The Pungent Aroma Of Body Odor!

In my mid-late teens I was spending a significant amount of my free time on the internet. I was frequenting chat rooms, mainly. Specifically, a site called "Habbo Hotel." I created an avatar, of how I wanted to look not how I actually looked, and I would hang out in different rooms, chatting to others. 

It was on one of these chat rooms that I met Richard*. Richard was a teenage boy who spent most of his free time playing computer games, primarily a first-person shooter called "Doom." As we talked, I found out Richard lived, like Ken*, in Scotland! He didn't drive, nor did I, and although we talked about meeting up it seemed impossible. 

Eventually, though, I was able to convince my mum to let him spend a few days with us and he made his travel arrangements. To this day I'm not sure why my mum agreed to let a complete stranger, I'd met on the internet no less, to stay in our house. It became quite a common occurrence, though, as it later transpired.

Unfortunately, I soon realized my mistake in inviting a total stranger to stay with me for a few nights. It turned out that Richard had a terrible B.O. problem - the boy absolutely reeked! Even my mum couldn't help but comment, in a whisper to me on the landing, on his pungent aroma and suggest that he might benefit from a shower.

Eventually I was able to convince him to have a shower, thinking maybe mama was right and a good wash would do the trick and make being around him a little bit more bearable. But less than ten minutes after he'd come out smelling fresh as a daisy, he stank as bad as when he'd stepped through my front door earlier that day!

We had to burn** the sleeping bag he spent those two nights in after he left because, despite several hot washes with copious amounts of detergent, it reeked, like him, of body odor. And, sadly, an otherwise lovely guy will forever be remembered as "the B.O. guy," and although we kept in touch online, strangely, we never made plans to meet up again.

However, he wasn't to be the last internet friend I'd make the mistake of meeting off line...

*names changed for privacy

**when I say burn, I really mean throw in the trash, but burn sounds more dramatic!