Teenage Wasteland

Chapter 3: That's Okay

It's mocking me.

I've been staring down at my phone for the past half hour, writing a text then erasing it, rinse and repeat.

Marco is sitting next to me on the couch and looks obviously annoyed. He sets down his Nintendo and grabs my phone.

"Hey!"

"Just send the dumb text to your boyfriend already." He snaps, and in one horrifying movement, he presses send.

Shit.

I don't even bother correcting him on the boyfriend part.

With a smug grin on his face, he hands me back my phone and starts playing whatever dumb game came out this week.

"Idiota." I grumble and survey the damage. I hadn't written anything horribly weird and awkward...there was a typo though...

Oh shut up, Natalie isn't going to care about a typo.

Or maybe she just doesn't care about my text at all, because I stay glued to my phone the entire night and nothing happens.

Anxiety of course sets in right around the fifth hour with no response.

Is she ignoring me? Am I annoying? Am I bothering her? Does she hate me? Is she okay?

***

I'm halfway asleep when my phone beeps. I roll over and unlock my phone, bright illuminating light almost blinding me as I tap on my messages.

Hey! Sorry for the late response. I live on 423 Henrietta Street. Party is on Friday from 6-11. See you there! :-)

I exhale a sigh of relief and roll back over, burying myself in the duvet. 

***

Tuesday morning and everyone's buzzing about Natalie's party. And lucky me has the satisfaction of knowing that I was probably one of the first ones invited.

My smile is probably a bit too smug.

Mel is at my locker when I get there, much to my surprise because I didn't even know she knew where my locker was. We've kind of become friends now. Being the slowest runners in gym class brings people together, I guess.

"Hey!" She greets me, along with an over enthusiastic wave and bone crushing hug. "Have you heard about Natalie's party? How dumb, right?"

I blink. "I got invited, actually."

"What? Can you bring a plus two?"

"You just said it was dumb."

She shrugs innocently. "Yeah. But it won't be if I'm there! Sooo...?" There's a hopeful smile on her glossy lips and I know I really can't say no to that.

"Fine. I'll ask." Mel squeals and jumps up, arms wrapping around me in an enthusiastic hug before dashing off.

As luck would have it, I run into Natalie not long after. Literally. We bump into each other in the hallway, and she smiles and apologizes again, and it feels like the first day of school all over again.

I ask her if she'd mind if I bring a friend and she replies with "The more the merrier!" which I'm sure Mel will be thrilled about. We part ways with a wave and yet another glorious smile (I'm not complaining) and I rush off to Biology to tell Mel the good news.

***

"Hello? Earth to Tori? You gonna eat those?" If there's one thing I've learned about Cass, it's that she likes to eat. A lot. She'll devour anything and everything in sight and still manages to keep her slim figure. Must be all the thousand sports she plays.