Mia and Stella had went offline later, after discussing about crazykid for sometime and changing the group name to something stupid now and then. Riley stayed, which was a very unusual thing, since she's the first one to exit a chat and be the least active on most days. Today seemed to be her 'active day'.

"How are you going to know more about him?" Riley asked curiously, "Will you ask him more?"

"Look Riley, if we ask him that very openly, he may not exactly like it. You know, privacy issues and stuff. But if we don't ask him, we can't know well about him either. So what do you think I'm about to do?" I asked, knowing very well how people might think if we try to know more about them on the internet. If I were in crazykid's shoes, I'd get creeped out if a random guy/girl wants to know further about me. However, in this case, I had all rights to know why the lolguy messaged me and who he was, but at the same time, I didn't want to be seen like a worm digging into a hole even more like an irritating person. So, this is the only way I had to know who he was while still keeping up my formality.

"You gonna do... It?" She asked with a surprised-face emoji.

"Yes babe! It!" I laughed.

"Oh God, let me buckle up for a show!" She too texted a laughing emoji while I reacted to her chat and then logged on to Instagram, ready for whatever I had in my mind. I began from where I and crazykid had stopped talking before when he suddenly went offline.

"Okie, he's out. I'll just start the prank," I said to myself, going to my accounts section and making a new account named "Lolgirlsis". I know, it's a stupid name, but perfect for a stupid person.

No, I didn't just call myself stupid. It's lolgirlsis who's stupid.

Besides, it rhymed with my nickname for crazykid - lolguy. 

'Hi' I messaged crazykid from that account, knowing that he'd reply at any minute from now. However, unlike how he replies to me, he came only after half an hour. To make him reply faster to the fake account, I had a big urge to message him from my main account so that he'd reply right that second and see the other message too. However, I knew how that could impact this prank and that he'd somehow figure out the relation between me and this new fake account. Besides, fake accounts are usually very identifiable - not many or no followers/following at all, no posts, no profile photo/username/description, none of the main stuff that an actual Instagram account requires. Mine was such an account, and I knew that crazykid could identify that, but that wasn't my concern - my focus was only on getting to know why he messaged me and making sure that he didn't find the fact that I was the one handling this account too. 

He later replied to the new 'fake' account with a 'Hi'

I shared my main account named 'R_b01' with him and asked 'Do you know her?'

RB stands for Rose Bilton, though my full name does include a middle name 'Lawanda' which some of the kids at school call me by. But I prefer just my initials on most of my social media accounts because it sounded nice.

'Yeah ik (I know), who's this?'

I know you do.

'I'm Rachel, her cousin. How do you know her?'

Of course I don't have a cousin named Rachel. Deep inside my heart, I somehow had a sort of regret for lying to him and tricking him even though we'd talked so much for the past few days. But then, I told myself  that he's no one of mine, not even a friend yet, and that I've all rights to be suspicious about a complete stranger and to trick him just to get the actual truth. Most people on the internet don't tend to reveal the truth to someone they talk to, but might reveal it to someone else. And that's exactly why I was using this trick.

However, this was indeed my first time feeling bad about pranking a stranger on Instagram. Normally, I'd feel happy about getting to trick a creep or satisfied about learning the truth. But I didn't have such a gut feeling about this guy - something told me that he isn't like the others I've seen here, even though I ignored this 'something' at first and thought logically and not emotionally. Brain first, heart next - that's my usual tactic for social-media relations.

'I've seen her at school'

Alright, acceptable, but tons of other people have seen me at school too. If I were to have friends just because someone saw me at school, then I'd have about 10000+ friends by now. Not that it's strange for him to message me for this one reason, but I find it quite amusing that he could message me without a tint of awkwardness or shyness at talking to someone completely strange to him, new to him, and unknown to him. I could easily be someone as shy as Mia and choose to ignore him or someone as suspicious as Riley and report him. It's just his luck that I'm neither of these, and even if I am, I have methods that are safer for both me and him to know who he is.

'So u chat with everyone u have seen at school?'

He told me this on my real account already, but I wanted him to tell me the  truth -  if what he said isn't actually the truth. Since I'm messaging him from a fake account and he doesn't know that it's me, he'll probably say the truth. I'm just waiting for that one single truth - if it'd be positive, negative or neutral. Neutral, as if in, some reason that won't affect me in anyway.

'Yes'

...This guy is confusing me. Like come on, dude, tell me something more instead of just 'yes's and 'no's! That's not what I need from you. Be more descriptive, please!

'Ohh ok, I thought u have a crush on her when I saw ur chats.'

