Complicated

Nora had been staring at her ceiling for fifteen minutes and, shockingly, the answers to her current life issues had not appeared there.

That would've just been way too helpful, wouldn't it?

Honestly, staring at her ceiling hoping that answers would appear there wasn't even unusual. She'd taken to reading far too much into just about everything. Billboards, those chalkboard signs they put outside coffee shops. She'd exhausted all the quotes on her Instagram explore page and things were getting dire. So where was a girl meant to go for answers nowadays?

She was this close to seeking out a priest. And she was an unbaptised heathen.

Nora sighed, turning over and burying her face in her pillow. No more ceiling, it didn't have any answers for her.

This was such a mess.

She was going crazy over a boy and she hated it. Boys did not deserve this much energy. And she couldn't even make some remark about the boy in question being especially not worth it because he had somehow grown into a person who was kind and sweet and charming. He was a person who she herself said she would miss if she never saw again. If everything wasn't so damn complicated and messed up she might actually consider doing something about it.

But it was. Complicated and messed up, that is.

Every time she thought about doing something about it, Viri's face came to mind. The look Nora had seen so many times. The look Viri had on her face anytime Nora and Alejandro spoke.

Nora shouldn't have told Alejandro she'd miss him. She should've just let him go, never to be seen again.

She could find other boys, surely. It wasn't worth all this.

Nora sighed, pulling her covers up around her. She wanted to disappear into her bed.

Her phone buzzed on her bedside table, loudly vibrated against the wood surface. She rolled over onto her side, reaching over to pick it up.

It was Eva, sending her a meme she'd seen before on her endless scrolls through the Instagram explore page. She responded with laughing emoji's, figuring what Eva didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Ah, that old expression. Was it true? Would what Viri didn't know not hurt her?

Viri didn't know that Nora had said she'd miss Alejandro. She didn't know that Nora thought about Alejandro at least once an hour. She didn't know that Nora opened up her messages with Alejandro at least once a day, wondering if she should talk to him.

Look, she was doing it again.

Nora stared at their previous messages. She grinned at the gif of a pomeranian he'd sent her months ago. At least he was self-aware.

She clicked on the text box and typed out a measly "hey". She bit her lip, staring at the single word for a second until she rightfully realised it was stupid and backspaced until it was no more.

She tried "hey, how are you" next. Still stupid.

Nora sighed, looking up at the ceiling. This entire thing was stupid. And the ceiling still wasn't giving her any answers.

Movement on her screen caught her eye, and she looked down to see bubbles forming as Alejandro typed.

Her heart thudded in her ears. She could feel it beating throughout her entire body, all the way down to her toes. How was her entire body cold when her heart was in overdrive?

'You know, I can see you typing."

Nora felt a flash of heat, and was glad Alejandro wasn't around to see the extreme reactions he could elicit from her.

She pressed her lips together, unsure of what to do. Her fingers hovered over her phone screen for a long moment she finally pressed down on the text box.

"Have you got your results yet?"

It was better than hey, but still. Kinda stupid.

Still, she'd never seen a boy reply so fast.

"Anxious to know if you'll be seeing me again?"

Idiot.

Of course he'd be cocky.

More bubbles, then a new message. "Yeah, I got them yesterday."

Was that all he was going to give her? Seriously?!

She was about to seriously lose it at him when he sent through another message.

"Looks like you're not getting rid of me just yet."

It took her a moment to realise she was grinning.

"What a shame" she wrote back, hoping he'd get the joke.

"I'm definitely going to need an English tutor."

Nora pursed her lips, taking a deep breath in through her nose. Would Viri hold it against her if she said she'd tutor him? It was tutoring, and she was probably the best candidate for an English tutor. Her grades were better than Viri's in English.

"Probably."

She couldn't believe she'd just said that.

"Is that a yes to being my tutor?"

Nora wasn't entirely sure what happened, maybe she'd been possessed, but for some reason she typed back a "yes" and suddenly she'd agree to be Alejandro's English tutor.