CATFISH
Chapter One
"Don't forget to look for the guy with crocs and sandals—"
"That sounds like a nightmare." Rey snorts softly with a polite and glossed smile. Her lips were coated with a beige Nyx matte lip-gloss. Always the more suitable choice compared to Kylie's matte lip kit. Honestly who would pay thirty Euros for that? When she can get one tube for only seven. Maybe twelve for two on Amazon if she managed to snag one of those early deals.
Enough of that. Rey pauses in her tracks with startling thoughts about her situation as she realizes her online American-boy-friend-to-be was waiting for her on the other side of the pond. Was this reality? Or was this a horrible cliché chic-flick disaster waiting to happen?
Awkwardness rings throughout her body as she wonders what would happen once they meet in person. What would he look like? Is he as tall as he said he was? Did he really own an Audi? Was he really the sweet hearted bookworm he said he was? Was his favorite novel really Jane Eyre?
The pictures of "Kylo" caught her attention in an interesting way and boy was he a twenty-year-old something. He was the traditional "Adonis," and something about his pictures made him more attractive the more she stared at them. Was she a weirdo? Probably. But who cares really?
She'll take what wants her.
Rey routinely imagined having a live conversation with this Adonis, leading up to this very day. They never spoke in person, which was strange to say at the very least.
The woman felt timid and would always find an excuse to avoid speaking to him directly no matter how often he suggested it. Maybe she was overtly shy? Maybe she was afraid of being disappointed by the way he sounded?
Who knew?
All they ever did was talk and talk more about their daily adventures. It was more like texting, eye to text and text to eye.
She found herself crinkling her brows when she remembered reading his bio as he said he'd been a discharged officer of the Marine Corps. Loved to rock-climb. Loved cooking. Loved fencing. Who does that anymore?
He probably lied about some things too. Right? Doesn't everyone make little white lies? It seemed a bit over-loaded but she felt she had to match him in some way. So some of the things she said such as: swimming with sharks and spontaneous ziplining might have been a stretch.
In the subtler ways, he seemed like her perfect match. They were both adventurous and held an unfading love for stories of the world. They both loved caffeine in a way. Tea for her and coffee for him. Honestly, she didn't care. She'd been functioning like a machine with a cup of expresso running through her system with all the errands she had to finish before she took this mini vacation.
It'd probably run right through her… and it was a problem for another time.
She couldn't wait to talk about the world with him.
"Kidding. I'm kidding." She could tell the voice was quick to take back that statement. "Just trying to lighten the mood. But you never know what could happen, right?"
"If he ends up dressing like that it'll probably be the end of me. And you." Rey feels the cold glass of her iPhone Four glaze against her earlobe to the under-crook of her jawline, "but I trust you. And I want this to go well."
"Yeah? How do you think I feel?"
Rey takes this moment of silence to look around Heathrow. The airport didn't seem as bland as it appeared on the outside. The glass was cast rectangularly as is the shape of the entirety of the facility, but was decorated with wonderfully crafted lighting and ceilings within. The people inside however, were bustling around and struggling to get to their terminals before their planes flew off without them.
"Finn?" Rey calls for the man behind the other line so that they hadn't been disconnected somehow. She wonders if he's still there.
Frantically he interrupts the lingering silence, "oh God what if he ends up being a serial killer? What if he's a human trafficker? What if he's a rapist—"
"Jesus Christ he's not going to rape me. He's not a drug lord or whatever it is that you said—" Her voice is a mindful whisper, low enough for one even at arm's length to not overhear their conversation.
"Slave trafficking! There's a difference and you've got to know that. "
"Yeah and the chances of that happening? Slim? Possibly zero percent? A negative ten percent?" Her voice raises above the murmuring cluster of people that surround her.
"Rey you can't be naïve about this. You saw it yourself! The bloke lives in America. You hear what they say about 'Merica?" America had a heavily southern accent applied to it to add a sort of degrading emphasis.
"Honestly it all goes well until you worry and then something bad does happen." Rey huffs audibly through the mic and reiterates mentally with an 'I'll be fine'. "You act like I'm jumping into a warzone."
