The next morning when Kate woke up, blinking her eyes, she realized her room was empty. Looking around, the bag that Amanda had brought was gone. Confused, and a little concerned, Kate looked in the bathroom. Empty. Walking back into the main area, the bedroom, Kate noticed a folded piece of notebook paper on top of her laptop with her name scrawled on it. Walking over and picking it up, Kate saw that it was from Amanda. For such a pretty girl, she had terrible penmanship.

‘Sorry to leave so early. Had a few things I needed to get done. Didn’t want to wake you up. Call or text me later. xoxo Amanda’

“Well, that was odd.” Kate said, sitting in her desk chair. Looking at her computer, she flipped it open and turned it on. “Let’s see what ol’ Pete has to say this morning.”

Logging into her account, Kate only had one notification. Pete had wrote on her ‘wall.’ With a slight bit of hesitance, Kate clicked on the notification that redirected Kate to her profile.

‘Hope your slumber party was fun. I bet it was. Hope you enjoyed the pizza.’

Kate considered not replying, but then just typed in a simple ‘Thanks. It was.’ This guy was giving Kate creepier feeling by the minute now. He seemed to comment about everything she said and done.

Getting up to go to the bathroom, Kate left her laptop on her Facebook homepage screen. While out of the room, she heard the infamous Ding!

“Let it be someone else.” Kate said, walking out of the bathroom. But it was Pete. More reliable than Old Faithful.

‘I hope you have a good day today.’ Kate read in the instant messaging box.

‘Thx’ was her quick reply. She hovered over her desk, waiting to see if, and what, he would say back. After a few seconds:

‘Are we not being very talkative this morning?’

‘Tired.’ Kate punched in.

‘Ahh. I see. You should’ve went to bed sooner. They call it ‘beauty sleep’ for a reason. Although, you don’t need any, in my opinion.’ Kate was becoming highly irritated.

‘Just how do you “know” me, really?’ she typed quickly.

‘I told you. I was in the tour. You must not remember me. I’m easily overlooked.’

‘I don’t think you were there at all.’ Kate answered him.

‘Why not?’

‘I just don’t.’ Kate’s anger was building up, but for what reason? He hadn’t actually done anything to her. Commented on a few pictures. Posted a few things on her wall. Instant messaged her. Every. Single. Time. She. Was. On.

‘What’s wrong?’ came his next message, a few seconds later. And then another. ‘I tried to meet you, but you were, and always are, busy with something.’ Well, that was true. Then Kate had an idea.

‘I’ll meet you for lunch. At the diner. Mel’s. At noon.’ His response was quick.

‘Deal. Don’t be late.’ And then his name went gray and the message popped up that he was now offline.

Dang. What had Kate gotten herself into? She hoped her ‘plan’ worked.

****

A couple hours later, after a hot shower and trying to think out her ‘plan’ the best she could, Kate left her room and made her way down to Mel’s. Glancing at her watch, Kate saw that it was 12:14pm. She was being intentionally late, and planned on sneaking quietly, and hopefully unnoticed, into the diner. Walking past the large front window that had ‘Mel’s’ painted across it in large, red cursive letters, Kate stopped and scanned the diner. It was a busy Sunday lunch rush, as she had hoped for. Lots of people. Then, towards the back of the diner, was Pete. His back was facing the window. But as sure as Kate knew what one plus one was, there he sat. Taking a couple steps backwards, Kate saw he had his hands wrapped around a coffee cup, looking down into it. No one else was at the table, but another set of silverware and a menu lay on the table across from him, Kate noticed, slightly squinting her eyes to get a better look through the sun’s glare on the window.

Reaching the door, Kate pulled it open and quietly slipped inside. A hostess came to seat her, but Kate held up her hand and told her she was meeting someone that was already here and seated. Nodding, the hostess walked away. Walking past the hostess stand, and towards the bathrooms, Kate got a better look at Pete.

Yes, it was definitely him. Unruly curly blonde hair, same build as in the picture, and then Kate noted the thin, green-rimmed glasses slowly sliding down his nose that he pushed back up every so often. Taking a deep breath, Kate gathered every bit of courage she had and started walking towards his table.

“Pete.” she said, just a few feet away from him. He looked up at the sound of Kate’s voice, and when he turned around, their eyes met. “Uh, look, Pete. I’m glad you met me here, but I can’t stay. I just wanted to tell you--”

Cutting her off mid-sentence, Pete said, “Um, I’m sorry. You must have me mistaken for someone else. My name isn’t ‘Pete.” He looked at her with a look of slight confusion, then added, “My name is Zack. Zack Bingham, specifically.”

Kate’s whole speech she had planned out was caught in her throat. “What? Are you sure? I mean, it’s just that--well, I have a ‘friend’ on Facebook, and you’re him. Well, your picture, anyways.” Kate fumbled through her words, completely caught off guard. As if proving her point, she added, “You look just like now in it. But with a yellow shirt on.”

Laughing, this ‘Pete,’ or Zack said, “Oh, man. That’s my driver’s license picture. And boy, is it terrible! Look here, I’ll show you.” Kate sat herself in the bench seat across from Zack as he reached in his back pocket and pulled out a brown tattered wallet. Opening it and pulling out a small plastic card, he handed it to her. Sure enough. Zackary M. Bingham. His address, birth date, and everything was listed. And there he was, in that horrid yellow shirt, same exact facial expression as on the Facebook picture.