Shit, that just went out by itself. Maybe I shouldn't have been that open. 

'What? We're just friends'

Not even one week yet and already friends? Alright, if he says so. I mean, I love being friends with any nice person, but I can't confirm if he's 'nice' yet. And he doesn't know me personally either; I love my friends too much, so if he ever starts to ignore me after befriending me, he might start seeing the bad side of me. I mean, it's not so bad, but I may be a little...stalkative, if that's even a word for it. I cling on to people who are genuine to me and I'd want to know the real reason for them leaving me suddenly. I abandon people who fake everything to people who care about them and I never feel hurt about what they did - why would I waste precious time on fake assholes and harm my own mental health?

Either way, it was clear that he wasn't lying this time. First up, my gut feeling from before told me so and secondly, I knew how usual creeps or 'true lovers' would react to such a question. They may be embarrassed - in a 'blushing' way, you know -, blurt out the truth or put random emojis instead of saying the damn truth. I'm not considering crazykid as a good friend just yet, but his reference to me as a 'friend' did make me smile a little. Usual online strangers would never want a 'friend' - they either want a person to sext with or to flirt with. I just hope that lolguy would indeed be different from all those jerks. Until now, he has indeed proved to be quite different. Though different online creeps have different ideologies and different psychologies, crazykid's personality didn't define a creep at all. 

'Ohk, I'm sorry then.'

'Ok get lost'

I narrowed my eyes at this, but didn't respond.

Get lost?? Excuse me, do you seriously think you can go around telling random people online to 'get lost'? I'm not 'getting lost', for your information. I know that it was partly my fault - Rachel's fault - for being too open and jumping to conclusions about someone random, but I just had to make sure of something. He could've been a bit nicer to poor cousin Rach.

"Whoa, why did he tell you to get lost?" Riley asked after I sent her the screenshots of my prank. She wasn't fully aware of everything, by the way, I couldn't send her the entire chats due to my phone storage getting used up fast. Y'know, screenshots of relatable memes and stuff like that.

"Because Rachel was pretty nosy, I guess. Straight up asking someone if he likes somebody just because he messaged her, thinking from his side, it' might be kind of... I don't know, too open? I mean, Rachel just assumed that he might liked me and asked that, so she's being that bitchy-highschool-girl who thinks every guy and girl who merely talk are a couple," I explained through a long paragraph, suddenly understanding what might have triggered the lolguy. You know, I'm a really talkative person, but I fail to understand the other person's feelings most of the time and that's why I thought lolguy's reply seemed rude. However, thinking from his side and imagining myself as a girl who just got asked the same question because she messaged a random guy, I figured that I'd be mad or at least confused too. 

"That's...kind of acceptable," She replied with a shrug emoji, while I changed back to my main account in Instagram after sending her a bye.

Crazykid had continued the chat with me in my real account, after he came online. I knew what his message would be, and my guess was true. He did start with a hi like before, but this time, he had a reason and that reason was my fake cousin named Rachel.

'Hello'

'Hi'

'Mm, wyd?'

Just get to the actual issue, mister. I know what you're upto right now.

'Hearing songs, wbu?'

'Watching reels. Boring.'

Sure. I'm sure that my cousin just made you 'un-bored' a few seconds or minutes ago.  And now you're here to make me 'un-bored'.

'Lol, why is it boring?'

'Idk'

That means 'I don't know'.

'Oh..well I was watching reels too now.'

And then, he finally got to his actual topic - what I'd been impatiently waiting for until now.

'*cat laughing emoji*'
*screenshot of Rachel's and his chat*
'Who's this lol'

Me! I mean - I don't know! Maybe some cousin of someone's named Rachel, who knows. I'm completely confused here, completely innocent about this issue.

'Oh I dunno*confused emojis*'

'Then why he msg me?'

He? I'm sure as hell that 'Rachel' refers to a girl...If he thinks that Rachel is transgender or something, then fine, I guess?  I've got to clear that up for him then.

'I don't know...Maybe she is from my school?'

I hate being a liar and acting innocent, but if it's only for the better, then I'm all for it. My only intention right now was to figure out who he was, who crazykid aka lolguy was. I didn't even know his name yet, and I found it awkward to ask him that after sometime of chatting. He does know my name though - it's clearly written out on my 'Full name' section. His, however, wasn't written anywhere in the midst of his hundred attitude and sad quotes.

And yes, I made the 'she' bold though it didn't appear in Instagram that way. Why does Insta not want me to clear up Rachel's gender to crazykid? Hmph.

'Ohh'

...That's all you have to tell me? I thought you might get at least a bit confused, angry or surprised. Then I thought that I may have to wait sometime to see him get angry, since I haven't cleared everything out yet. 

