About a year ago, I realized that was I extremely lonely. Why I hadn't realized sooner? I have no idea, even though all the facts were right in front of me, telling me why I was like this. I told myself that I need to put myself out there. I kept telling myself this for two weeks, and I finally got off my ass and decided to try online dating.
I logged onto a website (of which I can no longer find on the internet, so it shall remain nameless) and took a deep breath. I created an account. Nothing weird or abnormal occurred, except that every time I looked away from the website's glistening gold logo, it looked like it flashed a different color for only a split second. I tried to catch it "in the act" several times and was unsuccessful. I gave up trying this and put my final "bits" of information into the website, including a profile picture, my email confirmation code, and so on. I began searching for women in my area. Surprisingly, I found 17 women, who weren't much older than I was, in a 1-3 mile radius.
"Damn," I said to myself.
I was about to say something else when a notification came up from a woman named... let's call her "Abby". Abby and I began chatting, exchanging words like "Nice profile picture", thank-you's and hello's and many other words were being thrown around. I noticed that she was almost within walking distance of my apartment, living about 6 blocks down. I was going to ask if she wanted to do something later that day but she took the words right out of my mouth.
I replied with, "Sure! How's 7 PM for you?"
She said, "Anytime is fine, actually."
"Ok, well see you then :D."
"Bye :)"
She left the chat. I started getting ready for what I thought might've been the biggest night of my entire life. As I was applying deodorant, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't told her my address. The worst part was, it was 6:58 PM.
"Shit! I gotta tell her where I-"
I was cut off by a knock at the door. I had no idea what I was about to get into. I walked towards the door and opened it, thinking that I had received a package or something. But this was no package. Maybe a package from hell? I'll just say it. Abby was standing outside my door.
She said, "Hello, Ray."
I wanted to ask how she was there but I politely replied, "Hi."
"You wanna go to that fancy place down the street?" she said.
I was a bit nervous and reluctant to respond. But I thought for a second and said, "Sure."
We walked out of my apartment and I locked the door. The fact that she had somehow found my apartment no longer concerned me as it did before, what was important was that she was here and I wasn't lonely anymore. We walked to the restaurant. We stayed and talked for about 2 1/2 hours. We ate excellent food and were treated fairly. She wanted to come back to my apartment, and of course we all know what that means. I said "Sure, it's up to you". We ran back to my apartment and that was the official best night of my life. I awoke the next morning with her in my bed.
She greeted me with a, "Good morning, honey."
I replied with, "Good morning."
She told me that she had to go, that her brother was coming from Kentucky that afternoon. We got dressed and I said goodbye to her as I walked her to the door. I watched as she crossed the street (this was about a minute or 2 later). She was just walking off the sidewalk, when a car hit her.
I ran down to the street to see if I could "clear her off the streets". Thank god it was a red light. I ran to where she was but she wasn't there. Her body, there was no trace of her. I swore to myself as I walked back into my apartment and started up my computer. I wanted to delete my account on that website so bad, I logged on and noticed the "color-changing logo" stayed the color it looked when I looked away. I had one message/notification. It was from Abby.
"Hi Honey, last night was amazing :)"
I didn't respond. I just deleted my account. I was so done at that moment.
"Never again," I said to myself, "Never."