Shortly after sending his first message, a small bubbly icon bounced up and down showing Jack was typing. Hugh’s pulse quickened. This was the first real person he had really talked to since college started. Sure, he was no stranger to dating, but it had been quite the long time since he had seen anything serious come out of it. The typing icon disappeared, then a message appeared.

“Howdy!”

Hugh snorted. Gotta love the enthusiasm.

“Well hi there! My name’s Hugh, as I’m sure you saw.”

“Well, I did :P”

Now Hugh felt his communication skills deteriorate and crumble. He very quickly felt out of his element, and it left him feeling flustered in a very not good way. After running from words that made him seem more lamed than he felt, he decided upon something mildly snarky.

“Well, not everyone can read a bio ;P Sometimes you have to give people a helping hand~”

Now that Hugh had sent it, he realised he had came off just a bit too snarky, almost like a dick, which was an absolutely fantastic start to a conversation. It didn’t help that Jack wasn't responding. But then the typing bubble came to the rescue.

“Well, I wouldn’t have swiped right if I wasn't at least interested by your bio, hmm?”

Hugh relaxed slightly. Somehow, he expected a scathing end to a conversation that hadn’t even started yet. Knowing that sarcasm was at least tolerated with similar energy made him regain some of his lost confidence. Not all of it, mind you, but enough to actually hold up his end of the conversation.

“Ya never know with people XD”

Jack responded quickly. “You really can’t. Whatcha do for fun?”

Cutting to the chase, hmm? Hugh thought about it. He didn’t want to come off super-lame, but he really didn’t do too much other than play games and read, and sometimes write music. And those were all, well, geeky. Well, he thought, he’s already shown he’s at least mildly interested in me as a nerdy guy, so it shouldn’t really hurt either way.

“Well, I love to play games! Reading is pretty neato too.”

Jack responded quickly. “What kinda games do ya like to play?”

“Mostly Nintendon’t and things like that. Platforming life~” Hugh sent.

Hugh had to admit, this was going rather well. He hadn't really had any real goals with this, but hey, at least he wasn’t outright turned away, and this guy seemed pretty alright.

“I mostly play on my ZBox. Kinda miss having a second player on Halo…;P”

Hugh took a second to reread this, mildly confused. Hold on…. Is this guy flirting with me? He blushed lightly. It didn’t take much, and he was already a blushing mess.

This guy is gonna be a lot of fun…