You Live And Learn

16 | goals and girlfriends

Camille said yes to being my girlfriend.

I can't wrap my head around the thought, really. Last night was a momentous occasion, like when LeBron finally gave Cleveland a championship. After that moment, our whole dynamic changed. She smiled from the confession all the way until we parted ways. I even got a kiss on the cheek when she told me goodbye.

I mean, why wouldn't she do it? She's my girlfriend now. I'm going to need a lot of reminders that it's actually true. When I came home last night, I felt like I won at life for the first time ever. After years of being tossed around like a salad, I got one victory.

Walking through the door, I wanted to scream. But knowing that my mother was probably sleeping and I don't want to face death just yet, I screamed internally. After getting some water from the fridge, I entered my room and took a breath of relief. I turned on my phone because it was off the entire day. I wanted to give Camille all of my attention, so she can truly have a good time.

My phone lights up with numerous notifications from different apps. This is vastly different from the usual notification, 'Battery full. Please remove the charger.' Taylor tried to call me, presumably to get details from the date. He is the nosiest person in our group. The funny thing though, is that he never talks about what's going on with him. Only with some prying from us will he ever tell us what's up. I dial up his number, and on the second ring, he answers.

"Alonzo,"

"Taylor,"

"How was it?" He asks.

"It was good, amazing actually," I respond truthfully. I relived the moment in my head after saying that, and that scene does put a smile on my face.

"Yeah, I can tell, Camille posted about you. Congratulations, bro".

"What do you mean?" I ask, clueless about what Tay is talking about.

"Check your Snapchat," he commands, and I oblige. Among my notifications, I see one that says Camille mentioned me on her Snapchat story. I totally forgot we traded snap names a while back. Checking out her story, I almost couldn't believe my eyes. It's the redo of a picture we took with the caption 'I had a great time today with my boyfriend.' At the end of the sentence was the emoji with three hearts around it.

WHAT?

"There's no way," I murmur.

"Oh, but my friend, it is yes way," Taylor replies. "I'm pretty sure the whole school knows you two are dating. I consider this a massive achievement." That explains all the notifications on my phone. I open a chat with some random guy named Lawrence. He said 'you lucky bastard.'

Sigh, I can only expect to get a lot of these messages.

"All right Zo, since she's your first real girlfriend," Taylor continues again, " You got to expect a lot of jealousy from now. Camille is one of the prettiest girls in school, so it only makes sense that you will be hated by guys."

"Jeez, thanks for the inspirational speech."

"You are so very welcome." I can just see the smugness on his face. "But in all seriousness Zo, watch out. Some guys can get very dangerous just because the girl they like gets taken away." Even though I don't want to admit it, he's right. Tay could've heard my sigh from the other side of the phone.

"If I had known getting a girl would be this stressful, I wouldn't have asked her out," I complain. At that moment, Camille sends me something on Snapchat. A selfie of her being beautiful as always, telling me goodnight and hoping that I sleep amazing tonight. She also thanks me for giving her the 'time of her life.' Now, she got me all giddy.