Recently she's been having trouble with a guy who won't take "no" for an answer. She works at an animal shelter weekends, and started talking with a guy who hung around there. He was interested in her, but she turned him down. He left her a present at her dorm door. She returned it. He shouldn't have been able to get into her dorm, so with our encouragement she reported it to her dorm head. He left another present for her, and no one knows how he got into the dorm to do it. He found out she posts to our forum and some other forums, and left her messages at these places. The post on our board could easily be construed as threatening. She reported those to her school, and the police became involved. Her father was contacted, and flew in from abroad to be with her.
A stranger posted to our forum over the weekend. This stranger informed us that this was all a hoax, and that this girl has a history of wooing guys on the net and dumping them. I didn't want to believe it. But discrepencies I'd previously noted and ignored pushed their way to the surface of my memory again. I started to snoop.
I checked the IP# she posted under months ago, when she was posting from abroad while in her senior year at a private girl's high school. I checked her IP# from when she's been posting from the ivy league school. The IP#'s are identical, both out of Virginia.
I've been taken in completely. By a kid less than half my age, if my guess is accurate. The girl hasn't been by in several days. I half expect that, since she's seen the post from the stranger that calls her a liar, that she won't be back. I feel like I've lost a friend. And I feel a fool.