Chapter 5 - Operation: Text Me, Kiss Me, Don't Be a Creep
507 Words
“So,” Tasha said, flinging her arm dramatically over my shoulder, “you’re texting an anonymous guy, blushing in public, and now he’s possibly watching you in 4K from somewhere in this hallway. Sky, you are living the w*****d dream.”
“Or about to end up in a Netflix true crime doc,” I muttered, clutching my phone like it was sacred.
We were walking through the courtyard now, our mission clear: Find Mystery Text Boy.
Tasha dubbed it Operation: Text Me, Kiss Me, Don’t Be a Creep—which, honestly, sounded like a solid title for my future memoir.
“I’m just saying,” Tasha continued, scanning the area like she was on “CSI: High School Edition,” “if a guy is gonna stalk you, the least he could do is show you his face.”
“Agreed,” I said, squinting toward the cafeteria. “Do you think he could be one of the soccer boys?”
“Soccer boys don’t have the vocabulary to flirt with that much confidence.”
“True. Maybe someone from English Lit?”
“Possibly. Those dudes are one heartbreak away from becoming poets.”
Buzz.
My heart immediately kicked into overdrive.
UNKNOWN:
“You two are very bad spies.”
I stopped walking so fast it made Tasha bump into me.
“OH MY GOD,” she whisper-screamed. “He’s here?!”
I turned in slow motion. Like... creepy horror movie slow.
No hoodie guy.
No mysterious stare.
No camera crew filming my descent into madness.
Me:
“You’re watching again?! This is getting mildly stalker-ish.”
UNKNOWN:
“You’re the one trying to hunt me down.”
Me:
“Fair.”
UNKNOWN:
“You’re cute when you look suspicious. 8.5/10 detective work, tho.”
I turned in a circle, whispering, “Do I look cute suspicious?!”
Tasha: “You look like you lost your mom at Walmart.”
Me:
“If I scream ‘Marco,’ will you yell ‘Polo’?”
UNKNOWN:
“…Try it and I’ll disappear forever.”
Me:
“Bold of you to assume I won’t risk it.”
“Okay,” Tasha whispered, “what if we stage something? Like, I pretend to trip, you dramatically scream, and whoever reacts is him.”
“Or,” I said, “you fake faint, and I scream ‘SOMEONE GET HELP!’ and he magically appears because love.”
“…I like it.”
We didn’t do either. Mostly because I got another text first.
UNKNOWN:
“Don’t worry. You’ll know it’s me when I want you to.”
Oh.
Okay then.
Cue the blush explosion.
I didn’t reply right away. Because suddenly my head was spinning. Not in a bad way… in a movie scene kind of way. Like, the part right before the kiss that almost happens.
Except instead of a kiss, I was standing in front of a vending machine with Tasha and a half-melted Snickers bar.
Still, my heart?
Yeah—it had totally left the chat.
- Writer
