Catfish

Soft breaths fell from Penelope’s lips as she made her way across the university campus. The air was cold, but she was beginning to get used to it, even though her cheeks were reddened by the wind.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and believing that it was Liam, she brought it to her ear immediately.

“Good morning,” she said, her voice as cheerful as it always was.

“Penelope.”

The voice on the other end spoke, and the moment it did she realized it wasn’t Liam on the other end. Pulling her phone from her ear, she looked down at the screen, finding that the call was from a US number that she didn’t recognize. She brought it back to her ear and with shaky breaths, she spoke again.

“Yes, who is this?”

“Hi, Penelope, I’m Nev and I’m here with my buddy Max.” He paused and when she didn’t respond, he continued. “We’re friends of Liam.”

Her breath caught in her throat, while her heart went thudding in her chest. Liam had never had any of his friends call her before. In fact, she’d never even spoken to any of them. Her first thoughts were nightmares of something bad having happened to Liam.

“Is he alright?” she asked, her voice shaky. “Is everything okay?”

Nev chuckled, with his heavy breaths hitting the phone. “Of course. He’s perfectly fine.” He paused before speaking again. “We’re actually filming a new television series on MTV called Catfish, where we document online relationships. We’d like to ask you a few questions about you and Liam, if that’s alright.”

Penelope’s breath hitched, her brain racing to wrap itself around what Nev had said. It seemed like a prank at first, possibly something Liam and his buddies had set up to mess with her, but Liam had never done anything like that before, and he wasn’t really the type to set up pranks.

“Me and Liam?” she asked, as she attempted to steady her voice. “But why?”

Nev paused for a moment, saying a few words to Max that she didn’t quite catch. Penelope could only imagine the things they were saying about her, and she was so curious that she almost asked.

“Well, Liam actually contacted us because he’s interested in meeting you. The two of you have been talking for a long time, and he thought it was finally time for him to reach out, so he asked for our help.”

Penelope’s phone nearly dropped from her ear, as she stood frozen on the sidewalk. Her jaw was dropped open, and her hands were shaking like a massage chair, but that was the least of her worries.

In all her time of speaking to Liam, they’d never once talked about meeting. A part of her knew that one day they’d either meet or stop talking, but she didn’t think that they’d be at that crossroad so soon. It seemed impossible to her that the moment had finally come when Liam was putting her on the spot.

Just thought of meeting Liam for the first time was enough to send her heart racing to an attack, so she couldn’t imagine what actually meeting him would be like. Actually seeing him in front of her and matching a face to the voice she’d heard so many times before. Would it be as terrifying as her heart was telling her it would be, or would it be as simple as saying hello to a stranger on the street?

When she realized she’d been pausing for far too long, she gave a shake of her head, pulling her attention back to the phone.

“He wants to meet me?” she asked, still trying to wrap her head around the idea.

“He does,” Nev responded. “We’d like to set up a time to meet you first, and then we can bring the two of you together. The cameras will be there, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. Do you think you can do that?”

“You want to talk to me first?”

“In person, yes.” Nev chuckled. “We’ve just got a few things we’d like to discuss with you, face to face. You’re in London, right?”

Penelope nodded, before responding. “Yes.”

“Does Friday afternoon work for you? And then we can set up the meeting between you and Liam that Saturday.”

“That sounds great.”

“Wonderful,” Nev said, his voice soft and encouraging. “We’ll give you a call when we get into London, then, for a time and place.” He paused, speaking a few quick words to Max. “Thank you, Penelope, and we really look forward to meeting you.”

Penelope gave a quick, “likewise”, before Nev hung up the phone and she was left standing frozen on the sidewalk once again.

Ordinarily, when she got any kind of big news, Liam was the first person she called, but this news was about Liam and she wasn’t quite sure who to tell. She’d very seldom even told people about him, so finding someone to tell their entire story to, and then admit how nervous she was, seemed nearly impossible.

She couldn’t believe that she was going to meet Liam – that Liam wanted to meet her. She was nervousness, excitement, and worry all rolled into one. Not only was she going to meet Liam for the first time – the boy she’d been infatuated with since the moment she spoke to him – she was also going to have to face the truth about their relationship.

The two of them had never spoken anything about their feelings for one another, so Penelope only knew that she adored Liam more than anyone else in the world, and she didn’t know if he felt the same way. And surely, when they met for the first time, among the thousands of things she’d learn about Liam, she’d finally learn how he really felt about her.