Ask Me Anything

Chapter 22 - "There is no try, only do."

I wake up with a start, sunlight streaming into the room through the windows and balcony door, forgotten and left open the night before. Disoriented, I page through the events from yesterday to try and provide a context to explain my confused state. Suddenly, I remember that I fell asleep waiting for a text that never came. My stomach sinks as my brain starts listing reasons why she didn't text. First and foremost on the list is that she saw the social media posts, freaked out, and never wants to talk to me again. Anxious to put myself out of my misery, I grab my phone.

But to my absolute surprise, there are texts. Several of them.

Lena: Are you still awake?

The first text was sent at 10:30 last night. I just missed her.

Lena: I completely lost track of time. Molly and I went out for a late dinner and just got home. My phone died so I couldn't let you know until I found my charger.

Lena: I was really hoping to talk to you.

OK. That was reasonable. No need for panic, I tell myself. Plus, she actually wanted to talk to me. The next texts are from about an hour later.

Lena: I'm sort of speechless right now.

Lena: Did you make a YouTube channel for me?

And a final text from about an hour after that.

Lena: Seriously. You can't do something like that and then not answer your texts.

My heart pounds so loud I can hear it in my head. I don't know what to do. Text Lena? Text Jas? Maybe I should just call her? No...nothing good could come from me making a phone call. I reread the texts a few more times and take a deep breath.

Me: Hey, I'm sorry I missed your texts last night. I fell asleep early and didn't hear my phone.

Simple. Truthful. This will be fine. This will be fine. This will be fine. I can do this. Maybe. Probably. This will be fine.

Lena: Soooooo.....

In a panic I grab the laptop and pull up the YouTube channel, regretting that I didn't check it again before I fell asleep last night or after I saw the texts this morning. I'm not sure how it's possible, but the number of views and subscribers has doubled overnight. As fast as possible, I scan through comments to make sure nothing tragic has happened. It doesn't look like there is anything overly negative, so at least I'm good there. I need Jas.

Me: Jas! She knows! Help!

My brain spins out of control knowing I have to come up with something quick, which is clearly not my strong suit.

Me: So you saw that?

I sound like a total idiot. But idiot or not, the ball is back in her court.

Lena: You could say that. My phone died, so I plugged it in to the charger as we got home. After I texted you, I noticed that I had other texts. A lot of them. And Facebook notifications. A lot of them.

She's holding her cards pretty close. I can't tell if she is happy or completely freaked out. I'm desperately trying to be vague as possible until I can figure it out, but she isn't giving me too much to go by. Luckily for me, she doesn't wait for a response before continuing.

Lena: Everyone was either tagging me in something or sending me links. I guess people were sending them to Molly also, because just as I was trying to figure out what was going on she started screaming and yelling for me to come into her room. She had the YouTube page open on her laptop.