Reese got off of Zodiak after Pippa closed the chat. He opened his Tumblr app and scrolled through the feed slowly.
His ringtone for one of his classmates, Zakaria Abdullah, went off. Reese's heart lurched and curled up on itself. He opened the texting app.
Zakaria: hi :)
Reese: Hello.
Zakaria: what's up?
Reese: I was talking to one of my friends for a while. She hadn't been online, so we were a little worried about her. You?
Reese's stomach clenched. Had that sounded too awkward and formal? He read over the sent text, every word feeling clumsy and large.
Zakaria: glad she's okay :) and I'm doing trigonometry homework
Reese could feel blood pulsing through his brain. He didn't understand trigonometry. He hated math. He got C's and B's, as well as the occasional D, on his report cards. He had never cared until now.
Reese: I never really understood that stuff, to be honest.
Zakaria: lol I don't blame you. it's pretty boring so you're not missing a lot
Reese: Yeah, I was always an English person myself.
Was he focusing too much on himself?
Zakaria: really? I don't really like English as much as math and history
Reese: You like history?
Zakaria: yeah. I don't have it this semester but I will next one
Reese: Maybe you could help me with some of my history stuff. I'm shit at remembering dates.
Zakaria: sure! I could help you study sometime
Reese: I mean, you don't have to if you don't want.
Zakaria: no I wouldn't mind at all. what time does your bus get to school?
Reese: 7:50, usually.
Zakaria: mine gets there at 7:55ish. so that's about fifteen minutes to study. do you want me to meet you in the library?
Reese: Sure.
Zakaria: cool. :) see you then. I'm gonna go help my sister with cooking okay? she's nine and I'm not sure she knows how to use an oven lol
Reese: Okay. Goodbye.
Zakaria: bye
Reese closed his phone. His stomach felt like it was fluttering. He laughed involuntarily, and his face flushed. Why was he laughing?
Reese picked at his phone cover and stared at the ceiling. Had that been a boring conversation? He wanted to talk about things besides school, but every time he talked to Zakaria, that's what came up: a quick discussion of homework and studies, and then a farewell.
Reese flipped his phone open and went back to Zodiak.
Who would know the most about this?
He almost clicked on Maxy's profile, but Maxy had told him that he was actually incredibly shy in real life, so Reese figured he wouldn't be great on the subject of conversationalism.
London didn't seem to have a problem with talking to people, but London was also, in Reese's own words, a fucking idiot.
Reese clicked Pippa's profile and opened a chat with her.
Reese: Hi, Pippa.
Reese: I need some help.
Pippa: sure dude whats up
Reese: Okay, I don't exactly know how to ask this.
Pippa: i can wait
Reese: You can't tell anyone anything I say from here on out, okay?
Pippa: my lips are sealed
Reese: Okay. So I sort of like someone, I guess, and we text each other and talk in class sometimes, but I'm not really great at talking to this person.
Pippa: OMIGOD
Reese: ...
Pippa: OUT OF ALL THE PEOPLE TO HAVE A CRUSH
Reese: I did not say that.
Pippa: sort of liking someone is a crush dude sorry to break it to ya
Reese: Okay, 1. Shut the fuck up, and 2. I asked for help, not your bullshit.
Pippa: ok ok sorry give me a sec
Reese: I'll be awaiting your wisdom anxiously.
Pippa: whats this chicks name
Reese: Is that relevant?
Pippa: i mean yea we are talking bout her
Reese: Let me rephrase that. Is the knowledge of this person's name imperative to your ability to help me?
Pippa: i was just curious dude
Reese: It's fine.
Pippa: i never said sorry :p
Reese: I was anticipating the day you acquire manners.
Pippa: yea yea whatevs
Reese: Are you going to help me or not?
Pippa: what sort of things does she like
Reese: History and math (for some reason), snakes, the color yellow, and documentaries about how humanity is killing the planet, from what I can gather.
Pippa: give her a documentary about yellow mathematician snakes
Reese: Are you high?
Pippa: ok for real tho she sounds like a nerd
Reese: I guess.
Pippa: it sounds like ya have enough to go on already tho like just research pythons and bring them up sometime and then let that conversation bring up more of her interests and so on
Reese: Researching pythons just to have a conversation will make me feel like a stalker.
Pippa: then your on your own man
Reese: You're on your own.
Pippa: huh
Reese: You used the wrong your/you're. Not that your sentences aren't usually incorrect.
Pippa: whatever reese
Reese: Whatever, Reese.
Pippa: that to
Reese: That too.
Pippa: omigod bye
Reese: Goodbye.
Reese closed Zodiak and opened a new tab. It felt silly, but he searched for articles about snakes anyway.
YOU ARE READING
Crossing Stars
Teen Fiction[Quick warning: some of the sexual and death related content in this could bother some people. It's probably fine for most teenagers and older, but if that sort of thing bothers you a lot, you might not want to read it.] Life is hard, especially for...
