I? Of course I didn't, though I told him that I did.

'Tall glass.
For drink beer'

Ugh, there he is, bringing back that stupid topic yet again. It was better when he used 'lol' every now and then and asked rapid fire questions. I didn't like this 'pub-going' lolguy, I liked the crazy lolguy who asked random questions.

'Mm
Do u drunk.'

Wow, 'do u drunk', what a great grammar! And you damn jerk, don't you know very well that I'm underaged? Besides, I hate people who drink regularly, and I don't really prefer even when people drink otherwise.

'Sometime'

By sometime, if he means weekly or daily, then that's not really healthy for him and he's gonna end up in trouble. But if he means just once in a month or less, then it's quite okay, though not such a good thing to do.

So it was 15 indeed. Good for him.

His name was told as Nick, and that was even better.

Why it's better? Because literally everyone of my guy friends and other guys I chatted with online had a name starting with 'A'. A, A, everywhere, and the main thing is, I've some kind of a connection with this 'A' people.

This may sound a little stupid to everyone, but all my guy friends from both my old school and new school have names that start with the letter 'A'. The bigger thing is that they're all so nice and gentleman-ish unlike most other teen guys in my class, and I can't even figure out why the heck it's like that. So, I didn't want this guy to have a name starting with 'A' as well, because if then, I don't know... It just seems kinda weird to have all guy friends with the letter 'A', and for them to be so nice and friendly.

Basically, I wanted a guy whose name started with any letter other than 'A' to be another guy friend with a friendly behavior, in my life.

And of course, you all know my name - Rose.

I'm serious, I hate drinking and people who drink regularly. It's the worst.
And somehow, Nick seemed a bit different than yesterday. Always putting the laughing cat emoji which annoys me like anything, plus chatting about drinking and stuff when it's evident from my replies that I'm not interested in it.

When I searched in Google, it showed that the cat emoji is used to show hilarity, when someone finds something extremely funny, even stupidly so, but some people use it to express relief and exaggerated happiness as well. However, it just made me feel annoyed. I mean, just look at that cunning little cat laughing at me evilly!

Drinking is not a remedy for stress at all. If he thinks that, he's surely a bit stupid.
We can never defend men who drink and abuse their family members, do crimes against the innocent, or even celebrities who drink and have a completely different demaneour when they're drunk. Even women can turn out to be really really bad during a drunk state sometimes, not only men.

It's the worst habit ever. If they drink just rarely, like once in a long while, it's alright, but everyday or every week... Never. But whatever, I didn't care. His choice, if he wants to be an addicted and broke fellow, or a good, hard working guy who can live in peace.

After this, he said bye and left. It was a stupid conversation this time, and it felt different than yesterday. He talked a bit more sensibly and didn't use that cat emoji a lot yesterday, while today he did and was annoying me all throughout. I suddenly felt like today's chat didn't really satisfy me and make me feel less bored like it usually did.

Nick also said Goa is a better place than Bangalore, I agree, but it's my wish, after all. And yeah, even the drinking thing.
He was fully wrong about that.

I was yet to know the real reason why it felt different than yesterday.

How couldn't it be different when it wasn't even the same person?

How couldn't it be different when it was a completely different guy talking to me today, and not the real guy who declared me as his friend and owned this account?

How couldn't it be when it wasn't the real lolguy?