'Yeah'

'I think so too.
He msg me.'

He again. Now I'm sure that he isn't doing it on purpose - either his autocorrect keeps correcting 'she' to 'he' or he's just dumb.

'Oh, I don't know her though.'

I'm trying so hard to correct your reference to my cousin as 'he' and you're still calling her a 'he'. Had Rachel been real, she would've been offended and I would be laughing my ass off at her and crazykid.

'Okk
Wait'

And this is when my part came into play in the prank. This is the message to which I needed his reaction and see if he actually gets angry here.

'Oh wait, she texted me and told she's my cousin in a fake account. 
She said she made it to ask why you chatted with me....I got angry at her and told her not to do it again. She apologized.
I'm sorry for her too.'

Sorry for lying to you and doubting you for having bad intentions. But not sorry for trying to figure out the truth. Sorry for ridiculing you again... Because you actually seem normal.

'Ok lol
*sweating-laugh emoji*
She think we are in love*crying emoji*'

His crying emoji made me laugh in amusement instead of feeling awkward about the message he just put. He usually doesn't put such emojis - he's addicted to the laughing emojis - so it was strange and cute to see him text that crying emoji. It also expressed the fact that he's genuinely not seeing me in that way and that he felt confused and maybe even unhappy at being asked that question. If it were someone who actually crushed on me, he would've felt embarrassed at telling me this openly. Crazykid felt nothing when he texted me this because he really didn't feel any such thing.

Oh, and finally, he referred to my cousin as a 'she'. I'm glad. I thought his autocorrect was a toxic sexist who hated females.

'Yeah she told me too *angry emoji* but I told her the truth and she said sorry.'

'Ok said her.
We are like just friends.
She look your chat with your permission or not?'

That was unexpected. I expected him to be furious at either me or my cousin for asking him that question, but his question made me realize that he was focusing on why exactly my cousin was taking my phone and checking my personal chats. In reality, that's when I realized it too - why would my cousin check my phone without my permission and then message a guy I'm texting with? Not right. Well, I guess he does have some good observation skills.

'She did without permission....I didn't see her do it.
*Replying to his 'We are like just friends' message* Yeah'

I'm lying yet again. How could you lie so well, Rose? You're better than this, I thought to myself in guilt. I even felt the need to somehow do something in return to him for the way I ridiculed him, as if in helping him with something, but what could I possibly do for some random guy on the internet? I didn't know him well yet.

*Replying to my 'She did without permission....I didn't see her do it.'* message* 'Okk its a bad behavior'

I know. But fortunately, I don't have such a 'spy' cousin. 

'Yeah I told her to not do it again or I'll not talk to her so she said OK'

This message later hit me as being pretty childish and silly, but it also expressed to crazykid of how innocent I was. Maybe his actual reaction to this message I put might have been an amused chuckle, though his reaction on Instagram was yet another doubtful question about my 'bad' cousin.

'Is she is a bad girl or not'

Bad girl...? That's a pretty cute question, haha, and I'm not even sure why.

'Not much. But she's silly at times and checks my phone without permission.'

Not really. No one at my home checks my phone, fortunately, except if my mom wants to check on some cooking recipe or if my dad needs to check the OTP he sent for my number. Even they, they never open my personal chats - something I'm glad about because my chats with friends are completely weird and nonsensical. 

'Mainly bad girl check another phone bcz they want to know abu' (abu means 'about you')

So now I'm sure that what he didn't like is that she checked my phone without permission like a snooper does - or in his way, like a bad person does.

Again, that means he isn't like the other people who have messaged me before. Because I did the same to them to know about them or get rid of them - message them using a fake account. Later I told the same thing to them that I said to this guy - that it is my cousin and I didn't know.
They would just shrug it off, making them seem chill and nice when in reality, they just don't care and are selfish and care about only their well-being. This guy did care about someone else invading my phone, and though I did fake account message him myself, I felt really guilty now. Lolguy seemed genuine and kind of trustworthy.

'Hmm maybe'

I didn't know whether to express my support to 'my cousin' regarding this or be on crazykid's side. However, in reality, I obviously agreed with the latter. No one likes their phones to be checked and their chats to be seen and read. Neither does anyone like being asked if they like someone just on the basis of some casual chats.

'Okk'

'Yeah'

'Okkk'

You said that already, lolguy.

'*formally-smiling emoji*'

'*cat laughing emoji*'

I was just going in a flow with my regretful emotions and that sentimental smile emoji and he ruined everything with just that one cat emoji. Idiot.

