“Ah, I feel like I shouldn’t be a witness.” I slowly got to my feet, a small bubble of laughter escaping. “But, let me know what she finds out.”
“I take that as approval. I’ll call her first thing tomorrow.”
I left them in the kitchen and proceeded to lock myself in my room. The silence calmed me. It was about the only damn thing I could control in my life at the moment and I latched on to it.My dad. The pictures. Greta.
My head spun, making a priority list. First thing up, making the fake girlfriend thing real. I logged into my computer and pulled up an old picture of Greta and me. We had been playing flag football at a tailgate and she’d jumped on my back, with her hands making a Hercules pose. If I didn’t know us, we would look like a couple. I sent her direct message, knowing I couldn’t text her.
Aaron: I’m posting us as a couple. What should I say so it’s not suspicious? Everything I came up with sucks.
Greta: Hmm, you could say, ‘the potion worked. I fell in looove.’
Greta: No. Maybe…‘I finally manned up.’
Aaron: Yours are worse than mine. Lol.
Greta: Did you really laugh out loud, or did you snort?
Aaron: I released a bit of air. So, Sol.
Greta: Snort out loud. Classy, Ronnie.
Aaron: Gabs. Help me. How do we become a couple? I’ve never had a girlfriend, real or fake, before.
Greta: You depress me. Tag us in a relationship and post a picture. You don’t need words.
Aaron: Okay. It’s happening. I’m doing it.
Greta: Okay, I’m waiting. I’ll accept it real quick. Be prepared for boob pics. Girls will be heartbroken.
Aaron: No phone, remember? I could do without the boob pics for a while.
Greta: Here’s to help you through the night. ( . ) ( . )
Aaron: …did you just send me boob emojis?
Greta: Sure did, boo thang.
I stared at them, torn between laughing and retaliating with a dick emoji.
Aaron: SOL
Greta: You’re welcome. Now, I accepted your tag. We are an item, hot stuff. I expect breakfast in the morning. I’ll be ready at nine.
Aaron: I’ll be there.
I waited, wanting to say something else, something more meaningful to her, but nothing came to mind. She had no idea how much she’d changed my life the year before. She had been my rock, refusing to treat me any differently after my dad’s diagnosis. Even now, my life was in shambles and I was smiling at my computer.Only Greta.
Notifications were already popping up and I made a mistake and read two of them.
He actually committed to another human being? Is the world ending?
Damn. Hope this bitch doesn’t mess with his game.
I shut the computer, the short-lived happiness gone. I succumbed to my thoughts and fell asleep thinking about blonde hair and baseball.
* * * *
I managed to make it to the phone store right when it opened and replaced the shattered iPhone.Fuck the cloud and pictures.I would never be able to relax around a camera for the rest of my life. I cringed, the anticipation of hearing from my coach stifling me. He wouldn’t meet them until noon. In three long, excruciating hours.
