Indeed, I am surprised at myself !

“hi” (This is my friend Jigme)

“Hi” (And this is me, his friend, Jigme. Yeah, we have same name.)

“how r u”

“Good. You?”

“gud. gotta ask u sth”

“What is it?”

“a gal is chatin wid me. she is askn fo a gud frn of mine. Gav ur fb name”

“That’s ok, but did she tell why?”

“she sad she wnts a frn”

“That’s alright”

“she sims to b a nice gal. chats wel”

“Ok,” I typed and immediately a notification came. I clicked on.

It read “Boom Helen sent you a friend request”.

“she sad she snt de frn riqst”

“Is her Facebook account name Boom Helen? If it is, I accepted it”

“ya, nw chat wid her.”

My heart starts beating abnormal. I feel uncomfortable. This is the first time I am in such a situation, so obviously I am nervous. But why should I be... this nervous?

She is just wanting a friend, Jigme! I shake my head to sense.

I don’t  know why my mind is behaving so … crazy today. Ok, Jigme, you are making a new friend. So, be it and be a good guy as always.

However, my heartbeat is speeding up.

A beep, and message notification comes up. It’s from her.

I click it and chatspace opens up.

“hello”

I cannot reply. Not right now. I click the chatspace title bar which has her name. Her wall loads. Suddenly I realize I was fidgeting with my finger and biting my lips. Man, why am I doing this! Arrghhh …

FRIEND, Jigme, SHE IS A FRIEND! Alright. . .  a sigh . . .

I am visiting her profile. Her profile picture is good, yeah, good. Am I looking, am I trying to judge her? Darn it! No, I am just searching for some info which would help me interact with her.

Ummmm . . . she is from Trashigang... wow, same district. And first year student at Sherubtse College . . . far better now, she is in the college I graduated from last year. A wonderful college.

Quite confident now, I go back to chatspace.

“Hello there. How are you doing?” My fingers are still very hesitant.

“M doin gud. You?” Man she seems to be straightforward.

“Me too.” I am not being able to bring a question here.

“Jigme gav me ur name.” She IS outspoken.

“Yeah, he told me. So, you are studying as Sherubtse?” I feel a bit settled now, a bit proud too, for having asked that.

“Yes, in 1st yr” Truthful.

“Great, even I studied there.” Feeling much lighter now.

“wen did u graduate frm here?”

 “Last year. So, studying well? Hope you are doing that.”

“ya, m tryin.”

“Trashigang gai giwa la mai?” I ask her in Sharchop: “You are from Trashigang right?”

“Gila, nan?” She answers boldly, meaning “yes. You?”

“Jang bu Trashigangpa rang gila.” I answer saying even I am from Trashigang.

I wait for another message. It doesn’t appear. No beeps. Is there a net problem? No, because below the last message I sent appears “seen 9:45pm”.

She is not typing message. Do I have to panic over it? Do I really have to? I don’t think so, because even I don’t have a topic to bring up. It is good put a halt. Seems even she ran out of dialogues.

I breathe deep and let it out with a sigh. My eyes are closed.

A beep.

My heart beat jumps up. I look at the chatspace. There isn’t a message. I dart my eyes over top left of my laptop window and there is a message notification. Click. And it’s from friend Jigme.

“she sas she is not able to chat with wid u”

“Oh, me too. I ran out of what to speak.” I type with shyness.

“arite. gtg n sleep. Hav to wak arly tomorw”

“Goodnight bro”

The green point on top-left of chatspace with Jigme goes off. He is offline.

I click the chatspace with her. I am thinking . . . no, actually I am not. I am just stupidly staring at it. Blank.

I tap my left foot and slowly type “Goodnight”

With a beep, her response pops in. “gudnite”

I wish I wrote “Catch you later” after that goodnight. But it doesn’t matter. I somehow I feel we will chat again; that too, very soon.

A kind of ticklish shock runs through my body. I press Esc and the chatspace closes. And I log out from Facebook. That’s not doing any good. I feel like to log in again.

Alt + F4.

Enter.

And the window shuts down. I quickly fold the laptop and play an imaginary piano.

. . . Boom Helen . . .

I just cannot wait to chat with her.

She is looking for a friend

Whatever! I am feeling different today. Oh.. tomorrow... please....

ILiveLove