To All the Ones I’ve Swiped Right Before, Episode 1: The First Match

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The first online dating website I ever explored was Omegle.

My friend kept telling me that her friends would usually lurk there to meet cute guys (take note, they were senior high school students at the time). So, I got curious how it was even possible to meet random people there with a hundred percent anonymity and without certain assurance who you are going to connect with.

To start with, I basically connected with a lot of people, from different genders to different nationalities. Until I connected with a guy named Gelo (most probably not his real name). Technically, he wasn’t my first match there, but he was the first one I talked to longer than a minute and exchanged numbers with.

I don’t remember much about him but I think he was a 6-footer whose job had something to do with aeronautics and someone looking for a cute girl to “hang out” with (he probably implied himself to be handsome on this one with the way he described himself to have braces and fair complexion).

Anyway, it was summer, my friends and I were at the attic at the time (char, yes, we have an attic in our small home and now it’s just for storage) where we used to have our sleepovers with. To cut it short, we explored Omegle in broad daylight out of boredom and connected with Gelo. We actually took turns replying to him. He spoke Tagalog and English so we had to work our brains out on how to reply, trying to be witty until he asked for a number, my number technically.

Probably how we looked like while taking turns
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I didn’t know what came into my mind but I blurted I was gonna refer him to a “friend” (I lied of course even if someone came to mind). But he wanted to take a chance with me rather (char long hair). I still ended up giving him my number, as we still took turns texting him.

He wanted to have coffee with me and all that jazz. I knew then that wasn’t what he was after, I don’t remember it correctly but I think he mentioned something about looking for someone to make out with. I really didn’t know that much about online hookups and all but it was really weird and I felt so innocent just talking to some anonymous guy online. My friends pushed me to meet him. I was close to giving in lol.

The next day, I texted him and lied again that my “friend” wasn’t interested. And so, he told me he wanted to take me out for coffee. Oh, what flattery. But I was reminded of his preferences and that he liked pretty girls. I knew by then that he was the type of guy who was after physical attraction, thus the make out part. Although I was pretty sure I wasn’t the level of pretty he was going after, but I didn’t wanna go out either. It wasn’t worth the travel since his current workplace at that time wasn’t that accessible by commute, I didn’t wanna waste money either, and I was too damn scared I might get lost going there, worse: kidnapped.

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So, I tested how far he’d go in a conversation with me and when I said no about meeting him, he just ghosted me then and there. If I were him, I’d do the same thing though. The first match I remembered wasn’t as interesting as you might’ve expected it to be, but that wasn’t the first awkward encounter I had. Meet-ups really felt foreign until now, and I dunno maybe I’m just paranoid but I can’t tell how much paranoia had helped me so much in the many years that I have spent in exploring online dating apps, which I’ll be telling you in the other episodes I’m writing.  

I felt the flatter to be honest hahaha but that’s all there was to it. I don’t have his number anymore but I know that meet-up wasn’t meant to be, as it is with my other encounters.

Thank you for reading up to this part, this episode took long enough to be written and I hope you look forward with me to the next one.

 

Writer,

Thin Girl