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It began when she upgraded her cellphone. Rey had been using the same iPhone 4 since her sophomore year of high school and the only reason she upgraded was because her phone stopped supporting the IOS software updates. It definitely had nothing to do with Finn's teasing or her inability to Facetime her best friend while he studied abroad in England. Either way, as Rey began her junior year of college, she found herself with a new phone and a new alert on Snapchat.
":) has added you on Snapchat", her phone alerted her as she booted it up for the first time after purchasing. Shielding her eyes from the sun as she walked across campus, Rey turned the brightness on her phone up to glance at the unknown contacts Snapchat user name.
"Hey Jess, do you know anyone called Kylo Ren?" Rey asked her friend as she entered the apartment they shared on campus.
"Kylo Ren?", Jess asked, poking her head around the corner to look at her roommate, "What the hell kind of name is Kylo Ren?"
"I have no idea", Rey answered laughing as she kicked off her shoes. "His contact popped up as ':)' in my new phone and I guess he was added to my Snapchat when the contacts synced over".
"Try looking at his snap story. Maybe it's someone we recongnize." Jess replied handing Rey a bowl of pasta as she crossed into the living room.
"Good idea", Rey said as she curled up on the couch. Jess grabbed her own bowl of food and threw herself on the couch next to Rey, easily plopping her feet into her friend's lap, "Get off me you weirdo".
"You wanna talk about weirdos?" Jess said pulling up Kylo's snap story on Rey's phone, "This guy is a weirdo."
"I'm sure he's not-oh my", Rey answered putting her bowl down on the table to take a closer look at the phone in Jess's hand.
On the screen was a young man in his mid-twenties. His black hair covered one of his eyes and he was staring broodily into the camera. The bottom of his face where his hair didn't reach revealed a long faded scar that Rey assumed ran across his entire face. It was captioned, "so over my life". Upon noticing that the timer in the corner was still ticking she clicked the screen once. The next image on the story was a photo of long legs in ripped jeans with a black and white filter with no caption except the alien emoji in the upper left corner. Clicking once more, Rey viewed the final photo on the story. It was a blank screen with the caption "over everything #fuckfamily" written in looped cursive handwriting.
"What kind of psychopath writes on a snap instead of using the keyboard?" Jess asked squinting at the screen, "In cursive no less."
"I wouldn't call him a psychopath!" Rey replied protectively grabbing the phone and clutching it to her chest. "He just... is having a rough time right now."
"Oh my god!" Jess exclaimed jumping up to put their dishes in the sink, "You think he's cute don't you!"
"No! What? No!" Rey said, face flushing bright red. "I just can relate to his clear issues with family."
"Mhm.." Jess said walking back to the living room and peering over Rey's shoulder at the phone. "So you're not actively staring at his photo right now because you're into his 'too edgy for you' aesthetic."
"Exactly! I'm just curious as to who he is, that's all". Rey replied looking at her friend's face. "That's all Jess."
"Well I have no idea who he is, so he most likely doesn't go to school here". She answered grabbing the phone from Rey's hand and ignoring her cries of protest. "Huh, I suppose he is cute in an odd looking 'my ears are too big for my head' sort of way". She finished her sentence by effortlessly screenshoting Kylo Ren's photo.
"What did you just do?" Rey exclaimed snatching her phone from her friend's hand.
"I screenshot the photo so you could send it to Finn and Poe?" Jess answered as if Rey was somehow less intelligent for not understanding her friend's antics.
"Do you-do you not know how snapchat works?" She cried glancing furiously back down at her cellphone. "He's going to be notified that 'ReyDay' screenshot his selfie!"
"Oh I know!" Jess said jumping up and pulling on her shoes. "You can thank me later." She blew her roommate a kiss before leaving the apartment in a flurry of movement.
:) is typing...
Snapchat from :)
"Shit." Rey said as the offending red notification symbol lit up the corner of her Snapchat app. "I'm legitimately going to kill Jess one of these days." Sighing in resignation, she opened the snap.
"Do I know you? Why are you screenshoting my shit?"
"Wow." Rey exclaimed, eyebrows shooting to the top of her forehead. "That was a bit rude."
"I don't think we know each other", she typed being careful to remain polite and in good spirits. "You're contact showed up as :) when I upgraded my cellphone. My name is Rey, I'm 19, and I go to Naboo U".
