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“Hey, sorry I’m late!” Arya Stark greeted the group of girls sitting at a round table at one of the Starbucks located near campus. Her brown hair was slightly messy due to the fact that she had been rushing to meet her friends on time.
“No worries. We just got here ourselves.” Margaery said after taking a sip of her pink drink. Her sun glasses were placed on her head, pulling back her curly brown hair.
Arya sat down next to her sister Sansa who was sitting next to Ygritte, making Arya sit between Margaery (to her right) and Sansa (to her left).
“So what did I miss?” The brunette asked as she ran her fingers through her hair to tidy it up a little bit. She sounded a bit breathless.
“Marg was telling us about this guy who wouldn’t stop hitting on her despite the fact that she had told him she was seeing someone.” Ygritte answered as she cut a small piece from her cake and then bringing her fork up and into her mouth. Peach colored lips stretched into a smile at the delicious taste.
Margaery rolled her eyes, “What part of ‘sorry, I have a boyfriend’ do men not understand?” she grunted.
“Tell me about it.” Sansa agreed, “Just last week Sandor and I were literally in the middle of our date when some weirdo wouldn’t stop asking me for my number. If it weren’t for the waiter, Sandor would have punched him right then and there.”
“The trick with men is,” Arya spoke up after she caught her breath, “You gotta kick’em where the sun won’t shine and walk away like a badass.”
“Hell yeah!” Ygritte leaned forward and high fived Arya while Margaery rolled her eyes and Sansa just chuckled.
Just then, Arya’s phone beeped. Indicating that she had a new notification on her phone. She fished out the silver device from her phone and swiped on the notification which took her to Instagram and showed her a post from one of the accounts she followed who posted a new work out video. She smiled to herself, or she thought, while double tapping the screen and a big red heart appeared before her.
“Why, Arya Stark. Do my eyes deceive me or were you smiling down at your phone to a video of a very attractive man?” Margaery asked dramatically, eyes going up from Arya’s phone and looking straight into the grey ones.
Arya snorted.
“Is he your boyfriend?” Ygritte joined in the teasing, shimmying her shoulders a bit.
“I wish.”
Arya and Sansa both looked at each other strangely as they answered the same thing.
“I get why Arya wishes why that fine piece of specimen as her boyfriend but Sansa? I thought you were into monogamy?” Margaery said scandalized. Amusement and curiosity swam in her eyes.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Sansa stated and then proceeded to drink her iced latte, “I meant I wish he was Arya’s boyfriend.”
“So, Arya.” Ygritte leaned forward, resting her head on her hands, “Who is this man?”
Arya shrugged as her ears turned a light shade of right. “Some gym rat I follow. It’s nothing.”
“Seems to me like it’s something if you have the notification on for him specifically.” Margaery commented.
Arya shrugged again.
“Come on, Arya. Tell us.” Ygritte said, “We tell you about our boyfriends.”
Arya sighed before shyly answering, “I don’t know much about him but his name is Gendry and he’s 27 years old and is a professional trainer.”
“Don’t forget the fact that you’ve been following him for a year and think that he’s a major hottie.”
“Sansa!”
Said red haired just stared innocently at her younger sister while sipping her iced latte.
“Have you two talked?” Margaery asked, her eyes were calculating.
“No.”
“Well, you should.”
Arya shrugged at Margaery’s words.
“Why should I?” She asked while her finger twirled a lock from her brown hair. Arya never grew out her hair past her shoulders, the longest length that she had. The shortest was one that reached her chin in a bob cut that made her look like a boy but she didn’t mind that much.
“Arya, don’t you think it’s time you find yourself a man?” Sansa asked her sister gently, a look of concern on her face.
“Having a boyfriend isn’t a big deal you know, it’s 2018 not 1467.” Arya snapped.
“We’re not saying that having a boyfriend is the purpose of life but Arya, darling, you’re 23 years old now who is thirsting over an Instagram and never had a boyfriend. Maybe you should try at least once to meet men and have one of them as your boyfriend.” Margaery said wisely and truthfully while her hand reached out and laid it on top of Arya’s, her thumb moving sideways.
Arya sighed. It’s not that she didn’t want to have a boyfriend, she did, but men never seemed to approach her. Honestly, Arya doesn’t care about what men like in a girl because nobody has got time for that but, based on Sansa and her friends, she’s an attractive person with a good personality, surely that would have helped her in getting a boyfriend, right? Wrong, Arya didn’t have any while in high school and now that she’s about to graduate college, she’s desperately hoping to find anyone to be with her. She hasn’t even been on a date once for crying out loud.
