Josephine's Secret

15. Strawberry Mango

15. Strawberry Mango: Josephine's Pov

Chapter Goal: 200 votes for an early chapter

QOTC: do you prefer Archer calling Josephine by her name? Or by a pet name like "darling" or "sweetheart"?

(a week and a couple days later)

'Hey 👋' I text Archer, looking at my phone under the desk. Only a couple seconds he replies with, 'Hey.'

He didn't use an emoji.

'I'm bored 🎈 Wyd' I reply, looking at the time on my phone.

'I'm doing pack work with Derrick.'

'Oh' I frown, hoping that I didn't interrupt anything important.

'Hey' he texts. 'I have a question'

'I might have an answer'

'Do you like me?' he suddenly asks.'As a mate? Romantically? Do u like me romantically?'

He sends each sentence/question as a separate text, making me thankful that I made sure that my phone is on silent. 'Ig' I answer before sending another text, '🎈'

Suddenly feeling nervous when he doesn't immediately read the text, I start to worry if I sent the right thing or not. "Court!" I whisper-yell to my friend sitting a couple desks away from me.

"What?" she asks, getting up and moving a little closer to my desk.

"He just asked if I like him or not." I inform her, nervously glancing down at my phone to see if he's read my text or not yet. "What do I say?!"

"Well, do you like him?"

Letting out a small groan, I put my head on the desk and say, "Maybe. Kinda."

"You like him." she smirks, shaking her head at me, causing me to growl. "You know you like him."

"I know." I sigh, looking back down at my phone. Seeing that a full minute passed and he still hasn't read my text, I ask Courtney, "Am I suppose to tell him?"

She nods.

"What if I come off as too strong?" I ask, starting to feel heat rise to my cheeks. "We haven't even known each other that long. If I say 'yes' will it scare him off?"

"You two are mates." Courtney reminds me. "He likes you a lot, I can tell. He's just asking to see if you like him back."

"I don't know about that." I shrug, not really knowing how Archer feels about me. 'Yeah ☺️.'

Rapidly tapping my foot as I wait for him to reply, I nearly jump out of my seat when I see the little'read' sign underneath my message. "He's typing!" I squeal, grabbing onto Courtney's arm for support. My sudden outburst gains the attention of some of our classmates, but no one says anything to me about it.

'That's cool'

Scoffing out loud at his reply, I shake my head and text, 'Do you like me?'