They met in a chatroom. He was an anonymous entity, giving away nothing, and only present to abolish feelings of boredom that drained him each day. She had never "chatted online" before, as such. It was a new and exciting experience, but like him, the main purpose was to eliminate boredom. She ummed and aahed for minutes on end, and finally appropriately named herself "Myself". He, of course, was "Anonymous." But what else could he be? He never got close to any of the people he came across, he found them all arrogant and self-centred. Either that, or they were suffering from a "Why Me?" depression. Ugh, Depression, that stupid D word. He had never really labelled himself as "depressed". It was an over-used expression, like "love". People "loved" their Significant Others, "loved" their families, "loved" their pets, and apparently "loved" their friends. Yet, they complained about each of them, no-one was ever perfect for anyone. To him, "love" was completely underrated and underappreciated. He especially loathed those who thought they could say "luv u" or any other cutesy form of the word online. He just wanted to shoot someone, after that. She, also, had never really truly loved anyone. Sure, everyone had those infatuations back in junior high school, sure she had some on and off silly "romances". Nothing really counted, and she thought, at seventeen, she still had much of her life ahead of her to really find that Special Someone. However, it wasn't on her top list of priorities.
As was usual for him, he sat alone in his favourite room. Watching the textual conversations of others was entertaining enough to pass the time, like watching clouds go by. His favourite selection of songs played loudly in the background, usually classical. Unlike many people his age, he listened to music that actually interested him, not when it was the "in-thing" or when it was popular. "Beethoven should be the God of music" he thought idly, as one of the symphonies reached its climax. Also unlike many people his age (mostly males), he was not driven by sex at all. He chuckled slightly at the word "climax" but only because he thought how his horny friend Ryan would react at a word like that. He didn't let many people close, but he had known Ryan for years - ever since they whacked each other on the head with plastic dinosaurs back in preschool. Yes, Ryan wasn't the most understanding of people, and conversations with him couldn't be counted as "deep," but again, it was all about passing the time.
She had heard from one of her cyber-smart friends that a particular chatting site called ChatNow usually had a nice selection of people. Even though pedos could be found in any site, she thought herself intelligent enough to keep out of trouble. In fact, like him, she decided to take quite an anonymous approach. On the profile, she decided to only fill in her age (17) and country (Australia). "No more, no less," she thought.
His profile was even more ambiguous. According to it, he lived in Antarctica, with three cats named Alpha, Beta and Pythagoras. His favourite pasttimes included hopskotch and knitting. He had been married once, became a widower, then married again and divorced. He had put an age down of 35 to scare off younger children, and because he found adult conversation more interesting, but only very slightly - many adults also typed in a "dum" fashion. The only true part of his profile was his gender. He didn't fancy the idea of being an "it" or for other males to hit on him, and start pestering him for the lousy substitute for sex - cybering. This would have to be his least favourite observation - people going at it, textually. The idea was so offputting, he usually logged off quickly, without a backwards glance.
