BBS Oneshots

Catfish (Brohm)

'So, Katie, I was thinking about meeting up sometime..' Ryan read the message from the screen, sadness going through him as he did so.

He would have to tell Bryce another lie. He hated lying. He hated this fake account.

He was tired of it, really.

Bryce was so sweet and innocent. He didn't deserve all of this.

He didn't deserve the manipulation Ryan was supplying him with.

For months, Bryce had shown "Katie" nothing but kindness. Not once asking for pictures or a phone call.

And yet here Ryan was, lying through his teeth to keep this little game going.

But he didn't want to play this game anymore.

Ryan had a thought.

He could tell Bryce the truth. End things now before they got progressively worse.

Yes, that was the best thing to do.

Ryan swallowed the lump in his throat, his fingers on the keys, thinking of what to say.

The words came to him effortlessly. It's not like he hadn't thought about it before.

'Bryce, I need to tell you something...' He typed into the chat, biting his lip, waiting for the response he knew would come.

He always responded.

'What's up?:)'

Ryan sighed, his fingers typing away, wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible.

'I know you're probably gonna hate me after this, but I want you to know that I really did enjoy talking to you for all this time.'

'Katie, what are you talking about?'

Ryan groaned inwardly, running a hand across his face, trying to find the words as best he could.

'I'm not Katie. I've never been Katie.'

'What??'

'Bryce, I'm a catfish. I'm not even a girl. I'm sorry...'

Ryan sighed, setting his head against the table and getting ready to close his laptop. He wasn't expecting a message back from Bryce. How could he? He was expecting to be blocked.

He stayed there for a few minutes, listening to his breathing and gaining up the courage to try to shut off the device.

A notification beep and he flinched.

A response and he nearly fell out of his chair.

'I still wanna meet you.'

That's when he knew. That's when Ryan knew he had fallen in like with Bryce McQuaid.

Fast forward to a month later, and here he was, setting up the final details with Bryce.

Bryce was in Chicago for the week, and had agreed to meet up at a coffeehouse with Ryan.

This was supposed to be happening today, in an hour or so. Ryan was just giving Bryce the address of the place.

"Okay, so it's 1462 North Milwaukee Ave."