'*laughing emoji*'

This chat is disastrous.

'Lol
Can I ask you a question?'

This question suddenly intrigued me and I grew very curious to know what his question would be. I could only guess that it was something related to my cousin asking him about my and his chats. Considering he knows that my 'cousin' checked my chats and asked him about it because she felt suspicious, maybe he wants to ask me if I'm suspicious of him too. Well, I am, and my cousin is myself too, but on the day he proves me wrong, I'd accept him as a good friend and start trusting him. I'd consider him as a friend who's as good and true as my real-life friends are - like Amy, Riley, Mia, Stella, Devyn and Sam.

'Yeah sure
What's it?'

'Do you have any problem when I message you?'

So my guess was right. He wants to know if I'm suspicious of him too. See? This is exactly why I used a fake account to know who he is and why he messaged me randomly. If I'd asked him the questions lurking in my mind quite openly, he would've found it awkward to talk to me further and if he was actually a creep, he would realize that I've caught onto his intentions and he'd back away - but that's not what I need. I need him to get closer to me and show who he actually is; if he's a creep or just a normal guy intending to make friends. Either way, asking him my doubts would only make him back away from being friends with me or trying to hit on me - whatever his intention is - and I needed just the opposite of that. Besides, I didn't want him feeling bad for trying to befriend me. So yes, my technique works best during confusing times like these.

'No problem at all
*smiling emoji*
Why do you ask that?
I actually love talking'

Believe me, guys, I was sincerely feeling really bad and regretful while typing this to him. I doubted him for no reason. I even wondered why on earth I would feel bad about tricking a random guy on Instagram, but yeah, maybe it's just my conscience as a human being and a writer. I thought from his point of view and realized how awkward, confused and bad he might've felt - if he was indeed saying the truth.

'I am also lol'

Well, that meant that he also loves talking. You don't need to tell me that, lolguy, I know that even though I met you just yesterday. In fact, he defeats me at the skill of talking though I'm the most talkative person in my class.

'Yeah*laughing emoji*'

Now I felt worse. Maybe he really did just want a friend...and me, being suspicious of everything and everyone on social media, might've hurt his feelings a lot. I even thought about further possibilities of him being a very depressed and hurt guy who wanted to befriend someone completely random on social media after losing faith in his real-life friends. In that case, I've hurt his belief of ever having a friend too - that anyone he talks to doubts him of bad intentions and that he can't ever make a friend. What have you done, Rose? How could you've been this heartless? Out of all people, you should've realized what he felt like during this conversation. It may have been just a harmless, funny prank to you, but you never know how others might take it, especially a person who might've been very hurt in life. 

'But ur cousin chat like this'

Like how? I didn't see him typing after that for a minute or so, so I assumed that what he meant by 'this' is my cousin's assumption about crazykid's intentions.

'Oh she's just....she likes to ruin everything for me
She's jealous as she doesn't have frnds'

Really, Rose? Jealous of yourself? Great joke. And not having friends? Even greater joke. My life is filled with a wide set of true friends, distant true friends and an even wider variety of fake friends who cling to me like worms everyday. 

'Why do you chat with her
What u want
Are u crush on her'

Okay, crazykid, I do feel bad for you but neither can I stop giggling at your grammar. Until now, I felt that it was just his autocorrect and not his fault, but now it's evident that he really can't text properly and still uses English to chat with me. I thought that he's just a lazy person who uses short texts like 'wbu' and other such slang instead of the whole sentences, but now, I get that if he does use whole sentences, his entire grammar goes wrong. Well, our language is a different one - he can always just use it if he's not good at chatting in English. Does he think that I'm a person who would judge him if he doesn't use English while chatting?

Well, the only problem that might've happened if he didn't use English is that this story might've been harder to translate. However, I've already got the hard task of translating it because of his perfect English.

'*surprised emoji*
Oh I'm really sorry for that.
I told u....she kinda hates me.'

Not true. I love myself a lot.

*Replying to my 'Oh I'm really sorry for that.' message* 'Chill lol😂'

Well, I'm glad that he took it in this way and was trying to calm me and my unending chain of apologies instead of focusing on himself all the while. I guess that my 'cousin' and lolguy will never get along well - that's how much he hates her now, both for asking him that as well as for invading my phone. I'm glad that I don't have such a cousin though.

'*sweating emoji*yup'

I really was sweating a lot at this point.

'She also say i chat with bad conversation
Like these'

Knowing that his 'these' probably means that there's more to come after that and that he's just taking time to type it up, I waited for a whole minute or two before realizing that this time, he had indeed ended his sentence with that. 

