My Best Friend's Boyfriend

CHAPTER SIX: LOLA

*ping*

I checked my phone immediately after hearing that notification sound. A text from an unknown number.

“Hey Lola, heard you had to go back home today, and couldn’t go with Milly to the hospital. Everything okay?” That was strange. My first guess was that it was probably Brandon because he was the only other person who knew about Milly’s dad. But I brushed that thought off; why would he have been texting me? So I just decided on asking who it was, just to make sure.

“Who’s this?” I replied.

“Your local axe murderer,” he replied instantly with a smiling emoji.

It was Brandon. I got so weirded out a bit. Why was he texting me? We weren’t like friends or anything. But I decided when he mentioned Milly, he just had to text me, so I understood.

“I knew it! You are an axe murderer lol,” I replied.

“I can neither admit nor deny that lol, hey I wanted to see if you could help me do something for Milly.”

I was glad he was getting straight to the point, otherwise, I was still weirded out.

“Something like what? Is it your anniversary or something?”

“No. I just want to do something to show her I’m here for her through all of this, ya know?”

“Oh, I get it. Well, um, you could get her a stuffed animal. She likes those. I’m sure you know that already lol.”

“Awesome, what kind? A bear, cow, fish?”

“Nah, I’m not making it that easy. I gave you an idea, now run with it!”

“That’s fair. I’ll think of something,” he said.

Five minutes passed, and there was still no reply. I guessed that that was the end of our conversation. Ten minutes. Twenty. When it hit the thirty-minute mark, I put my phone away and started working on my art project. I liked doing my school assignments immediately after they were given. I’m not a nerd or anything, but school is one of the things I enjoy.

Milly, at the time, thought that was weird, and a few other people shared that sentiment. My project was to build something that was necessary for human beings using paper clay. The paper clay had to be made first, so I was cutting up some old newspapers, and getting the rest of the stuff I needed ready. Then I heard another notification sound on my phone. I ran to my room to see what Brandon had said. I couldn’t believe how I was acting! I actually missed texting him in the three hours that he hadn’t replied.

“Thanks, whatchu up to?” his text said, with a smirking emoji.

“Working on my Art project,” I replied, with a smirk emoji too.

“Cool, what is it?” he said. “Um, I don’t know yet, still figuring it out, lol,” I said.

“I bet it’s something cool… like you,” smirk emoji.

Oh my gosh! Was Brandon flirting with me? And was I flirting right back? I felt awful! I decided to put an end to it, right there and then.

“Hey, gotta go help my mind do some stuff for work. Talk later.” I said with no emoji.

I think he got the message because his reply was short and curt. “Okay, I’m going to start working on my girlfriend’s gift,” he said, equally with no emoji. Was the “girlfriend” necessary, Brandon? And why did it sting me a little when I read it? What was happening to me? I had so many questions. Everything about Brandon left me with more questions than answers.

Was he flirting with me? Did I overthink that message? Maybe he was just being nice? And I totally blew it! I decided to wait a couple more hours so that it looked like I had actually been busy. I mean, I was busy with the project, but not so busy that I couldn’t text back. I just wanted to smooth things out a bit.

After one hour of doing nothing but thinking about Brandon’s texts, I sent him a message. Hoping it was enough to make things less weird between us.

“Hey, done helping my mom now, I’m so exhausted, lol,” I said. “How’s the limo business going? Do you work Saturdays?” I added three smiling emojis. I had hoped that I wasn’t overdoing it.

His reply came in almost instantly. It made my heart jump, and were those butterflies I felt in my stomach? I was in trouble. I wondered what was going through my mind at that time. If at all he felt the same way I was feeling. Was that why he was replying quickly? His text read, "That's cool, I was beginning to think you were just avoiding me. Thought I said something off," he said.