“Why would he talk to me when he has 200k followers?” Arya questioned quietly, eyes cast downwards.
Margaery and Sansa stayed quiet but Ygritte spoke up, “Cause you’re literally just as hot as he is, have a great personality and a gym rat as well?”
Arya smiled at the other red head. Arya has always liked Ygritte. Other than the fact she was dating her favorite brother, Jon, and making each other happy, she was also a nice person and was never afraid to speak her mind. They got along great.
“Thanks, Ygritte.” The redhead returned the smile, “But I mean how will he notice me when thousands comment on his posts?”
The girls sat there thinking quietly. Margaery’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration, Arya tapped her finger against the table, Sansa bit her brown coated lower lip and Ygritte made pap pap pap sounds as she tried to come up with an answer.
“First, you need to change your profile picture into something more eye catching.”
“I’m not gonna have a picture of me naked, Margaery.”
The curly haired girl glared at the younger, “No.” She said firmly, “Change it into one where you looked extra hot.”
“But I don’t have any.”
“Yes you do.”
Sansa picked her phone up from the table and swiped through her photo album, muttering “where is it, where is it” under her breath until she found what she was looking for, “Ah ha!” she clicked on the picture and held the phone up for the girls to see.
It was a picture of Arya and Sansa. Arya was wearing a long sleeved grey shirt that covered her black shorts. Her long and smooth legs were clad in fish net stocking and black leather boots. She had a black on that had two blue fluff balls on them. Her left hand was stretched upwards and held the tip of the black hat while the right one was between her legs. She had a look of lust and seduction; eyes half lidded and mouth partially parted.
Sansa on the other hand was wearing a black tank top under a see through white top and black pants. Her feet were clad in black shoes and her red hair was tied tightly in a high pony tail. She had a peace sign in front of her face.
“Arya you look hot!” Margaery commented as she took the phone and zoomed in on the picture.
“Let me see!” Ygritte made grabbing motions with her hands as she whined at Margaery.
“Damn, girl. How are you still single?”
Her friends’ compliment made her blush some more, “You guys are just saying that.”
“Arya, we’re not. You’re really hot.” Ygritte stated as she handed her the phone.
“Crop out Sansa and make that your profile picture.” Margaery instructed.
“Here, I’ll send you the picture so you can edit it and make it your Insta profile pic.” Sansa took her phone back and sent the picture to her sister.
After spending ten minutes cropping out Sansa and making sure that stupid circle on Instagram placed correctly, Arya finally has a new picture.
“Ok, so step one is done. What about step two?” Arya asked excitedly, a smile forming on her lips.
“You need to grab his attention in the comments.” Margaery instructed. “Don’t put emojis cause those are over used and he isn’t even going to bother looking at them.”
“Then what?” Arya asked.
“Oh, I know!” Ygritte reached her hand out and snatched Arya’s phone and unlocking it.
“How did you even know the pin number?” Arya asked in amazement.
“A magician never reveals his secrets.” Ygritte replied smugly, ignoring the girls’ snorts.
Her fingers began tapping away as she wrote a comment, a wicked look in her eyes and a shit eating grin on her lips.
“Ygritte, what are you doing?” Arya asked, scared by the look on her friends face.
“Don’t forget to thank me when you two get married.” The redhead said smugly as she slid the phone across the table.
Arya picked up her phone and looked at the comment that Ygritte had posted under the picture of Gendry in a blank tank top posing in front of a mirror, his sweat glistened under the lights.
shewolf : Are you sure you’re not tired? You’ve been running through my mind all day ;)
“Serisouly, Ygritte?” Arya deadpanned as Sansa and Margaery leaned in to look at the comment as well. “That was so lame.”
No sooner had she uttered those words, she received a new notification.
“It’s him!” She said after she looked down at her phone, her heart skipped a couple of beats.
“You’re welcome.” Ygritte said then sipped her ice mocha.
“He said haha and then added a smile face.”
Margaery and Sansa looked down and read the comment. And sure enough, they read those words.
thebull: haha :)
Her phone dinged again, those closest to the phone looked down and saw that Gendry had also liked her comment.
“Oh my god.” Arya said through a shaky voice, “If he follows me I’m gonna scream.”
Sansa placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder, “Baby steps Arya. You grabbed his attention and now you’ve got to keep it.”
