NARCISSIST (BASED ON A TRUE STORY)

Chapter 1

February

"Adeline-" Keisha's voice trails off as she's laughing, laughing at me. Keisha and I met our first year in college, she was a Sophomore when I was a freshman and we had two classes together, our friendship was a fast one but she was always there when I needed her and we hung out often, we made fun of people together and the companionship this semester was what I needed after the girls in the dorms dropped me and stopped talking to me out nowhere. It's no coincidence I needed a close friend whilst my best friend, Hazel was back at home, nearly an hour away. Tonight, we were scrolling through my tinder, figuring out which guys were cute or not, just for the fun of it. I kept scrolling and Keisha gave me judgmental looks, since we had different types. Whoever I found cute, she did not. When she found someone cute, I did not. It was a pattern but it was a fun one at that. When Keisha left my dorm after we had done dinner, I kept scrolling on bumble, it had been a few months since I've been on the app but I wanted to try to see if something, someone was out there for me. The last time I tried I had a guy block me and the other time, well the guy just wanted me to show my breasts on the call as he kept pressuring me to put the camera lower to see them or even to admire them for a mere second, I cut my losses and blocked him anyhow. I kept looking on bumble and I saw a message to this guy from like 2 months ago and decided to reach out, in case he was still on or had interest at heart. Nikolai, was his name. His pictures were bad but he seemed like a genuine person, he had his guitar in his main picture, the next one consisted of sunglasses, a trustworthy face at that. He had an iced coffee drink in the other one, a picture with his friends, and a mirror picture at the bottom. Like I said, not the best photographer but seemed friendly enough to engage with. He even had "Pro: I'm hella sweet" in one of his bios under the pictures. I was studying in my dorm when I had got a text back.

November 3rd, 2022

Adeline: Hi

Nikolai: Hey how's it going?

February 11, 2023

Adeline: Lord I'm late af to this

Nikolai: Lmaoo

Nikolai: U good dude

Nikolai: At least u responded lol

February 12, 2023

Adeline: lmaooo real

Nikolai: U got any pets?

Adeline: yes/2

February 14, 2023

Nikolai: I got a white poodle toy

Adeline: A toy???

Nikolai: Yeah it's the name of the tiny poodles

Adeline: Awwww

Nikolai: She's real sweet

February 16, 2023

Nikolai: But u seem sweeter lol

I didn't know it then but our conversations were so easy with one another, from there we talked about Puss in Boots, how good the movie was, the scream movies, our humor, our lives and it just all aligned. I was beginning to like this guy. I told him my hobbies about video editing, my dogs, my family, etc. The next day we FaceTimed from 2 A.M. to like 10 A.M. and talked about everything, we even did a fucking BDSM test with each other. It felt right, it felt normal. He asked me on a date that day and we planned it for the following Thursday, February 23. Over the course of the days, we called, texted, FaceTimed and I learned more about him each day. He was coming up to the college Thursday to take me out because I still shared a car with my mom and he lived 2 hours from my college. Until the night before, questioned my judgement on his character. We had FaceTimed that evening per usual. "So what's your favorite physical thing about my body?" I said, standing up. Nikolai replies, "Well I-I would have to say your boobs". The call grew silent. "Really that's all you have to say physically? Not my eyes or anything" I started to tear and he grew silent so I said, "I'm just going to go." and hung up. It upset me because every guy used me for the same thing, I was used to body comment because believe me that's how the world work but with him? I just thought he was different.