My Catfish Story

Introduction

All my life I've been told that everything will be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, it's not the end. My life hasn't been the greatest. I mean, don't get me wrong, in some ways it's been pretty okay. Ever since 2nd grade I've been bullied. I mean it started out as harmless fun. To them. But as we got older there were more threats, more painful slurs, more taunting. I wanted it to all be over but it never was. It never ended. I begged my mom in 8th grade to let me change schools, but as usual, she promised it would get better. So I held out a little longer. In December, I took apart a pencil sharpener and for the first time in my whole life I dragged the razor against my thigh. I was 13. I don't do it so often anymore. But there are definitely some days when I wish I could. In June of 2014, I met someone named Ryan Bendon. He was perfect. He was the nicest guy I'd ever met. He changed everything. And this is our story.

Chapter 1.

On June 9, 2014 I went on Kik to message me friend. We'll say her name is Brenna. She added me to a group kik with a guy under the username "marry me?". I had heard of Ryan before. Brenna talked about watching him on Younow. It's supposed to be this website or app that lets you interact with semi famous people. I had also seen pictures of him from her, and he was really cute. So I was really excited when I found out that HE was the one in our kik group! He was being really flirtatious with me. I didn't known what to do so I private messaged him and he said I was beautiful. He said Brenna had told him so much about me and that from the few minutes we'd known each other, he already knew he loved me. I tried to video chat a few times, but he always had some excuse not to. We texted a few times and he asked me out. I said no.. and he stopped talking to me for about a week. I found out that he had an Ohio area code. He was supposed to be from Arizona. I told Brenna about it, but she convinced me that it was just his app's phone number. I even tried to get a hold of him through Twitter, but nothing happened. Then he messaged me and said "I missed you so much and I never want to lose you". Of course, being only 14 at the time, I believed him. I didn't want to doubt him. I noticed Brenna was acting weird and every time I asked her what was wrong, she brushed it off as nothing and said she was fine. I knew she wasn't. She knew something and wasn't telling me. One night Ryan and I talked a lot about meeting each other face to face when we got older. He made me happy. He made things better. So one day I messaged Ryan. But I knew. I guessed I just hoped I was wrong. Brenna sent me a kik. I remember exactly what it said. "Shilynn, I need to tell you something.... but you're never gonna want to talk to me again." I knew exactly what she was gonna say so I pressed further. Then she said it. Even though I ready knew, I could feel my whole world crash in around me. I felt my heart skip and I lost it. "Shilynn. I'm Ryan.". For the first time, I knew what it felt like to have everything you love taken away from you in one instance. I don't even know how to describe it if you haven't experienced it yourself. So I stopped talking to her for a few days to clear my head. I asked her friend and found out this wasn't the first time she catfished someone. It was actually her third. Brenna, my best friend, the one person I trusted with everything I had. She did that to me. So I did start talking to her. And all is forgiven, giving that I knew the whole time it was her. Actually about a month or so after this happened I decided to get in touch with the REAL Ryan Benson and we're actually really good friends now. So I hope you enjoyed my Catfish story. Thanks for reading (: