Jake

Chapter 3

I drive home in my brand new Saturn just listening to Christmas songs. Even though it’s not around Christmas let alone winter. It’s sunny, warm, and flowers are everywhere. I turn the corner and drive down the road until I finally reach my house. I open the door with the custom made The Fault in Our Stars key my mom bought for me. It says the typical phrase you see on t-shirts and posters,

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

Not giving me the chance to hang up my jacket or even take off my shoes, my mom runs up to me and just as I predicted, her hair is wavy and every Cover Girl product is splashed on her face.

“Where have you been?” she asks putting on her diamond earrings and clinking her heels on the ground.

“Oh just the usual. Playing football, sneaking in the janitor’s closet with my hot girlfriend and living my amazing life as ‘one of them’”, I say sarcastically. “You know I have a job”.

“One of them” was as my parents put it, “the normal kids”. The kids who have more than one friend, a “bae”, etc. My mom didn’t take that as a joke at all. Only because she wanted that for me. That to be my life as a teenager. She just completely ignored it and just stared at me with her blue-green eyes.

“Richard let’s go!” she called upstairs to my dad, the full time attorney.

 He comes running downstairs in a brand new tux. They both kiss my forehead, give me instructions for Michael as if I’ve never babysat before and leave out the door. Michael is asleep. So that gave me some time to myself. I walk to the couch in our living room and sit down to watch Friends. As I’m watching Ross and Rachel argue about whether they were on a break or not, I start thinking about what I said to my mom. “Living my amazing life as ‘one of them’”. Maybe I could be one of them. At that very moment I start making a plan. I plan that’s guaranteed to work. I took my phone out of my pocket and texted my friend Liv.

 ◊

Liv is my best friend. Well, my only friend. I texted her and asked her if she could come over and she said sure. After seven minutes later, Liv shows up. She texts me to tell me to open the door. I pause Friends, get up, walk to the door and open it.

“Hi”, Liv says texting her boyfriend Logan.

“We need to get to work”, I say tugging on her arm.

“So what is so urgent?”

“I’m going to be a Catfish”, I say with a little smirk.

“A what?” she says with a confused look on her face.

“A Catfish. You know, as in Catfish: The TV Show”, I say trying to jog her memory.

“Ohhh. So are you going to bea Catfish or are you beingCatfished?”

“I’m going to be.”

She just stared at me like I was crazy. Then she sighed.

“Alright. I’ll help you. But the first step is to pick a name. What do you want to name it?”

 “Jake”, I said without thought.

◊

Liv and I went straight to work. She said that we should use Instagram. She set up my account and everything. She picked the most ridiculous username though. “hubbabubbajake”. After she got me situated with Instagram she left to go eat dinner. Liv gave me Aubrey’s Instagram before she left. I typed her user in the search box on my phone but just couldn’t press enter. My stomach ached and my hands were sweaty. What’s the worst that could happen if you press enter? I take a deep breath and click enter. “purplepolkadot_aub” shows up. I click on the user and there she is. They’re the most beautiful duck-faced selfies I’ve ever seen. I DM her. All I say is hi though. Almost five minutes afterwards, she responds.

purplepolkadot_aub: Hi. What’s your name?

hubbabubbajake: Jake

purplepolkadot_aub: LOL. I figured