White Noise

8

"Helloooo!" The pair of fingers snapping in my face brought me back to reality. I had been staring down at my phone, anxiously waiting for him to respond.

Three pairs of eyes were on me—Lauren, who was sitting next to me in the backseat of Bridget's car, and Bridget and Emily, who were sitting in the driver and passenger seats, leaning around to look at me.

"Who have you been texting so much?" Lauren narrowed her eyes at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, dropping my phone in my lap and picking up my plain turkey sandwich.

"I'm pretty sure your eyes haven't left your phone for the past three days."

"That's a bit of an over exaggeration," I replied evenly, but Lauren and Bridget both glared. I knew I had to think of a lie quick, but it was difficult now that I was consciously aware that I sucked at it—thanks to JD. "It's just Caroline."

Lauren scoffed. "What could you and Caroline possibly have to talk about twenty four seven."

"You're only separated for, like, seven hours every day," Bridget added.

"It's just family stuff," I answered and immediately regretted it because Lauren's face filled with worry. Now I had to come up with another lie about something going on at home. I knew Lauren wouldn't blatantly ask about it in front of Bridget and Emily though, so I had some time to think of something.

"Is everything okay?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," I said easily. "Everything's fine."

Lauren didn't believe that for a second though and I slumped down in my seat a bit, shoving a bite of my dry sandwich in my mouth.

JD and I had been texting since Friday night. It was constant, from the moment I woke up until the moment my eyes shut in bed at night. The topics were mostly surface-level, yet they still seemed important. I always felt like I was learning more about him. Even when the conversation began to die, he would ask exactly what I was doing or what was happening around me. It was like he was wherever I was, living right beside me even though we were just talking through a phone. After five days of this, it had honestly become a little exhausting. But every time that thought crossed my mind I pushed it away. I'd take being exhausted over not talking to him one thousand times over.

I ended up asking Caroline on Saturday morning what the "48 hour rule" was.

"It's something guys do to not seem too interested after they get your number. They just wait two or three days before they text you," she said matter-of-factly as she buttered a piece of toast. Then she glanced at me and skeptically asked, "Why?"

"Nothing," I replied, pouring a glass of orange juice. "Lauren mentioned it the other day and I was too embarrassed to ask what it meant."

Caroline's face remained skeptical. I was never embarrassed to ask Lauren about anything and she knew that. But, thankfully, she didn't question me further.

My phone buzzed in my lap and I glanced down at it, trying to be subtle so that maybe Lauren wouldn't notice.

From: JD

What're you doing tomorrow night?

We had just been talking about a movie that came out a month ago. He said that he really wanted to see it and I had a strong feeling that he was going to ask me to go with him. I put my phone on the side of my leg furthest from Lauren so that she couldn't see me typing and replied: