I click on my last friend’s name—Egon Aahnu. He’s one of our physical trainers, but he used to play hockey. Sometimes he gets on the ice with us after practice and messes around. He’s really good.
Hugo Bladen
Hey, Egon. What’s up?
Egan Aahnu
Walking Puck. What’s up with you?
Hugo Bladen
I’m bored. Entertain me.
Egon Aahnu
Lol. You can join us for a hike if you want.
So Puck is their cat and he’s fucking enormous. I swear he’s mixed with a lynx or a mountain lion or something.
I’m also pretty confident he wants to eat me. Whenever I go over to Egon’s, Puck stays in a doorway, half blocked by the frame, and stares.
Hugo Bladen
Generous but I’m going to pass. I still think Puck wants to use me as a scratching post.
I receive several laughing emojis back.
Maybe it’s not that I’m growing out of my hookup phase, but that all my friends are settling down. Leaving me as the lone ninth wheel. My four closest friends are now with someone and I’m quite confident they’re all serious about their partners.
Egon’s married soobviously, he’s serious. Noah’s been with Lix for three years. Lix even retired to be with him wherever Noah goes. Atty and Toby got married this past summer. And now Winny is moving in with a girl he apparently likes enough to live with.
Where does that leave me?
Sighing, I roll onto my side. My phone pings and I absently pick it up. A grin spreads across my face to see that it’s the girl I’ve been texting with.
7493
Hey!
That’s all. But that’s as much as I sent her, so I can’t really expect much back in return.
Me
What’s up today?
7493
Not a lot. Was just cleaning my house. My fish tank needed some attention.
Me
You have a fish?
7493
Yep. I have a 350-gallon tank with a ten-inch Plecostomus (suckerfish), three nine-inch bala sharks, and a fifteen-inch tiger catfish. I’m thinking about getting a tire track eel too. They’re super cool.
I sit up. She has a damn catfish and sharks!!