"Rey come on… did you hear about the shootings? The hate crimes? The violent protests? Chicago on top it. You literally picked the murder capital of the world. Can't get more dangerous than that!"
"Where'd you get that fact? Fox News?"
"That's not even our—"
"Look...I'm going to Michigan Ave. Giordano's. I planned for deep-dished pizza with a man I met online and he's paying. You think I'm going to miss that?"
"I don't know. I don't think paying for a six-hundred Euro ticket is worth the trip."
"I thought you said I should live my life on the wild side?" Rey accentuates the last of her sentence in Finn's tone of voice. "Weren't you just rooting me on? I haven't had a man in my life in years. You're killing me. You really are Finn."
"Alright. Alright—I'm not here to kill your vibe. Just your stupidity."
"Finn!" A highly-pitched voice, aghast, snaps back at his sheer audacity.
A gruff male sigh is in line, "you know this anxiety likes to waylay."
"If you're really so worried then why not catch the next flight out of here?" Rey squeezes her neck against a shoulder to prevent it from slipping through the space. "You might as well meet me at the restaurant." Her pea-coat was woolen and did a good job at holding most things in place. Especially an itch. She always had an itch on her back that she couldn't reach.
However, one unfortunate accident led to the marring of her cell. Honestly, her black iPhone could use an upgrade and it already had slim cracks spreading like roots from the top right corner and thankfully it didn't reach the touchscreen yet. It never responded to her finger tips and butt dialed her boss whenever it wanted to cause trouble.
Might as well throw the whole thing out right now!
"You know I've got my dissertation to finish and—"
"Exactly. Stay home and complain about your professors. Sip on your chamomile tea. You've got pages to type. Nights to blow over. You have no time to worry about me, alright?"
"Alright. But Rey," Finn's voice pauses for a second, "please be careful. Potential love isn't worth your safety. It isn't worth your life."
"I'm pretty sure I'll be fine." Rey reassures her fretting best friend. Maybe she's never had self-defense classes. Maybe she's never registered for a hand-gun (mainly because it was illegal here), and maybe she's never owned pepper spray (also illegal). But at least she lifts? Going to the gym five days a week counts for something. Right?
"Pretty sure doesn't guarantee anything!"
I stirred the sleeping dragon. Mother dragon.
She couldn't help but gesture the irritation to the back of her head.
"I know you're rolling your eyes." Finn's elevated voice drums against her ear, "first thing you do after you meet the guy is call me. Call me the moment you know something's wrong. At least text me you're alright."
"Ahuh." An absentminded voice crawls through but barely reaches the other side. Rey increases her pace the moment her eyes catch the terminal on the flight display system.
HEATHROW AIRPORT
It was a gigantic electronic display of flights to places that varied from Shanghai to Berlin. Her eyes follow the rows of cities until she saw the one that matched her ticket.
OHARE-CHICAGO. Her hazelnut-green orbs follow the row of letters.
FLIGHT FN2187 | TIME 16:00 | CHECK IN OPEN | GATE B12 | ON TIME
Rey glances over at her wrist and her golden Fossil watch ticks at just about three-thirty in the afternoon.
"My flight's boarding in half an hour Finn!" Rey bursts through the cell's mic, which probably made whoever it was on the other line wince.
"Get a move on!" Finn commands as if he is right there beside her. "Be safe!"
"Got it mom."
"You know your mother is always worried about you." Jokingly the voice finishes off.
She adjusts her cell between one ear and shoulder, the opposite purse strap on the other, and pulls out the trapped strands of hair from underneath all in one go. "See you?"
"See ya' girlie." Finn's slightly automated voice blends in with the rest of the crowd of travelers, and as she ended her call, she stuffs her cell into her traveler's purse with a passport in hand.
Rey is amidst a swarm of someone's and all she sees are strangers.
They all have their own untold stories.
They all have their own experiences.
Their own feelings and emotions unique to every individual.
She yet had to add life to the boring story that Rey was.
Not sure if I should continue with this idea. Is this story far out there? Boring? You be the judge *bites nails*