Satisfied with her response, as well as her act of being the bigger person, Rey set the phone down on the table and began tidying up the living area. Rey was never the most organized person, but cleaning helped her calm her nerves as she waited for Kylo's response.
"Kylo. 22. Mustafar U." The reply was succinct and to the point and didn't give Rey much new information. Mustafar U was Naboo U's rival school, primarily because their sports teams constantly cheated and because their students referred to Naboo U as "the offbrand Walmart version" of their school. Needless to say, Rey wasn't exactly thrilled to see that Kylo attended school there.
"So...is there any way we could know each other?" Rey replied cutting to the chase. "And what the hell kind of name is Kylo?" She added as an afterthought. This Kylo person wasn't exactly working hard to be polite to her so he could handle a few moments of snark in return.
Almost instantly her phone buzzed with his response. "I doubt it considering you go to a nothing school. And Kylo is a perfectly fine name, Ray".
Rey felt her blood begin to boil upon reading his answer. Taking a deep breath she attempted to remain civil for the sake of finding out how this rude man had somehow weaseled his way into her phone. "First of all, Naboo U is literally fifteen minutes away from Mustafar U, so the odds of us crossing paths are pretty high. Second of all, I bet your name isn't even really Kylo it's probably something unoriginal like James or Jake or some other J name. John! I'm going to start calling you John. And finally, my name is Rey. R-E-Y." Rey hit send before she could reread her message and make it more polite. She then changed the name in her phone from :) to John.
John is video-calling...
John is video-calling...
Sighing deeply Rey answered "John's" incessant attempts at a video call. His face filled her small screen, pale skin illuminated by the sunlight streaming in through his window.
"Okay first of all you little shit-" He began speaking but stopped when he peered in to take a closer look at her face. "Oh Christ, I know you."
"No, I sincerely doubt you do." Rey said rolling her eyes toward the ceiling.
"No, I'm about eighty-five percent sure I know you." He insisted looking intently at her face. "You're friends with Poe right? Poe Dameron? Soccer player?"
"Yes?" She answered feeling suspicious. "He's dating my friend Finn, I'm sorry just because you know Poe doesn't mean you know me. You could just be like Facebook friends with him and recognize me from his profile."
"I met you last semester at that party at Poe's house!" He exclaimed snapping his fingers and pointing towards her in excitement. "You were that girl who got shitfaced and tried to jump off the balcony into the pool!"
Upon Kylo's realization, Rey was struck with her own recollection of the night's events. She had found her boyfriend Hux (a proud Mustafar U graduate) making out with a tall blonde girl in the pool shed of Poe's house. Chaos has ensued. Without Finn or Jess there to stop her, she had quickly succumbed to the night's stress and drank her way into oblivion. The last thing she remembered was trying to kiss a tall dark haired stranger and then waking up the next morning in Poe's guest room with a glass of water and two Tylenol on the nightstand.
"Um hello?" Kylo interrupted her train of thought, aggressively waving his hand in front of the screen. "Are you frozen or just having some sort of psychic vision?"
"Were you the tall, dark haired guy I tried to make out with?" Rey said turning her head slightly to make straight eye contact with Kylo.
"Wha-no." Kylo spluttered, the tips of his ears turning pink.
"You definitely were!" Rey exclaimed, imitating Kylo's earlier snapping of the fingers. "You were and you were the same person who tucked me into bed! And you must have saved your number into my phone under :) and that's how you ended up in my snap contacts!"
"I can assure you that was not me." Kylo insisted, though now his entire face was burning bright red.
"No, no it was" Rey said suddenly remembering more details from the night. "Because you specifically said 'I'll come back for you sweetheart' and then you never did! And I woke up confused because I was alone and I figured I must have dreamt you up!"
"So you're saying you dream about me then?" Kylo answered smirking.
"So you're saying it was you at the party that night?" Rey retorted, leaning back in her chair at the sight of his jaw dropping.
"Perhaps." He answered after regaining his composure. "But I can't reveal such important information over a video call." He stood grabbing his jacket from a nearby coat rack she had failed to notice.
"And where, if you don't mind me asking, would one need to go to retrieve such information." Rey said, moving to pull on her own shoes and grab her keys.
"Maz's Diner, let's say five minutes?" Kylo said as he stepped out of his apartment into the sunlight.
"I can get there in three." Rey answered, ending the video call. Before leaving her apartment to head to Maz's, she made one final change to her Snapchat contact list.
Kylo <3 is typing...
Snapchat from Kylo <3