Chapter Nineteen
Layla
Oh my goodness, R and I talked on the phone. His voice was so sexy rumbly deep. I almost told him my middle name is Faye. Almost.
Of course, now that I know what his voice sounds like, I can’t help picturing what he might look like. Ugh! This is a bad thing, right? I can’t fall for a faceless voice. This is not how this is supposed to work.
Juliet opens my door and slips into my room. There is a glow to her. I smile. “Hey, how was it?”
“It was good and weird.”
“How so?” I ask.
She takes a seat on my bed and then stares up at my ceiling. While she does this I quickly inspect her neck for stray hickeys. What? I want to be sure Mark takes it slow on her. She may be older than me by a few seconds but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t look out for her. “We were walking around, saying hi to his friends. That was fun. Girls were staring at me like they wanted to skin me alive. That was weird. Oh, then Mark wanted to dance with me. I thought oh cool slow dancing sounds fun. But that wasn’t what he was trying to do. He wanted to bump and grind me. It was just too weird having him press all his you-know-what against me. I felt uncomfortable. Then Tyler and his friends Jared and Rachel we’re gawking at me.”
“Oh, don’t worry about them. Rachel, well, you know how she is. Don’t pay any attention to her.”
She closes her eyes then looks down at the floor. “I know. It’s just … it’s different. I see Mark and I think, why does someone like him want to bother with me? I know I’m pretty. I know I’m smart. But honestly, we have hardly anything in common. He hates books. He isn’t into the same kind of video games as me. He’s also, you know, super popular. Me though, I’m like the uber dork. And don’t try to tell me I shouldn’t say that about myself because I can say it and be happy about it. I totally am an uber dork. I’m not ashamed to admit it.”
“As long as what you say about yourself makes you happy then I’m not complaining. And who cares if you hardly have anything in common with Mark, right now? Maybe you two balance each other out. You know? Maybe you’ll find things you have in common. Maybe you won’t. Maybe he’ll open you up to a new side of yourself you’ve never seen before. You just have to try.”
She lifts one corner of her upper lip. “Oh my God. You’ve been reading mom’s crappy pamphlets again, haven’t you? Don’t you know those things are full of shit?”
“They are not.”
“Um, yeah, they totally are, Lays. If those things were so awesome at love advice I would have gotten myself a boyfriend years ago. But they are just trash. Only yuppies whose destiny it is to become spinsters believe that crap. Why? Because they’re so desperate to change instead of becoming a lady with a billion cats.”
“I hope you know those BS-filled pamphlets actually let you eat dinner every night.”
She groans. “Now you sound like Mom.”
“Whatever. If I wanted to sound like Mom I would give you a twenty-question quiz that rates your date with Mark.”
“Right. And since when is going to a party actually a date?”
I laugh. “Oh, you’re so … ” My phone buzzes next to me. I snatch it up and beam a smile.
“Who is he?”
I look away. “Who’s who?”
“The guy making you all lusty-eyed and stuff.”
I shrug. “He’s just a guy.”
“Right.” She tries to snatch my phone away but I have quicker reflexes.
“Come on, Lays. Tell me.”
I sigh. “All right, fine. Don’t make fun.”
“I won’t.”
“I don’t really know.”
She gives me a weird look. “What do you mean?”
“So, remember when Adam and I went out on a ‘romantic’ dinner?”
Juliet nods.
“Well, he was sexting a girl. I decided to text her and warn her that he was a two-timing jerk, and that she should stop sending him naked selfies ‘cause he probably had more than one girl giving him pics. You know?”
She nods some more.
“Well, I didn’t text her from his phone. I should have, but I didn’t want things getting deleted or him spinning the story so it sounded like I was making it all up. So, I decided to text her from my phone. But with my dyslexia I, uh … fudged up the numbers and I ended up texting this guy named R.”
She bursts out laughing. “I’m sorry, what? Like Roger Rabbit?”
“It’s the letter R. Probably his first, or middle name. Or his last name. Or maybe his name is full of R’s. Anyway … I don’t know what’s wrong with me. We just text each other and it’s nice. Today though, we actually talked on the phone.”
Juliet’s eyes bulge. “Layla, have you completely lost it? He could be a fifty-year-old predator looking for some young fun.”
I narrow my eyes. “He is not. He’s our age. He thought I was old too.”
“Do you even watch Dateline’s To Catch a Predator? That’s how this all starts! He pretends to be your age only to suck you in. Oh my God, Layla, you can’t text or call him again.”
“What? Why?”
“Because he could be some pervert. Please tell me you haven’t exchanged photos?”
Juliet’s getting so riled up she’s putting me in a bad mood. “I haven’t sent him my face. He doesn’t even know my first or last name! He goes to our school.”
She shakes her head. “That doesn’t make it better. There are over a thousand kids at our school. For all you know he could be the school’s janitor and he’s waiting to get you alone so he can take you in the hall closet and butcher you. Then we’ll find your body parts scattered all over the place.”
I point to the door. “Go away.”
She frowns. “I’m not trying to be mean. Could you do me a favor?”
“What?”
“Promise me you won’t text that person anymore until you at least get more than an initial from him.”
“Fine.”
She gets off my bed and leaves my room. As soon as my door is shut I text R.
Me: My sister thinks you’re some fifty-year-old janitor who plans on killing me.
R: Damn she caught me. Looks like the jig is up. :-)
Me: LOL. But for real am I going to get more than just your initial for your name?
R: Yes. Not 2day tho. I still think u may have stalker tendencies, LOL.
I snort. In reality, do I really want to know his name? Isn’t this better?
Me: Please … Pretty sure you might the one with stalker tendencies. :-)
R: Dang. Caught me again. Srus tho I really liked talking 2 u 2night.
Me: Me too.
My smile widens.
R: What school do u go 2?
Crap! I can’t tell him what school I attend yet. He’ll put all the pieces together and know who I am.
Me: Huntersville
Close enough.
R: Oh cool. We don’t play u guys til conference time if we both make it. How’s ur team doing so far?
Ah shoot! This is what I get for lying. I hope their website is up to date. I quickly look it up on my laptop and then type out.
Me: Eh. Okay. We lost 1 game.
R: Cool. We’re undefeated.
Me: That’s awesome!
Of course, I already knew this. I just wish I could find out who he is. But what if I do, and he’s actually a total jackass? The fear of kind of knowing enough about him makes curious, I will admit to that. It also scares the crap out of me.
R: Yep. Well my battery is low n I’m beat. Chat 2morrow?
Me: Sure. Night.
R: Sweet dreams.
Those two words had me swooning. He wished me sweet dreams. I put my phone on my charger and flip my light off. R might be a mystery, but it’s no mystery how he’s starting to weave himself into my heart. Is that such a bad thing? Is texting someone you never see who somehow makes you happy really so wrong?