Arya groaned, “How long will it take before he follows me?”
Margaery shrugged, “Depending on the comments you posted and how talkative he gets, I’d say about a month if he’s really interested.”
Arya slammed her head on the table.
A couple of days after she met up with Sansa and her friends, Arya was sitting in her room reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children when her phone buzzed. Placing her bookmark into the book and then putting it next to her, she picked up the phone and clicked on the notification.
It was a picture of Gendry shirtless at the gym, his abs covered in sweat. Arya quickly tapped the picture and smiled at the big red heart that appeared. She placed the phone against her chest and tapped against it lightly, a smile slowly grew on her lips as she tried to think of ways to make him reply to her.
She pulled her phone up and began typing her comment.
shewolf: somebody call the cops because it’s illegal to look that good
Followed by three fire emojis.
Seconds later, Gendry replied with the sunglasses emjoi followed by more fire emojis.
The next interaction that they had was when Arya was sitting in her psychology class, about to fall asleep watching a very boring documentary video. Gendry had posted a close up picture of his face and Arya could feel her soul leaving her as she heard herself gasp at the intensity of his blue eyes.
She quickly typed her comment and then liked the picture.
shewolf: was your father a thief? Cause someone stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes
That comment got her an actual reply from Gendry instead of his usual emojis and typed out laughs.
thebull: damn you’re smooth
Arya smiled shyly down at her phone.
The next interaction they had was the one that made Gendry follow her back and start a conversation with her in the dm.
It happened when she was out for dinner with Sansa. They were at The Cheesecake Factory, celebrating the end of Arya’s midterm when her phone buzzed in the middle of their conversation.
“Is it Gendry?” Sansa asked.
Arya nodded as she unlocked her phone.
Gendry had posted a picture of himself in a rather dashing suit making him look sharp and elegant. He had a serious look on his face that Arya is sure he’d kill it if he were a model.
shewolf: On a scale from 1 to 10, you’re a 9…and I’m the 1 you need.
She didn’t receive an instant reply like she normally did and that made her worried. What if he blocked her because he thought that she was creepy for liking and commenting on all of his posts? What if he got fed up with the pick-up lines? What if he-
Her train of thoughts were interrupted by her phone buzzing in her hand.
“Oh my god!” Arya said with a big smile and let out a shaky breath.
Sansa, who was sipping on her diet coke, leaned and looked down at the phone.
“He finally followed you back!”
Arya nodded.
“After a year of thirsting after him.”
Arya nodded again.
Her phone buzzed again the two girls squealed.
Apparently, Gendry had sent Arya a message.
thebull: hey
Arya quickly typed back hi with a smiley face.
They didn’t stop talking throughout the night and the two had learned a lot about each other. They live in the same city but go to different universities. They like the same bands, watch the same movies and tv shows and the both of them love working out. And about two weeks of talking, the two of them agreed to meet in real life. They didn’t want to be too formal with each other and go on a dance in some fancy restaurant so, they agreed to meet at a café.
Arya was so nervous to meet Gendry that she forgot how to breath and almost tripped three times as she walked ten blocks away from her apartment and to the café. And once she was inside, she felt her legs shake and her heart beat pounding louder and faster when she spotted him sitting at a table near the war at the far left side of the room.
When Gendry saw her, he smiled and stood up to greet her. Arya returned the smile shakily.
Gendry in real life looked different from his Instagram posts. Don’t get Arya wrong, he was very handsome and was well built but he was taller too. Much, much taller. Maybe a head and a half taller than she was. And his smile, oh god, his smile was so beautiful. His teeth were pearly white and his lips were a dark pink color that Arya just badly wanted to kiss.
Maybe it was the nervousness, maybe it was the anxiety or maybe it was the fact that Gendry was so handsome in real life that once Arya was standing in front of him, she brought her finger upwards slid it across his sharp jaw.
“Ow, I cut myself.” She said in mock pain while pulling her finger back and shaking it.
Gendry laughed loud and deep, making Arya smile and ignore the fact that she randomly touched him without consent, hoping he won’t get mad. But by the sound of his laughter, it didn’t seem like he was.
They spent the day talking and getting to know each other more. At one point, Gendry asked if Arya came up with all those pick-up lines herself.
“The first one, my friend Ygritte wrote it but the rest were all mine.”
They don’t know for how long they sat at that café but by the time they finally stepped out, the sun had already set.
The two parted with a hug and a new location to meet at for their first date.