Luis made a sound of frustration, and picked up his phone again. He opened up his texts and typed out a message. He hit send to Julien before he could stop himself.
Luis:Hey, I won’t be able to give you blood this week, but I’m still available to take you to the bar as usual. I hope that’s okay.
It was late at night, so Julien’s reply came quickly.
Julien:Of course, that’s fine. Is everything alright?
Luis:Yeah.
Julien:Are you still coming for dinner on Friday?
Dinner was an exchange for his blood, but if he wasn’t going to be giving them blood…
Luis:You don’t have to make me dinner since I’m not able to give you blood.
His phone pinged a few seconds later, but the text wasn’t from Julien.
Karim:Julien is worried we’ve upset you.
Luis:I’m not upset. I just don’t want you to go to the trouble of dinner when I don’t have anything to exchange.
Karim:It’s no trouble. Don’t be stupid.
Karim:What’s going on with the blood btw, are you okay?
Luis considered lying, but what would be the point? There wasn’t anything wrong with what he was thinking about doing.
And maybe they deserve to know why his blood wasn’t available. Why it might not be available in the future.
Luis:I’m fine. Just thought I’d try the Donor’s program this week.
Immediately there were reply bubbles.
Karim:Why would you do that?
Luis frowned at the text.
Luis:Because I want to. Is that allowed?
Karim:You’re not going to some seedy bar are you?
Luis could practically hear the tone. His fingers were hitting the keys before he could think it through.
Luis:That depends on if you consider The Last Drop to be seedy.
He hadn’t made a decision on which bar, but he supposed that bar was as good as any. He was at least very familiar with it.
Karim:Hm.
Hm? What the fuck did that mean? The phone pinged, and he swiped up the screen without looking, but it was Julien again, this time in their group chat.
Julien:I’ll be revoking Karim's phone privileges if he doesn’t quit harassing you.
Karim:Tell Jules I’m not harassing you.
Luis opened the separate text with just Karim.
Luis:You kind of are tho.