Handing the driver’s license back to him, Kate said, “Oh. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

“It’s okay. It’s really no problem, but---” Zack was cut off as Kate fled from the busy diner and down the sidewalk.

****

Back in her dorm room, Kate was trying her best to slow her racing heart beat and calm her breathing. Her wild eyes danced around her room. Getting up and going into the bathroom, Kate splashed cold water on her face. Back in her bedroom, Kate’s thought process was starting to clear up. Sitting on the foot of her bed, Kate took a few deep breaths, and decided what she had to do was really simple. She would just ‘unfriend’ this so-called ‘Pete’ person. Then all this craziness would stop. Feeling better, Kate sat down at the desk in front of her laptop and flipped it open. Quickly navigating herself to ’Pete’s’ profile, Kate was one second away from clicking ‘unfriend’ when she heard:

Ding!

Kate’s heart sank and her stomach did a small flip as she lowered her eyes to the instant messaging box at the bottom. Kate had to read the name twice before it registered. It wasn’t ‘Pete,’ it was Megan. Thank goodness.

‘What’s up?’ it read.

‘Oh, not much. Going to unfriend this weirdo on my FB page.’ Kate typed.

‘Yeah? What weirdo is that?’ was Megan’s answer.

‘Pete Peterson,’ or so he calls himself. I’ll call you in a minute and tell you all about it.’ Kate replied.

‘Okie-dokie.’ came Megan’s response. Kate closed down the messaging box and directed her attention back to ‘Pete’s’ profile. Scrolling all the way to the bottom, Kate quickly clicked on ‘Unfriend.’

“There. That should fix that.” Kate said out loud, picking up her phone and dialing Megan’s number with a satisfied smile on her face.

Megan picked up after three rings. “Hi-ya, lady.” Megan’s voice sounded like she hadn’t been awake for very long, and she’d had a long previous night.

“Hey.” Kate said, thinking where she should start from.

“Well, spill. Tell me everything about this ‘Pete.” Megan said.

“Alright. Well, I’ll just start at the beginning, then,” Kate said.

After half an hour, Kate had dished out all the details of ‘Pete.’ Kate told Megan everything from first accepting his ‘friend request’ all the way through to the diner meeting, and finished with her ‘unfriending’ him.

“Wow. That’s really freakin’ creepy, kid. He sounds like one weird cat.” Megan said, breathlessly. After a minute, she added, “Well, I certainly hope that ‘unfriending’ him does the trick and he leaves you alone now. That’s really scary.”

“No kidding! Tell me about it! That Zack guy must’ve thought I was some sort of fruit loop thinking he was some ‘Pete’ guy. I just hauled ass out of there. I was so mortified and scared that I didn’t know what else to do.” Kate replied.

“Well, yeah. I mean, sure. I wonder how that guy got a hold of Zack’s driver’s license picture.” Megan said.

“I have no idea. Maybe there’s a way you can search online for them or something. I don’t know.” Kate told her.

They talked for a little while longer, catching up on Glendale news that Kate was missing out on while she was at college. They talked about new movies coming out, and some of their favorite musicians that were in the news.

Hanging up, Kate tossed her phone onto her bed. And sat down at her desk. After checking her emails, Kate logged onto Facebook to update her ‘status.’ In her new messages window, Kate saw the number 1. Clicking on it, thinking it was something from Megan, or maybe Amanda, Kate’s mouth fell open when she realized that it wasn’t from either girl. It was from ‘Pete.’

Not wanting to read it, but curiosity getting the best of her, Kate clicked on the message to read it.

‘Sorry about the diner incident. I’m not sure why you would ‘unfriend’ me, though. I feel like we’re just starting to really get to know each other. No worries. The fun is just getting started. -Pete.”

Kate’s eyes were frozen on her screen in horror. Slamming the laptop closed, Kate sat at her desk, staring at the white wall in front of her. What was she going to do? The last message had Kate scared, which was probably the intention. Kate suddenly realized that her hands were shaking. Taking a deep breath, she called Megan back to tell her what had happened. After five rings, it went to voicemail. Well, maybe Amanda, then. Once again, five rings and then her voicemail message:

“Hey! This is Amanda! I can’t answer right now, so leave a message and I’ll call ya back soon!” Gosh, she was chipper. Kate didn’t leave a message, just ended the call.

Flopping down on her bed, Kate decided that studying might help get her mind off of everything. “This is insane.” Kate said, shutting her human anatomy book and getting off of her bed. Maybe some fresh air would do her some good. Hurrying out the door, Kate nearly slammed in to Steve, the maintenance guy that had fixed her shower. “Oh! Sorry!” Kate exclaimed, surprised.

“It’s alright. In a hurry?” Steve asked. There was something about his smile that left an unsettling feeling in Kate’s stomach.

“Uh---well, no. Just---just going for a walk.” Kate stammered. For some reason she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Steve’s eyes. It’s like he could see right through her, all the way into her soul.

“Huh. Well, have fun.” Steve replied, and with one last glance, left Kate standing in the hallway by herself. With another deep breath, Kate headed down the stairs and out the doors.

****