Upper Echelons

Bfs before Gfs

As soon as I got home from school I went straight up to my room, grabbed my laptop and lay on my bed. I opened my laptop and signed into my user account. The screen loaded and a notification popped up. It was Dan.

The message read as follows:
"Hey I know you're probably sleeping but I just wanted to say I didn't mean to sound creepy earlier by pushing for an invite to the Gala. If you felt pressured I'm sorry and we can always meet up another time. Anyway, I know you're probably asleep but I just made a playlist and thought you would appreciate it. I'm off to bed now anyway. Chat tomorrow cutie. X"

I clicked on the link and a playlist of thirty songs came up. I could already see a couple of songs I liked in there at first glance. He didn't seem like a courteeners kind of boy, but I couldn't fault his taste.
I needed to message him and get this over with.

"Hey sorry I just read your message. Playlist seems cool. I guess we both like courteeners then. They've got a show coming up soon at Joe's bar in town.... I was meaning to ask, I know this sounds silly but how did you know where I live yesterday? Lol you said you would pick me up from the red letterbox at the end of my road. How did you know I had one at the end of my road? Haha. Anyways I'm going to grab some food and chill, message me when you're on!" I slammed the laptop shut and lay on my back.

I hope he'll reply soon, I thought to myself. It's probably nothing and I'm making a big deal. It's not everyday I get to speak to a cute guy I have a connection with, so even if he was a stalker maybe he was just stalking in a cute way, if that's even a thing. Can you stalk in a cute way? Probably not. I'd obviously watched too much "you" on Netflix and thought I'd nabbed a joe. It was scary, but he was hot; NOT that that makes it okay. Fine, I'm going crazy I know. Let me not judge him till he replies. I'm sure he has a perfectly good explanation.

*VRRR* a notification sound went off and I opened my laptop. That was quick I thought to myself, eager to read his reply.

"Hey, hows your day been? Not nineteen forever is my jam. Maybe if all goes well we could go see them together. Would be pretty cool. I was waiting for you to ask me yesterday about the letterbox thing I wanted to see how much you were paying attention or if you were blinded by the flirting lol. I was playing with you. It was a wild guess and most streets in the city centre have red letterboxes at the end of their roads and you said you lived in the city so I presumed you would too lol. Don't worry I'm not a stalker, unless you're into that sort of thing haha....anyways listen to the playlist and let me know what you think. Track 13 is pretty dope. Catch you in a bit"

I took a big sigh of relief and smiled. He wasn't a creep. "Thank God". I mean I wasn't religious but I always knew there was someone out there looking over me, and I didn't mind if I called that person God. 

"You reply quick...keen bean haha. I thought you were playing, feel silly even saying anything now lol and I've already listened to track 13, it sucks haha. I'll show you some better music when we're at the Gala. I was hoping you didn't mind, but would it be ok if I met you outside the gala? It's just my friends want to get ready together..."

"Sure thing. Just don't wear too much makeup. Girls that wear loads of makeup are a turn off. Plus you're pretty so you don't need it and I want to see that pretty face of yours."

I couldn't tell if he was being a major jerk or not. I can wear as much makeup as I like, I'm not having some random guy on the internet tell me what I can and can't wear. He did however, call me pretty. I guess it's no harm to wear only a little. Charity had already booked a MAC makeup artist to come to mine to do our makeup. I was excited to being getting all glammed up for Gala but I guess I would be asking the makeup artist for the au natural look now.

"Do you always tell girls what to wear? You know that's against the rules of feminism right? Lol but I was planning to go for an au natural look anyway. I'm not big on the makeup thing anyway." I was lying, why was I lying to please someone I didn't know? Did I really like him enough to change myself? Maybe. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. My mum always did say I looked better without makeup. It was only my step dad that disagreed, and his opinion could go to hell.

"You're beautiful the way you are. Besides, you don't want makeup to hide your gorgeous face. I don't tell girls what to wear. I wouldn't. I just like what I like I guess and that seems to be a more natural look. Sorry if I offended you. Who are the girls you're going with anyway?"

"It's ok. I dig that you want to see what lies beneath lol. I'll be going with Charity, Kiera and Niamh. They're my best friends and I've told them about you. So I apologise if they're over excited to meet you, it's just that I never really bring dates to events..." Did I sound lame or lonely? At least I wasn't like Charity, a new boy every week. No exaggeration.

"I can't wait to meet them....I'm sure we'll get on great. Anyways I've got to go grab some food. Chat to you tomorrow. Have a good night x"

I was so glad that Dan wasn't a weirdo stalking me. However, I didn't like the controlling comments he had made about wearing makeup. Maybe I was thinking too much into it and he was just trying to flirt and tell me I was beautiful without it all. I guess a guy should like you with or without makeup and natural beauty always prevails. I was starting to think I was falling for him and I hadn't even met him yet. I'd never felt like this before and there was only two more days till the Gala. I couldn't wait to see him. I wonder if the conversation would flow in the same way as it did online? I didn't really know much about him but I felt that I had a good judgement of character and from our conversations he seemed like a good guy. He said he lived in the city with his family and he didn't attend college as he worked at home as a music reviewer for Beatz magazine. He had one sister and a pet dog. His hobbies consisted of playing his guitar, watching crime documentaries, playing console games and he liked to run every morning. He just seemed like a normal guy. Nothing out of the ordinary. But, he was exciting to me.

*PING* it was a notification from Niamh on my phone.

"Are you home? We need to talk urgently. I don't think Dan is who he says he is. You need to be careful! Call me as soon as you see this."

What did she mean? Dan wasn't who he said he was? Who could he possibly be? I'd seen loads of pictures of him online and he even sent me one of him holding up my username the first night we spoke, simply to prove he wasn't some creepy old weirdo that was trying to lure in young girls. For the first time, I wasn't worried. It seemed typical that Niamh would start trying to stop me from hanging out with someone who actually liked me. Sometimes I thought she got pleasure out of seeing me alone. She was with Finn for God knows how long and then she had a few flings here and there, but at-least she always had someone interested in her. It's like she was jealous that someone finally liked me and for once her love life consisted of liking someone who already had a girlfriend. She finally had a guy, Noah, who didn't like her back the same way. No one in the group other than myself knew how that felt. It sucked. However, things were finally changing and feelings with Dan were mutual. I wasn't going to give up on him now.