hazza

🎶Four🎶

      "And there's this really nice boy on Wattpad— " she was saying over dinner to her parents one evening.

      "Wait," her mom said, cutting her off abruptly.

      "What?" Lovie said, pausing, fork halfway to her mouth.

      "You can talk to people on there?" her mom asked incredulously. "I thought you just put stories and things on there."

      Lovie had a feeling she'd said too much. "You can put stories on there," she said hesitantly.

      "You just said there was a really nice boy on there," her mom said, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Lovie, have you been talking to a boy? That you don't know?"

      Lovie didn't know what to say. If she said yes she could get banned from Wattpad and she didn't want that. How was she going to talk to Jess then? She realized that she'd never told her parents about Jess, her best friend of two years, but here she was spouting about George who she'd just started talking with two weeks ago. Lovie also didn't want to lie, but what else was she going to do.

      "No, I was just reading his stories and he seems very nice," she said, trying to act casual. She didn't lie to her parents all the time because she wasn't that kind of rebellious person. She went to school, barely associated with anyone, came home, and did her homework. Her life as a straight-A student was very uneventful.

      "What are you— some kind of stalker?" her dad teased once the tension between her and her mother was partially gone.

      Lovie just laughed nervously. They didn't ask anymore and she didn't say anymore.

* * *

"George, you've been spending a lot of time on your computer lately," his mum said when she came into his bedroom to bring him some clothes that had come out of the washing machine.

      George self-consciously turned the screen away so she couldn't see it. He was on Wattpad, trying to decide what he wanted to say to Lovie. He hadn't heard from her all day, which was odd.

      "What are you doing on there?" Louise asked suspiciously, nearing him.

      He exited out of the page and went to his photo album that consisted of pictures of him and Paul and John. He hadn't even told her he was on Wattpad. He had originally signed up because John had mentioned that he had an account, and that had been a couple months ago.

      "Looking at pictures," he said, hand on his chin, acting as though he was preoccupied and not feeling a little guilty.

      His mum came and looked over his shoulder quite nosily, in George's opinion. Once she decided there wasn't anything scandalous in his photo album, she left. As soon as she was out the door, he went back onto Wattpad and typed out:

hazza: Hi, Lovie!

      He paused. What else should he say? Should he ask about how her brother was settling in at his college? Did that sound too nosy?

      "George!" his mum shouted from another room

      "Yes?" he called back.

      "John is here!"

      "Tell him he can come here!"

      A few moments later, John came through the doorway and was soon squinting at the computer screen over George's shoulder. John didn't have his glasses on, so he couldn't see very well.

      "Messaging your bird, are you?"

      "Shh!" George hissed. "Don't say it too loud!"