Purple Hearts

Chapter 3

I took out my phone and punched in the number I was given. The real Keith better have given me the right phone number, or else I'll be wasting my time!

When I finished typing the number, I stared at the empty space on my phone. It was waiting for me to type something clever or stupid to send to Keith. But, I ended up just leaving a simple "Hey!" in the box.

Before I hit send, I needed to make sure Mullet was where I last saw him. Surely enough, I found him in the same place. Sitting on a chair by a window in the kitchen. He was just staring outside at the mass of people and occasionally grabbing chips out of a nearby bag. Perfect.

I hovered my thumb over my phone screen and took a deep breath, then quickly pressed send.

"Lance, what are you doing?" Hunk asked from behind me. I turned around to see him looking down at me from my crouched position. I was hiding around corner of the wall so Mullet wouldn't see me.

"Nothing Hunk, just don't worry about it." I replied. I shooed him away and looked back over at Mullet.

"Uh okay..." He said. He looked confused but chose to ignore it. Instead, he walked past me and into the kitchen, and where he happened to stop was right in front of my view of Mullet.

"Hunk!" I whispered as loudly as I could. "Move out of the way!"

Hunk grabbed a cookie off of a tray, clearly too focused on the food to hear me. "Hunk!" I said a little louder.

Just as he grabbed another cookie, my phone vibrated in my hands. It was a text from Keith. "Who is this?" He asked.

"Ugh I missed it." I mumbled to myself. I looked back up at the kitchen, and noticed that Hunk was gone. Now I could see Mullet again. He was still in the same position looking out the window.

"It's Lance." I texted back as quickly as my fingers could move. Then I looked back up and watched Mullet's every move.

It took a while, but he eventually picked up his phone and checked it, before typing something back and setting it down. He smiled to himself and looked back out the window.

I wasn't expecting it, but I got a message right after that from Keith. "Oh cool." He said.

I peered at my screen, still unsure whether his is the real Keith or not. "Are you at Shiro's party?" I asked.

From in front of me, Mullet picked up his phone and looked at it curiously. Then, I got another message. "How do you know Shiro?" It read.

I gasped out loud, causing people around me to stare. I didn't care though, I was too focused on my text message. I didn't realise that I referred to Shiro by what he wants others to call him, so it's obvious that I have met him before.

I stared at my phone and thought about what I should reply with. I hovered my thumbs over the keyboard and ran through different scenarios in my head.

"What are you doing?" Asked a familiar voice. I looked up and saw Mullet glaring down at me. "I thought I told you to leave me alone." He said.

I quickly turned off my phone screen and jumped up. "Well, I wasn't bothering you!" I said.

Mullet glared at me. "You really need to find someone else to-" He stopped mid sentences and stared at something. I followed his eyes and saw he was looking at my wrist, where a small section of red ink was peeking out. He pointed at it and continued. "What is that?"

I pulled my sleeve down quickly. "Nothing. Mind your own business."

Mullet ignored my response and grabbed my wrist. "Hey stop!" I shouted. I tried to pull away, but he was too strong. He pulled my wrist close to him and raised the sleeve of my hoodie, revealing Keith and I's past conversation, and the phone number in the corner.

"What the fuck dude." I shouted while pulling my wrist from Mullet's grasp.

He remained silent, and just stared at me with wide eyes. "You're Lance?"

I gasped and gripped my sleeve. "You're the Keith?"

There was a long moment of silence before Pidge walked up to my side, and noticed us staring at each other. "Uh... is everything okay Lance?" She asked.

I looked down at her and shook my head. "Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. Let's just find Hunk and get out of here."

Pidge looked confused at how quickly I wanted to leave, but ignored it and followed me through the crowd.

Before I was too far away, I turned around and saw Keith still staring at me from across the room. I wanted to go back and talk to him. Or maybe even apologize. But instead, I kept moving until we were out of each other's sight.