'Oh...just ignore her
She wants me to lose my friends too *pissed off emoji*
*Replying to his 'Like these' message* 'U don't....ur chatting good'

I honestly don't know what I meant by 'you're chatting good' at that point. Maybe it's just that I was kind of replying to him in a rush and didn't care about what the hell I meant by any of my responses - I just wanted him to know that I felt sorry, that's all, even though he doesn't know that it was me who tricked him and not my non-existing cousin sister named Rachel. I wonder what would happen if he ever finds it out - would he hate me? Not that I'm sure if he even likes me - as a friend - till now, but I'm sure we'll soon work it all out and become quite good accomplices if he's a nice guy like I want him to be. 

'*sweating emoji*
She has bf'

Of course not. How can someone ever like a person like Rachel? Ugly dumbass.

You just called yourself an ugly dumbass.

No, Rachel is the ugly dumbass.

You're Rachel, but okay...

Yeah, exactly.

'Nope. No one likes her...'

Ha, there you go. The unlikable cousin Rachel and her very-likable cousin Rose. This is exactly why I use fake accounts to clear doubts or just clear an entire creep off social media. The likable cousin Rose makes creeps and cyberbullies like her, the unlikable cousin Rachel drives them off from Rose, and another scarier cousin makes them exit their entire Instagram account. That scarier cousin is my most anonymous but most terrifying Instagram account. Not even my friends know about it yet. 

'Which is her real account'

I guess he wanted to scold her or something in her real account. But since she doesn't even exist, that isn't possible.

*Replying to his 'Which is her real account' message* 'Oh that one is fake too actually😂
She tried to prank me with it.
In the name of a boy called arvind.
So she has 2 fake accs😅'

It was a bit hard to explain all this to him through just one text, so I had to take four texts to type it up. And yes, Arvind is an Indian name. Before Rachel became Rachel, she had been Arvind. That means, Arvind is my first ever fake account and the one I'd used to fend off my first prank-victim, named Phil, who had come to me with a fake confession and then became very creepy.

And what happened to him now? He's gone. Oh, not that gone - just signed out of the entire Instagram. Unfortunately, this big, dramatic chapter of my life can only be explained later.

'Many fakes message for bad chat with First i don't accept her' 

Well, I know that's a bit hard to understand. He means that he doesn't approve of my cousin since she has a fake account. I wonder what he'll think when he comes to know that it was me and that I've a ton of them. He'll be furious.

*Replying to his 'Many fakes message for bad chat with First i don't accept her' message* 'Yeah true'

'Than show ur pic that time i accept' 

Wait...Is he asking for my picture? I wondered worriedly, wondering if he was like the other guys and wanted to see my picture when he asked that last message. But knowing that I can't jump into conclusions, I typed back to him before going over to his account and stalking him a bit again, observing his posts and trying to make it out if he's a creep or not.

'Which pic?'

I'm obviously not going to send him any of my pictures. This, again, was just my trick to know what picture he was referring to.

'Profile pic'

'Her profile?'

I really hoped that he meant Rachel's profile photo and not mine or hers other photos. 

'Screen shot of your profile'

...What? I really am confused now. Does he want my profile picture's screenshot or Rachel's? Either way, why does he need them? Figuring out that he'd conclude his own confusing statements, I nodded to his texts and waited for what he actually meant.

'Oh mine.
OK'

'Wait I will sd screenshot'

'Ok'

I slowly sighed, realizing that he meant Rachel's profile screenshot and not my picture. And he'd sent me the screenshot of it himself, he hadn't asked me to send it to him, because he wanted to clear up some more doubts about her and know if she had any other accounts which she could use to prank him again. Since the screenshot he sent was a photo bomb, it gets deleted right after one view,

Later, he left with his usual bye and a like on my text. I was so grateful that he didn't understand that Rachel was me because if he did, I was sure he would get the impression about me as a 'bad' girl' me or even worse, block me. He seemed to be highly conscious of bad manners and good manners, and checking another person's phone or messaging with a fake account was really bad manners to him.

Wait, Rose, you didn't even like him at first. In fact, you wanted him to block you so that you can stop chatting with him. Why have you suddenly changed now? Why don't you want him to block you anymore?

I smiled. I definitely don't want him to block me anymore. And the reason? He's not a 'bad' guy. He respected my space and my apologies all throughout this chat and gave preference to the fact that my cousin checked my phone; and for all of this, I admire him. 

He's definitely one unique online friend.

__________________

Hey guys! If you're wondering why I haven't posted screenshots of Rachel's texts with him, that's because I lost those photos in between and I'd deleted the chats with him too. Please bear with this!