At the Back of The Class

Phone Shenanigans

You let out a sigh under your breath, grabbing your phone and suddenly finding the intense urge to toss it across the room and throw a hard-hitting pitch like you when you were 7 against that one bratty cousin out in the yard. You narrowed your eyes at the shining bright light from your device.

There's a notification up on your lock screen.

It's a text.

Wait.

There's a text? But from whom?

...Could it be Sora? Ventus?

You blinked once, then twice, then thrice, and squinted your eyes to no avail. After all that, you decided the best course of action was to turn the phone off, roll over, close your eyes, and start counting to five. You turn back over to your phone.

But it's still there.

You rubbed your eyes intensely before making a screech that probably could be the calling for some eldritch horror. You just, somehow, gave yourself the pokey-pokey in the eye like an idiot.

Amazing.

Better yet, eyelashes. In your eyeball. Ooga-booga, itchy. You'd rather not elaborate more than that.

Covering your eye like a knock-off pirate pulled out of the great sea known as the garbage dump at the back of the convenience store while singing sea-shanties in your head, you turned your phone on again and your heartbeat raised to hit lines like cardiac arrest.

Lo and behold, the text was still there.

Something must've gone wrong, and it isn't just because of that clown-level performance back there.

Holding your breath and sealing your mouth into a tight line, you finally read the text.

Unknown Number:

Congratulations, you hve won the lottery! Please press the link here to claim your cash prize!!!"

Just like that, you dropped faster than the stock market to a flatline like a pirate finding a treasure chest filled with only all the socks you've lost over the years.

The idea of chucking your device across the room didn't seem like a bad one.

Then again, what were you supposed to expect? That someone would text you 5 minutes before midnight? Maybe that would've worked if not for the fact the only contact you had on your phone was the family group chat that's looking like a graveyard by the minute except for the occasional times grandma mistakes it for Google every other month.

You can really hear the clown music playing right now. At this point, it'd be your national anthem.

[Name]tion, the nation of dumbasses.

Did you think they'd actually remember to add your number?

Your number...?

You gave them your number, right?

Sora asked you earlier, so surely you must've given it...right? You shook your head, surely you must've. At least you thought so until the image of your fish-out-of-water face sitting stupidly in the cafeteria. No, you apparently hadn't given him your number. In fact, Sora didn't even give you his number. It was Ventus.

Oh. So now you looked even dumber. Great, just great.

Wait- Ventus?

You DID have Ven's number, so YOU were the one who forgot to add his number. So then, was it too late to add it now? At this time? Maybe, probably yes.

And that'd be fine. You'd be fine.

That way you don't have to get closer.

You don't have to put yourself out there.