"Are you reading those emails again?"
Olivia turned around and a paper ball hit her in the face. Jake was so immature.
"I still wonder about the mystery guy."
"You had an email pal for four years, and you never got his name. Maybe you're both wierdos."
"We only talked about school. I know that he was really into old school music. Like 90's bands. He also had dial up internet. He was so retro."
"Yeah, he's a wierdo." Jake said.
"He talked about chat rooms. My sister said those were popular when she was in high school."
"He was probably an old man. Who uses chat rooms? Was he talking about forums?"
"I like old school stuff. He talked about getting a new CD player in one of his emails. He even said that he was getting a DVD player because his VCR was really old."
Jake laughed, "Where is this guy from?"
"He said New York City, but he didn't know some common stuff. I told him I was thinking about becoming a youtuber, and he didn't know what YouTube is."
"I hope you don't try to find that guy."
"What if I do look for him?"
"You haven't emailed him since high school. He probably won't talk to you."
Olivia sent a quick email saying hi. The guy usually took a few hours to respond.
"You need a real boyfriend Olivia."
Jake grabbed his backpack. It was time for his next class. He hoped the guy didn't reply to her email. He didn't need the additional worry that would come with a reply from an internet wierdo. He cared about Olivia.
XXXX
Fitz looked through the old emails he hadn't read since high school. He still thought about the person he talked with until he graduated high school. She was the reason he decided to study computer science and become a college professor. He wanted to learn everything about computers. His teachers couldn't explain why the emails had time stamps that were several years in the future. He was still looking for an explanation. He scrolled through the long list of messages and paused when he noticed a new message. The time stamp was from today. The message simply said, Hi. She was emailing him after all these years without a conversation? He didn't have anything clever to say. He decided to give himself a few hours to respond.