Sleeping with Socks

Chapter 4 + Where people see through us

Chilling in the cafeteria of the London University was one if my favourite activities. Especially when my best friend Kate was sitting on the chair next to me. The table we chose that day was at the very back of the room, far from anyone else. This way, we could talk of whatever we wanted to talk about, without being interrupted or stalked by whomever. We were alone with our mash potatoes and our fruit yoghurt, and that was perfect.

Today, our graphics teacher was absent, so we haven't class this afternoon anymore. I personally decided that I'll stay at home to work a little bit on my photography project and to spend a few hours with my mother. Kate, her, was about to leave the UNI to hang out with her boyfriend. I met him twice. His name was Robin and he was pretty nice.

She suddenly asked me if the pictures we took the last night I spent at her were still in my phone. I nodded, putting a brief smile onto my face and took my phone out from my pocket, looking for the pictures in my gallery. When I found them, I told Kate to come sit next to me. She did, and we started.

I didn't remember we took so many pictures that day. We were in our pajamas, which mean that we removed our make up before we started our photo-shoot and that I was wearing my glasses and my usual messy bun on the top of my head. Sometimes we were serious, sometimes we were not. However, the pictures were cool. We had a lot of fun watching them back. We arrived at the end, but I thought there were still some that we haven't seen yet, so I slipped my forefinger on my screen to make appear the next photo. But it was not one of Kate and I. Actually, the person next to me on this picture was Will. We took it when we met at Starbucks, on his birthday, three weeks ago. I totally forgot about this picture. We took a lot on his phone, but I didn't remember we took one with mine. We were laughing so hard that it seemed our cheeks disappeared from our faces. I remembered that moment. At the starting point we just wanted to smile a little, but then Will almost fell from his chair, which made us laugh very loudly and made me accidentally push on the "SHOOT" button. But we found the picture really nice, so I kept it. I smiled when I was reminding me that moment. Fact that Kate noticed. She whistled and rubbed her hand on my shoulder.

« - Essiiiiiiiie ! Who's this cute boy posing with you ?

- No one.

- Come on. Tell me who he is. If you do, I'll give you... »

She looked for something to give me on the table and hold out the first item she found.

« - A spoon.

- He's a classmate from primary school. You see ? No one.

- You guys seem close.

- We were close. Before. We were five years old, Kate. It doesn't mean anything !

- Who knows ?

- Let's move on. »

Why was I so discreet about my friendship with Will ? I couldn't really answer this. It was silly. Was he doing the same ? Or did he tell all his friends ? That was weird. Kate leaved five minutes later. She thanked me when I wished her to have a nice time with her boyfriend, and she wished me good luck with "my cute classmate". I shew here my tongue, she did the same. Then she turned back and left the cafeteria.

I looked at my phone lying on the table. I unlocked the screen. The picture of me and Will was still opened. I kept my eyes on it for a few minutes. I was thinking about what Kate said. « You seem close. » She was right. We remembered each other after all these years, he spent his birthday afternoon with my insignificant person... We were close.

Suddenly, a girl stopped next to me and stared at my phone like if it was from another planet. I raised my sight on her, and I immediately blushed. I didn't know her name, she wasn't very popular there... But I knew something about her. She was crazy about YouTube. And the Harries Twins. Like, really really really crazy.

Shit.

I tried to put my phone back into my picket, but she was already fangirling.

« OH MY ACTUAL GOD. »

Here we go. I tried to not roll my eyes.

« - Is this Will Derbyshire ?

- Darbyshire. Not Derbyshire. »

False fan dot com, welcome on our website.

« - But, yeah. It's him.

- OH MY GOD ARE YOU KIDDING ME ?

- Can you please talk quieter ?

- It's so insaaaane. Where did you meet him ?

- At Starbucks. We... »

Had planned to spend our afternoon together ? No. Very bad idea to tell her this.

« - We just took a photograph.

- NUTS. Does he smell good ? »

I beg your pardon ?

« - I... I guess so, yes. »

She giggled. Sweet Jesus.

« I don't understand why you are not sharing this. »

He was my friend, just my friend. He was not someone famous, according to my mind. Just Will. The little boy who gave me his gloves.

« I dunno. Maybe I'll do it later. »

She nodded, giggled again and went away. I've never seen this before. Well, yes, I already saw this kind of things before, but only on TV or in YouTube videos. But not in real life. That was scary. I looked at the photo again. The little "SHARE" button, next to the "DELETE" one, was catching my eye. No. No, no and no. It was our first afternoon together since fifteen years. Nobody had to know this. I just pressed the back button, until my menu disappeared, locked my screen, put my phone into my bag and left the cafeteria.

But as I was walking, my phone rang. With the sounds it makes when I had a new Twitter notification. I looked for it in m y bag, pushing away a few pens and copybooks, and clicked on the blue bird icon. It was a girl from my art class that mentioned me in her tweet. In reply to a person called @jxcksonandfinnegxn. And the tweet said :

@jxcksonandfinnegxn her name is essie. here’s her twitter @essieadams xoxo

What the hell was going on.