The Profile

Chapter 4

I wake up to my phone playing the same bouncy tune that repeats itself every ten seconds. It's not even considered a song, just a default music sound that goes off at 6:30 a.m. every single morning, except for the beloved Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I reach for it on my shelf and turn it off, noticing I left the T.V. on all night, again. It doesn't bother me because I can't sleep without noise, but it does bother my dad who says our electric bill does not need to go up any higher this month.

The sun is slowly but surely peaking through my window as I get dressed and brush my hair. I decided to go with light blue jeans and my favorite black and red flannel and a Walk The Moon tee shirt underneath it. Cute and comfy I like to think of it. I brush my teeth and throw on a little bit of make up before swiping my books into my backpack and running down the stairs.

I check my phone that I put in my back pocket and notice it's 6:58 a.m., perfect. Lindy was picking me up to get breakfast at 7 before first round of exams and I am starving. I take a seat on the couch and wait for Lindy's arrival text. The rest of my family is getting ready upstairs and I sit in silence, until it is unfortunately broken by a yelling Abbi.

"Payton! Can I wear your red flannel today!?" She calls from the landing. Not surprised, not the first time she's asked to borrow my clothes.

"I'm already wearing it!" I yell back, my phone buzzes and Lindy's contact pops up. Here b.

"Ughhh no fair! Can I wear something else?" She says, I am running up to the door and lace up my converse to see her still in her pajamas. 

"Fine. Just go and get ready, you and dad are leaving in like 10 minutes. Bye mom bye dad, love you!" I say, and fly out the door, anxious to get breakfast before my stomach's grumbling breaks the sound barrier.

I speed walk to Lindy's Chevy cruise, trying not to slip on the ice, and hop inside the warm car.

"Heyy, how was your weekend?" Lindy says, reversing out of the driveway and down my street. 

"It was good, I-uh, did something." I say trying to hide my smile, Lindy looks at me and knows exactly what I'm thinking. 

"You didn't." She says, looking at me for so long I have to direct her attention back to the road.

"Dude, watch the road! And yes I did, and I have no idea what I'm doing but I found him and I swiped right and I haven't looked since I did it and I don't know if he'll even see me on there or maybe he deleted it I don't know I don't know I don't know!" I'm practically yelling at this point and Lindy bursts out laughing.

"Payton, it's okay! I've been on Tinder long enough to see that he just now got it and is probably still trying to figure it out like you are. I just can't believe you made one! You have to show me your profile when we get to the college." She turns left onto our favorite breakfast spot, a local bagel cafe that serves the best breakfast sandwiches and smoothies we have ever tasted. We order our usual: me, a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich with a wild berry smoothie, and her, plain cream cheese on a french toast bagel with a frozen chai tea frappe.

We order inside and the place smells heavenly, fresh bagels and muffins of every kind my stomach is nearly dying to eat it all. As we wait for our order Lindy turns from the bagels to face me. 

"You know what? We've got time, give me your phone, let's look at your profile!" She takes my phone from my hand and I laugh. She scrolls across my screen and looks at it with confusion.

"Did you delete the app?" She continues swiping back and forth like it will magically appear. I drop my head in embarrassment.

"Oh, yeah, umm, I actually did it on Safari because I felt weird about downloading the app." I sigh, and laugh at myself because saying it out loud makes it sound way more ridiculous. Lindy gives me her signature "really?" face before laughing so loud that some people in line stare.

"Oh my god you are crazy, but understood, I guess." She goes back to the phone and clicks on the Safari icon. It goes straight to a random guy for me to swipe on, she gasps.

"You have a match." She says seriously. My face flushes and Lindy and I look at each other. I take a breath and nod for her to click on my matches. I look and see that it doesn't look like Leo's profile that pops up, but actually the first guy I swiped right on when I first made my profile. The guy in the kayak with the shades, it's not Leo, but he's still cute.

"Dang, not Leo, but hey! This guy is cute, don't you think?" She says and swipes through his pictures. "Oh yeah he is cute, and seems sweet. You should text him, with Leo it's just a waiting game. We will let a few days go by and see what happens. Your part is to keep swiping and be pretty active. The more you're on here, the more likely you'll pop up sooner in his feed." Lindy, the queen of online dating knows what she's talking about. She may be single, but she can get with any guy, it's like she's a boy whisperer. Thank god I have her because I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to online dating and, well, dating in general.

"Alright, now let's look at you're profile!" She says excitedly and clicks on my profile to look at all the pictures I put up last night. 

"Okay okay I like what I'm seeing. Pictures are fine, the bio however, sucks." She says, not even looking up to see my reaction. I can't really complain though, it is kind of a short bio and Lindy is frank 99.9% of the time. We met at the beginning of this year when we sat next to each other in our history class and we've been becoming really close ever since. Of course Mark will always be my best friend, but it feels nice to be close friends with a girl, someone who I feel more comfortable talking about certain things with, like Leo Ferris.

Lindy actually knew who Leo was before I did. They went to the same high school together and even though he graduated a year before her, she still found ways to talk to him through mutual friends. She's constantly asked me if she could help set us up, but I've always said no, wanting this to be a mission I handle alone. However, it never hurts for her to look at my profile to make sure everything looks fine, and my bio is something that needs work.

"Okay, how about this." She hands me back my phone and I notice she made it a little longer.

Hey! I am a photographer who has a passion for travelling. I love meeting new people and I'm always up to talk!

"Yeah, this is good. I'll keep it." Feeling more comfortable with that bio, I slide my phone back into my pocket and our names get called for our order. We waddle back to her car juggling bags and cups and head off to the college.