The Switching Arrangement

Chapter 2

I'm drawing a picture of a cartoon character from one of the shows I have been obsessed with lately; on my tablet. It's already pretty late at night, but I just cannot get his eyes to sparkle the way they do in the show. You would think that it doesn't matter, but you would be totally wrong - because the eyes are everything. If you can't get the eyes right, sometimes people can't even recognize who the hell you're drawing. I mean, it's like drawing SpongeBob but with Mr. Krab's eyes that stick out of his head.

Okay, maybe you'll still recognize SpongeBob because he's- you know- a yellow hole-ish sponge that wears office clothes. But it would still be weird.

That's when Garrett texts me.

I take out my phone and open the text, expecting him to send me another stupid meme about math jokes, which is somewhat of an inside joke to us now.

But, it's not that. It's far from that.

'Hey, I know we've been talking a lot lately. And to be honest, I really like you. Could we possibly go on a date sometimes? I wanna see how things go.' is what the text reads.

Garrett Carson. Garrett freaking Carson. One of the hottest guys in South Cross High just asked me out on a date.

I stare at the message again.

I still cannot believe my eyes. How can this be possible?

There's only one explanation: he's trying to prank me. I mean, he is already aware of how flustered I get when I'm around him all by myself. (Although that has subsided greatly over the course of three weeks)

I'm getting pranked. He's going to take me out and then he's going to record every detail of it; every single time I embarrass myself and then he's going to play it on repeat each time we have class together. I'll never hear the end of it.

'Or he's genuinely interested in you and finds your awkwardness attractive,' I hear the thought at the back of my head.

Could that be true?

Hell no!

"Shut up! That's not how it works out in high school, you moron!" I yell back, at essentially myself.

"He's a jock, who's supposed to hang out with cool people. And I'm not cool! Cheerleaders, now those are the girls that hover over guys like him!" I say, still quite too loud for a person who is alone in her bedroom.

'Orrrr, he's not the stereotypical hot jock you see in teenage movies and is an actual human being that should not be placed into a certain 'norm'. Have you ever thought about that? Moron?'says the voice again.

God, this voice inside my head is annoying.

Okay, instead of being a crazy person yelling at herself, I should probably text something back. Let's just say yes. I mean, how bad could it be?

How should I phrase it? Should I sound excited? No. That would come off as desperate. Or should I be totally cool? Like I'm used to this sort of stuff? Yeah, right, like he would be fooled by that.

I start to type a reply. 'Hey Garrett. Sure. What do you have in mind?'

Nope. Backspace. That makes me sound like I'm not interested.

God, flirting is hard.

I need to get help, so I called the only person I told about Garrett to - my best friend, Jayden. Jayden is no expert when it comes to romance (I mean if she is, she wouldn't be my best friend) but she never seems to embarrass herself as much as I do and that's good enough for me.