Youngblood // Luke Hemmings (Smart Sequel)

Chapter 16 // Tinder

Dani's POV

"Luke hasn't texted me in a month. I see him around but I don't want to go up to him and ask him what's wrong because then he'll think I'm clingy or maybe I'll say the wrong thing or maybe he'll say something that I obviously don't want to hear." I groaned loudly. I put my face in my hands. 

"Maybe he's realized that he shouldn't be just using you as a booty call. Maybe this is a good thing. You both can start moving along." Cal said through the phone. We were currently on FaceTime with each other. We agreed to have these biweekly FaceTime calls to update each other on our lives and 'help each other study'. These calls were mostly to rant and get advice from one another. 

"I'm tried Cal. Every time I try to move on it's like he pops back into my life somehow." I looked up from my hands to my phone. Calum sighed.

"Look Dani, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. You need to move on. Luke's probably moving on as we speak. This isn't healthy."

"I know it isn't healthy! You think I don't know that?! I try, Cal, I really try.  I don't think I can ever get over him, that's the sad part." 

"Let me ask you something." 

"Shoot."

"Do you miss him or do you miss the memories?" I sat there speechless. I started thinking. "Keep thinking about it." Cal said. "And let me know your answer when you get it. I gotta run, I'll text you."

"Bye." I ended the call after waving at him. I sat at my desk in disbelief. Did I really miss Luke or did I miss the memories I shared with him? While I was thinking of my answer, Evie walked into our dorm with a guy. "And this is my dor- OH hey Dani! I didn't know you came back." 

"I was only gone for the weekend." I told her. I looked over at her friend. I held my hand out for him to shake. "I'm Daniela, you are?" 

"Brent." He shook my hand and smiled awkwardly at me. I definitely ruined this guy's chance at getting laid tonight. 

"You go to school here?" I asked. 

"Yeah, I live across campus." 

"Anyway! Brent just came over to check out my dorm." Evie said. 

"Oh really?" I acted surprised. "Well, I was just on my way out to go study." Evie tried to suppress her smile. 

"Okay, well. Have fun!" She exclaimed, as I got up and got my things. I walked out the door and decided to take a walk, considering I had a lot of thinking to do. 

~*~

"Thank you so much for earlier." Evie told me, as we got ready for bed. 

"No problem." I said. "How'd you meet the guy anyway?"

"Tinder." 

"Tinder?"

"Yeah, tinder!" I looked at her confused. "Dani, don't tell me you haven't heard about tinder. Have you been living under a rock?" 

"Maybe." She squealed and jumped out of bed. She jumped into my bed and unlocked her phone. She opened the pinkish fire app and logged in. The first thing that popped up was a guy that I was pretty sure was in one of my journalism classes. 

"So! You make an account, set up your profile, and then you just swipe right if you like the guy or you swipe left if you don't!" She proceeded to swipe left on the first guy then swipe right on the second. "See?" Right after she swiped right on the second guy, a message appeared saying "It's a match!" 

"Then, if you get this, it means you matched with them. So you can message them." She switched over to the messages and sent him a winky face. "Simple. It's really fun. You should try it." 

"Maybe." She smiled at me and then got out of my bed. She hopped back into hers. 

"Goodnight Dani."

"Night." I stayed up, thinking about Cal's advice and the app. Maybe it was time for me to move on. Maybe tinder was a step to moving on. 

I unlocked my phone and opened the app store. I typed in tinder, then downloaded it. Once it downloaded, it asked me for my phone number and what the verification code that was sent to me was. After proving that I wasn't a robot, I set up my profile. I picked out three good profile pictures, stated I was 21 and interested in guys from ages 21-26. I put that I was from University of Sydney. Then it asked me to write a short bio. I thought to myself, aren't these supposed to be witty and cute. I just typed 'if you aren't into dogs, then you aren't into me.' I quickly deleted it thinking that people would assume I mean I'm a dog. It makes sense in my head but maybe it won't make sense into other peoples'. I gave up on trying to come up with a bio so I just saved my profile how it was. I switched to the main page. A guy's face popped up who wasn't that cute. I swiped left. I kept looking through the options of guys, only swiping right for half of them. I matched with a couple but didn't have the courage to send them a winky face like Evie did. 

"This is ridiculous." I whispered. I locked my phone and put it to the side. Am I really putting myself out there on tinder. Who was I? 

~*~

I woke up to multiple messages on tinder. Most of them were complimenting me, guys saying hey with smiley faces, while the rest were cheesy (or really bad) pick up lines. I opened each one, answering each one. While I got up and got ready for my class, a guy messaged me back pretty quickly. His name was Daniel. He didn't go to my school but he lived 5 miles from me.

From: Daniel

So tell me about yourself :)

To: Daniel 

I'm studying to be a journalist, I live in Sydney, I love dogs, I think I'm super funny but my friends think they're funnier. I don't really know what else to say haha

From: Daniel

That's so cool, for some reason I see you in journalism. I love dogs as well. & I'll be the judge of your humor. 

I checked his profile again. His bio said I think 'I'm pretty funny', and below he listed his school, job, and Instagram. 

To: Daniel 

So you think you're pretty funny? 

From: Daniel 

Yeah just like you. But unlike you my friends do agree that I am funnier than them. 

To: Daniel

Ouch.. That hurt. 

From: Daniel

Again I gotta be the judge on your humor. Ya never know, you may be funnier than me. 

We continued to talk for the rest of the day, which felt nice. We got to know each other pretty well. 

From: Daniel 

I know this is like really soon, but you've proved you aren't a psychopath so would it be alright if I got your number? 

I thought to myself real quick. Should I really give him my number? What's the worst thing that could happen?

From: Daniel 

It would be so much easier to text you than to message you on this app :) I love talking to you

I smiled at the message. I typed my number then sent it. 

Take that Luke. 

~*~

Sorry Luke's not in this but I promise it's going to make sense/get better soon 

Keep voting and thank you for reading <333

-Em x