Want to hear a story about my most humiliating moment?  Okay, it’s super cringey, so don’t say I did warn you. It was my first real boyfriend. He was the star baseball player from the University of Florida, and everyone knew him. We started dating our junior year of high school. Many of our friends doubted that we would make it through graduation, but here we are in our senior year of college. His name was Maddox. 

The only thing that stood in between us was his ex-girlfriend, Blaire. She coincidentally decided to commit to the same college as us for softball. Most of our high school thought they would end up getting back together in the future, but I was sure that would not happen. I was not going to let their past get in the way of our future. 

Our first day of college was coming up, and I wanted to make the best of the last few days of summer. Since tomorrow was the last day before school started back up, my roommate invited Maddox and I to a swim party. It was supposed to be just a couple of our friends… but, when I got there, I was shocked to see Blaire. I immediately asked Maddox if he knew why she was there, but he had no idea. His ex walked up to us with her beautiful, curly, blonde hair, and her gorgeous smile. She hugged Maddox and me, but I could not help but wonder if it was a more than friend hug.

As the evening went on, I started to wonder about their friendship more and more. Maddox got up to get in the pool with his baseball friends, so he left his phone beside me. It was face up, and as tempted as I was to go through it, I held myself back. About fifteen minutes later, the screen lit up, and I saw a text message. I wanted to give it to Maddox right away, but I could not help but take a glance. 

Then, there it was… a text message from his ex, Blaire. There were so many thoughts going through my head, but it was bothering me, so I needed closure. After opening his phone, there were so many texts from the past couple of weeks. Half of them included hearts, miss you’s, and other messages that sounded like they were a couple. He had been lying to me for weeks, and he was the one that invited her to my friend’s party tonight.

After the party, I confronted Maddox, and he neither apologized nor admitted to the clear texts on his phone. He was a cheater, and I will never trust a star jock again. I made the decision to break up with him that night, but all I wanted to do was find someone else temporarily to help myself move on. Who could I move on with?  All the guys I knew were friends with Maddox. My roommate came up with the perfect idea… Tinder.

No, it was never my plan to join a dating app, but it was the best solution for me at the moment. Finally, about 30 minutes later, it was downloaded. For the next hour, I sat there and swiped right on some guys, but most were left swipes. Then, there was a guy who was perfect. He was good looking, 6’3, a football player, and was 21 like me. His name was Elliot. We started talking the next day; he was so genuine, and I was determined to meet him. We decided to meet up at a local park and get some lunch in a couple days.

The day had finally arrived, and I was so nervous. I did not want to screw this up, but what did I have to lose? Finally, I arrived at the spot. 20 minutes went by and still no show. Then, I saw a girl walking towards me in the distance. As I kept watching her walk, I realized it was Blaire. There was no way. She came over to me, laughing. She said “did you really think that Elliot was a real person?” It was the worst moment of my life because I had been catfished. There was a hard lesson learned that day… never trust a dating app. I told you it was cringey.