Autumn

46: What Mikey suggests

"The best way to get over someone is to find someone new to have fun with."

"Like a rebound? I don't know... Isn't that kind of mean? I wouldn't want to lead someone on or anything." Theodore swivelled around aimlessly in his desk chair; for some reason, he couldn't keep still.

"Which is why the brilliant world of online dating is right up your alley," Mikey said. "Lots of people are in the same boat as you."

Mikey flopped down on Theodore's bed and took his phone. He downloaded Tinder and immediately started creating an account. "What should we put as your username?"

"Make sure it's nothing lame," Winston said from on the floor. He was sprawled out on the carpet with a party bag of chips. He wiped his dirty fingers onto his already-stained white shirt, unfazed by the trail of barbecue flavoured dusting it left behind.

"All Tinder usernames are lame. Here, we'll just use your first name and a bunch of numbers," Mikey said, then continued with setting up the account. "Now, you're exclusively into girls, right? Oh, how about her? She's cute."

Out of interest, Theodore peeked over at the phone and caught a glimpse of a very pretty girl with long waves of blonde hair and silver metallic stars glued to her cheeks like cosmic freckles. Her name was Sabrina.

Theodore swallowed. "She's very cute."

"Yeah, but she also looks like she dates guys exclusively named Brad and lives her life based on her horoscope," Winston said.

"That's a pretty confident assumption based on a photo," Theodore said quietly. He lifted his head and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror above his dresser. He tried not to suck in his breath too sharply when his eyes fell on the messy nest that was apparently his hair. He wondered what assumptions would be made about him.

"Out of curiosity, which photo did you use of me?" he asked, tearing his eyes away from his reflection.

"Uh...." Mikey stretched out the noise, and slowly leaned away from Theodore.

"Jesus Christ, is it that bad?"

"Look, you have limited photos of yourself on your phone. A majority of your gallery consists of memes and shitposts," Winston said. "You really only had one decent photo..."

"Is it..." Theodore started.

Winston nodded.

"Year ten formal," they said together.

Theodore flung himself back on his chair and let out a pained noise. "I look ten in that photo."

"Yeah, a ten out of ten," Mikey said, attempting to light up the mood.

"Nah, man. Ten years old."

"You look good," Winston said, taking the phone from Mikey to examine the photo closer. "The green tie brings out your eyes."

"Oh fuck off."

"The photo is fine. We will update it later," Winston said. "For now, let's swipe right on some ladies."

"Please don't say that," Theodore said, but he obliged.

Throughout the afternoon, the three of them flicked through some profiles. By the time dinner rolled around, Winston and Mikey left together to get food. Theodore wasn't very hungry so he decided to call it a night and head to bed early. Because it was still summer, it was still light outside and it cast a faint sheen of light through his bedroom window. He could hear the neighbour's kids running around outside on what sounded like skateboards and scooters, but the noise was mostly drowned out by the buzzing of his electric fan.

As Theodore closed his eyes and almost drifted into slumber, his phone pinged with a notification. With heavy eyes, he lazily reached over and picked it up from his bedside table. He had matched with someone and she had sent him a message. Suddenly, Theodore was wide awake.

He felt a tightening in his chest and he was unsure why. Was it excitement? Nerves? Dread? Theodore took a deep breath and decided it was just uncertainty of diving into something new. With that in mind, he unlocked his phone and opened her message. It was from a pretty ash blonde girl named Ebony.

Hi! Couldn't resist swiping right. Your profile picture is so cute! Green really brings out your eyes

Theodore silently cursed Winston for saying the exact same thing earlier that day. Hearing—or, rather, reading—it from someone else was surprisingly flattering. Theodore's fingers reached for the keyboard to type out a response.

But he came to a complete blank.

Was it meant to flirt? Be cool and coy? Laugh it off?

After sitting on his bed for half an hour, he realised that dating was going to be a lot harder than he thought. Getting over Autumn was difficult. But diving back into the dating pool when he barely knew how to swim was proving to be even harder.