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Things had been rough for Alice since her parents’ divorce. Sure living in Clivesdale meant her parents weren’t fighting as much but she missed her dad, her friends, her old school, her old life. She missed being around Melissa and Deb who understood her. She missed everything about the town where she grew up.
On Alice’s second visit to Hatchetfield after her parents divorce, she found herself in her best friend’s bedroom for a sleepover. The two girls had been talking about how different life had been since Alice moved away and watching Disney movies. The younger girl’s hair was tied into a loose braid. She sat on her best friend’s bed wearing a plain white t-shirt and black shorts. The weather wasn’t particularly warm, but the small apartment that Melissa, her moms, and younger brother lived in seemed warm nonetheless. It had always been this way. It calmed Alice to know that not everything was different. After about three episodes of Alice half-watching, her attention was mostly on her phone, which lit up every few minutes.
“Okay, Al. What’s up?” said Melissa, pausing the show. The older girl was much more enthralled with the show they were watching.
“I can’t say I know what you’re talking about, Melissa.” Alice replied looking up from her phone of constant typing.
“Oh come on, Alice! Everytime your phone lights up, so does your face,” Melissa stifled her laughter, “who are you talking to?”
Alice opened her mouth about to say no one but knowing Melissa, that was not going to cut it. “Just… some girl.” Alice returned her attention to her phone, smiling with a light blush on her cheeks.
“Do I know this girl?”
“No,” Alice takes a pause before changing her answer, “maybe.”
“Can I guess?”
Alice’s eyes widened, changing her attention from her phone to the other girl, “Absolutely not!”
Despite that answer, Melissa begins to contemplate who it could be. After a few moments of silence she finally asks, “Is it Lex?”
“No. Besides, I think she just started going out with Ethan.”
“Really? I mean he seems nice but… I don’t know, thought they’d just be friends.” After Melissa gave that answer, Alice seemed to be doing something else on her phone. She was no longer talking to someone but scrolling through Ethan Green’s instagram.
“They’re definitely going out. Ethan’s instagram is full of pictures of him and Lex. There’s a few of Lex’s kid sister as well. Weirdo.” Alice showed Melissa her phone, scrolling through the page. Alice started at the top of the account going down. The top bio read “he/they” and nothing else.
The first picture, dated for four days prior, showed Ethan wearing a red t-shirt, black leather jacket, black ripped jeans, and black high top Converse shoes. He was giving Lex’s younger sister, of whom Alice did not know the name of, a piggyback. The young girl had her hair in low ponytails, wearing a red flannel that was extremely too large for her under a pair of blue overalls, and red Converse. She was a cute kid who resembled a bit of Lex, not quite enough to guess they were sisters right off the bat.
The second photo was from a few months ago. It was a selfie of Lex and Ethan in the dark with the caption off “dropping off my working gal <3”.
“Okay. Well if it isn’t Lex, then who is it?” Melissa asked
“I told you that I’m not going to tell you who it is.” Alice rolled her eyes. “Let’s just continue the movie.”
“Not until you tell me who you’re talking to… or I figure out who it is.” Alice turned her attention back to the mysterious girl behind the screen. Melissa returned to her contemplation of who the girl could possibly be. “Is it B?”
“Nope.” Alice responded not looking up. Melissa looked disappointed in that answer. A few seconds passed and her face lit up.
“Is it Deb?”
“What… would make you think that? No.” Alice sunk into her phone.
“Oh my god, Al! You have a crush on Deb? I didn’t think she was your type.”
“Neither did I. But we’ve been talking a lot more since I moved away and feelings just… happened.”
“Have you told her?”
“Are you insane, Mel? Of course not. I can’t just… tell a girl I like her. It makes you look like a total idiot.”
“Okay, sorry I brought it up,” Melissa started, “If you want to I can help.” Alice nodded in response.
“So what if I do. How do I tell someone as chill and cool as Deb that I like them?”
“You can either write a whole long paragraph or you can just send her a snap of you saying ‘hey wanna go out sometime?’ or something.”
“Okay. Okay. Here I go.” Alice moved her phone to take a picture of the TV with the caption ‘ hey deb… do you want to go out sometime ? ’ and sent it.The two sat in a nervous silence awaiting the answer of the braided girl’s hair. A few minutes passed and a Snapchat notification flashed across the screen. “Holy shit, Melissa. She replied.”
“Well open it!”
Alice complied with the older girl’s request. It was a picture of Deb’s face and her doing a peace sign. The caption read ‘ like a date?’
Alice sent a picture back of her face. The caption read ‘ yeah. like a date ’. To say that Alice was nervous would be an understatement. A few minutes after Alice’s last message sent, a reply came in from Deb.
‘sure’
Alice sent a reply back, ‘ great ’. She shrieked of excitement. “Melissa I am gonna go on a date with Deb!”
“Yes!” Melissa’s reply was quickly followed by her own shriek of excitement. The two heard footsteps coming down the hallway.
“Is everyone okay in here?” said the voice of Melissa’s younger brother through the door.
“Yeah Ash we’re fine, go away.” The footsteps slowly retreated back down the hallway. The two girls shared a glance and then burst into laughter. The laughter died down and they sat in silence.
“Okay Mel, who do you have a crush on?”
“Uh… it’s no one.”
“Bullshit. Come on! Tell me.”
“Its… its Grace Chastity.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You can do better than Grace Chastity. She’s a nerdy prude, Melissa. She’ll just break your heart and I cannot see you go through that.”
“But- it’s just… She's smart and kind and… she helps me study. What makes you think that she’ll break my heart?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t trust her, okay? Go out with her if you want.”
“Alice, I’m gonna take your advice on this but I'm still gonna like, study with her. You know that Deb won’t.”
“Okay fair.” Alice hit the unlock button on her phone. She glanced at the time. “It’s four in the morning. We should probably get to sleeping, huh?”
“I mean… yeah. Probably.”
Even though they had decided to go to sleep,the two laid in bed on their phones for at least another hour after deciding to sleep.