Remember Me!

A fifteen minute unplanned writing response done at my writing group. It was in response to a card, which showed a cartoon picture of a computer, subtitled with the phrase "Remember Me!" It's just a "story chunk". Have no idea where it would go from here...

The screen blinked into life, cancelling the bubbling fish screen saver. His eyes scanned the screen for signs…

“Please,” he thought. “Please don’t let me have missed her.”

What the hell was he thinking answering the door anyway? Five minutes persuading a man that, no thank you, he didn’t want to change electricity providers.

“We said 7,” he hisses frantically to himself.

Messenger. JP – Offline.

“Shit.”

“You have one new message.” The reassuring box popped up at the bottom of the screen. He swiftly clicked on it:

“Where are you? Missed you. Never mind. Maybe another night.”

“Damnit. Damnit!”

He slammed down his mouse and the cursor flew across the screen.

He put his head in his hands, feeling his greasy hair against his head.

“Bing!”

“Hi there!”

Another small box appeared at the foot of the screen.

“AN is not on your contact list.

Curious, he clicked on the box, opening the dialogue window.

“Hi…”, he typed.

Pause.

“How you doing?” The message appeared, followed by one of those annoying cartoon question marks which spins round, distracting the eye.

“Cool, thank you.”

“Great!”

A pause.

“Remember me?”

A smiley face. God, he hatred smilies.

He took a moment to think: AN, AN. He was usually good with names and contacts.

He typed again:

“I think so. Where are you from?”

“You know where.”

“Do I?”

“You should! Don’t you remember me?”

“OK, I’ll be honest, I don’t.”

“But we talked just last night…”

This is weird, he thought. He didn’t remember any online conversations last night, apart from the one with JP – the one when he’s told her how he felt…

“Remember me now?”

“I think you have the wrong person.”

“No. No I don’t. You said you loved her, didn’t you?”

He stopped – his hands hanging over the keys.

“What?!”

“You told her. You told her you loved her. And she told you you were pathetic.”

He felt his heart skip and his face go hot.

“Who the fuck are you?!”

“You don’t remember me?”

“No! What the fuck are you talking about?!”

“I saw what you wrote. You said you loved her. She would have laughed in your face if she could have over Messenger.”

He thought quickly.

“OK, very funny. Now piss off and annoy someone else.”

A long pause.

Good. AN has given up, he thought. Just some random nutter.

At the bottom of the window: “AN is writing a message.”

“I’m watching you…”