Behind The Screens

3 | Ello There, Mate.

Alex

With the festival coming up in a few days, the streets were even more dense than usual. Apparently festival adoring people around the world love coming to this thing, and it caused the hotels and streets and supermarkets to be packed. I will never understand how the commotion completely went over my head.

I slid my finger in the warm sand, creating the letters of my name. "Why do we have to sit out here?" Tyler asked. He was lying on the ground, groaning. "I thought you loved the beach." I mumbled, trying to concentrate on the last few letters of my name.

"I do, man, just sometimes the ocean sand isn't my place, you know?" Tyler explained. "Sometimes I need something more..." He sat up and looked longingly into the Starbucks across the street. He turned to me with a pouty puppy dog face. Sighing, I said, "Fine. Let's go."

We walked toward the Starbucks ahead of us and went to find a seat. Besides the billions of teenager girls in leggings and oversized tees, Starbucks is actually pretty great. We don't usually go unless we're craving cake pops and, at the moment, they sounded really appetizing.

"Four cake pops please," Tyler ordered. "Your choice." The girl behind the counter picked up four different cake pops and handed them to us. "Here you go." Tyler paid her and handed me two of the cake pops.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed while smiling wide and bright. We took a seat behind a girl and her friend on a laptop. . .

"Sometimes I wonder why you convince me to do things," I took a bite of my cake pop. "And then things like this happen." Tyler nodded and took a bite of his. "You gotta listen to your heart, man. It's waves vs. Cake pops." I shook my head and laughed.

When I looked back up, I happened to catch a glance of something familiar. The girl in front of us had a tab pulled up and at the top of the page it said 'Girl With A Blog :)'.
My heart began to race at the thought of her. Maybe it was just a girl who follows her blog... and maybe it was her.

"Hey, you okay, man?" Tyler said while tapping on the side of my head. I looked back down at the table. "Yea. I'm fine... look." I mumbled and pointed at the girl's screen but she had already switched tabs. "You're losing your mind, dude, stop stalking." Tyler whispered. I shook my head and just as I was about to give up, I got an idea.

I took my phone out of my pocket and opened my PM'S with Girl With a Blog.

Ello there, mate.

After a couple of seconds, I heard a dinging sound and there on her screen was my PM. Hearing her giggle at my message made me smile.

Should I say something? Should I tell her? Should I tap on her shoulder and start a conversation? These past weeks that we've been talking have felt like months, but in that time, it's like we've gotten to know so much about each other.

"Is that her again?" Tyler whispered over my shoulder when he saw who I was messaging. I grinned and motioned my head at the girl in front of us. Tyler looked up and his face automatically lit with realization. "That's her, man?" He whispered. I nodded.

Tyler started playfully beating at my shoulder with his fists. I couldn't stop grinning. "Say something," He said. I was silently hoping that she wasn't hearing any of this. I looked up and her and her friend were getting up to leave while whispering something about the fall festival. . .

Britten

"That would be great! I mean, if you like him so much." Mira said. "But it would be awkward..." I explained while throwing away my empty frappuccino cup. "Maybe he'll find you!" She said as we walked out of Starbucks.

When my plane had finally touched the California ground early that morning, I had realized that Pointless Blog, my anonymous love interest, could be anywhere. I smiled at the thought of him. "See?" Mira said when she'd caught me grinning. We continued walking toward the hotel that we'd booked for the week. It took a lot of convincing to get it because we looked as young as we were and without our "adult language" and our fake id's, they would've figured out that we were ditching a week of school in New York.

We were only a couple feet away from the door before a guy with dark brown, almost black, hair and a maroon "L.A" shirt stumbled in front of me. I quickly jumped back in alert. He visibly shot a nasty look at a guy behind him, then looked at Mira and I, red faced, reaching at the back of his neck. He was cute.

"I-I'm sooo sorry," the guy stuttered. I smiled. "It's fine." I said. He gave me a sloppy smile and I looked down at my feet. "Uhh.. a-are you going in?" He asked me. I lifted my head and nodded. "Yea." I said. "We're going in." Mira replied. He opened the door for us and let us in with an amusing expression on his face. I tried not to laugh... He was really cute.

Mira nudged me to get my attention. "He's a little hottie." she said, wiggling her eyebrows. I smiled and nodded in agreement. "Are you here for the festival?" He asked. "Yea." Mira and I said at once. "Cool... I am too. But I live here, so..." I laughed and nodded. "I came here from New York." I informed him. "Ditching school just to be here." He grinned and looked at the ground. "Cool." He said.

There was a small silence before we both opened our mouths to speak, then closed them, seeing that one another was going to talk. "You go ahead." We said in unison. I laughed. "You go." I said again. "My name's..." He looked over at the guy who pushed him earlier then back at me and said, "Alex." I smiled again. "Britten." I said. He grinned even wider this time, I couldn't help but to laugh. He was just so... adorable.

"Tyler and I are about to go to the beach," Alex said. "You should come." He reached back to scratch his neck. "I mean, unless you have something to do, I totally and completely understand." He said. "I have time." I replied. He awkwardly smiled and nodded. "Well okay, see you then?" I nodded, then walked away, looking behind him once more... and then left for good.

Mira and I went up to our hotel room to change into our swimsuits. "First day in Cali and you've already got men swooning over you." Mira said as we were changing. Heat rose in my cheeks. "I don't know about that."  "Um, yea!" Mira insisted. "Alex looked totally into you!"
"Well-"
"Well what?" Mira interrupted. "He kept giving you these nervous smiles and his face was red the whole time! And how about the way he looked at you? Pure desire. I think he invited us to the beach to see more of you."

I thought about what Mira was saying, knowing these things were true. She will always notice when a guy is into me, and I'll always know when a guy is hitting on her. Plus, this guy, Alex, was super cute and his smile was one of the nicest smiles I've ever seen. His eyes were the prettiest brown and I couldn't seem to make myself look away.

I was so caught up in my thoughts, that by the time I'd gotten myself together, I hadn't realized that Mira had been talking the whole time.
"...don't you think?" She asked me, throwing our beach bag over her shoulder. "What?" I questioned, giving her a look of confusion. She rolled her eyes. "We're you thinking about him?"
I looked down, hopefully hiding my response, but it was pointless because she knew everything I was thinking and this wasn't an exception.
"Let's go."