Talking dirty

I’m not sleeping so hot. So I’ve been talking dirty to strangers on the internet.

There’s a lot of us on at night, maybe more than you’d think. We don’t ask for any personal info, ever. It’s completely anonymous, which adds to the excitement. We just know each other by our user names: HotMommy, FreddieX, SweetBaby105.

FreddieX is killing it lately: SLUT and COCK scoring big points. He knows just where to put them. The last time we met up, SweetBaby105 busted out TITS. So I dropped JUGGS on her, boom. I followed it up with SLATTERN for 53 points, just to show her who’s the boss.

Hannah, Sophie, and my mom are usually online too, although they’re not as outgoing as I am. I’m practically begging strangers to play.

It’s hard to sleep and it’s hard to focus, but this world lets me forget everything for a little while. Hannah especially likes it here.

I really think VAG should be allowed, I message her.

NO FR FR, she texts back. I was just thinking that yesterday.

And CUNT, I say.

YESSSSS, says Hannah.

We’re a Scrabble family, so NYT’s Crossplay has us in a chokehold right now. We play rough and ruthless, stacking words and cutting off our opponents’ paths to those juicy colored squares.

Mom is not a naturally ruthless or competitive soul. I keep taking her out. It’s filthy.

I AM A TERRIBLE DAUGHTER, I message her.

YOU ARE! STINKER! she writes back.

If it makes you feel better, both of the girls and four strangers are beating me right now.

That’s a consolation, she says.

I’ve almost hit 500 points in a game. And I almost always beat the computer on hard mode. But there are some brutal opponents out there. Aba323 has whooped me soundly for five games in a row. I want to know who they are and how they got so good at Crossplay. But that would ruin the mystique. So we keep it light.

I am a glutton for punishment, I message them when we kick off sixth game.

So am I, they say.

You must be getting that somewhere else then, I say with a laughing emoji. I imagine Aba323 curled up in her bed in another state, another country. I think of Aba323 as a she, although who knows? She and I are always on at night, just before bedtime. She plays too consistently at night to have little kids calling for another glass of water, another back rub, a story. Maybe Aba323’s also on her own. Maybe, like me, she’s wondering if this is how bedtime looks from here on out: Crossplay until the sleep comes, in a bed with too much room.