Yes, I Am

Chapter Twenty Two.

May, 2016.

-C'mon, baby. Pwease? Pwetty pwetty pwease with a cherry on the top? *puppy dog eyes*

I couldn't help but snicker as I hit send on the text. I loved badgering him so much. Well, in my defence, if he hadn't put up with it in the beginning, it wouldn't have gotten this far.

-No.

Okay. He wasn't bending yet. His straight 'no' looked so simple and rough on text but I could see the expression he must have made, the cross between bewildered and flabbergasted. He'd probably even huffed while typed it.  It was the most hilarious and adorable thing ever.

"That's your evil laugh. What did you do?" Betty asked, a little fearfully, turning back from the bookshelf she had been browsing. We had come to the library to find some reference books for a research. Fine, it wasn't for a research. No need for the third degree. We just wanted a new book.

Nerddom infinity.

I sent him a reply before, in answer to Betty, question, I leaned over the table between us and turned the screen of my phone towards her.

-You know I wuv you more than anything.

With every word she read, her eyes got a little wider. "First of all, ya both are nasty." She scrunched up her nose. "Second," she continued, "You're harassing your own boyfriend to take off his shirt in a class full of students?" Betty said slowly like the concept evaded her.

My phone pinged.

-Still no.

I pressed my lips together to hide my smile and turned sincere, innocent back eyes up to her. "I just want to see him shirtless. Is that too much to ask?" He was the one getting bored in class and wanted to be entertained. So, naturally, I gave him a perfect recourse of passing time.
She twisted her lips in a half smirk, half pout. "Can't blame you. If he keeps around a body like that, anyone would want to see him shirtless."

I smirked and hit back a text.

-You're a cruel, cruel man. I forfeit your right to call me Snickers anymore.

Since that night he'd teased me about what I was 'ready for', he'd been calling me Snickers. I had no idea why but he liked it and I liked the way he said it, so it stuck. Well, to be fair, he could call me a stinky shrivelled shrimp and I'd still like it. Damn him.

Meanwhile, Betty had pulled out a chair and sat down, her chin resting on her palm, a dreamy expression on her face. "You need to get laid so you can stop drooling over my man," I told her.

"It's not my fault. Anyone in that classroom with half the libido of a vibrator would bite him if he removed his shirt," she said casually.

My thumbs stopped flipping through my book as I gasped dramatically. "Oh my god, he's totally bite-able." My fingers were pretty much slamming on the poor screen of my cellphone as I typed another message.

-Wait, what if someone bites you? Don't do it. Plan canceled. You're not gonna do it. You get me? Mission aborted.

- I was not going to do it anyway.

- But now you absolutely CANNOT. That's a direct order, comrade.

-Just because you're insisting, I'll try not to.

-You will not just try. You will not will not.

My smile was bigger than a creepy Cheshire cat trying to lure people into the haunted forest so she could kill them. Fuck, he was too cute. Just too cute. I was so engrossed in texting Caleb that I didn't notice that Betty until she snatched my phone and began reading the texts out loud in a mocking, high-pitched voice. My phone pinged again and I grabbed her by the waist to reach in front of her and take it back when she stopped struggling all of a sudden.