Found it! [ girlxgirl ]

|FIVE|

Walking like a zombie I grabbed two bottles of water and laid myself on the couch. I pull my phone and text Richard and Sarah.

Feeling like a truck drift raced with me under a wheel.

Sarah replied first, after a couple minutes. Richard only replied after an hour, and I'm pretty sure he didn't exactly read the texts.

Sarah: I was under the other wheel then

Richard: Me 3

It's lunch time and I'm waiting for my pizza to arrive. There's nothing better than junk food to cure a hangover. Maybe not cure it 100%, but it helps. Still laying on my couch I turn sideways facing the tv. I pull my laptop from under the coffee table and I open Facebook. I have a couple notifications to check. Some likes and comments on the picture I took last night. I don't really pay attention to them as I focus on Avery's comment.

Should I reply? Do I have to reply to everyone else too? It will be suspicious if I don't? Suspicious of what exactly? What do I even say?

I shake my head at the sound of the doorbell brings me back to reality. I pay the guy and then return to my comfortable couch after getting a plate and some napkins. Munching my pizza, I stare at my laptop screen besides me. Before I could get back to my messy thoughts, my phone buzzes.

Richard: Stop eating your pizza and reply to that girl.

What the hell?! He startles me and I instinctively look around my studio looking for him.

Emma: Are you spying on me or am I that predictable?

Sarah: Predictable

Richard: Predictable x)

Sarah: I also predict that you're overthinking this, and already came up with at least a hundred possible replies.

Richard: And I predict you didn't like any of those.

Emma: Wow

Richard: We're awesome, we know. Text when you reply to her.

Sarah: pff, I'll be refreshing the page to see it as soon as it happens.

Emma: Might take a while though.

I put the phone down, although it still buzzes a couple times. The laptop is now on my legs that stretch till the coffee table in front of me. I start typing an answer with one hand while eating pizza with the other. After deleting the first attempts, I gather enough courage to press enter and send my reply.

I played it safe and didn't pay :)

I patiently wait for a reply while I finish my pizza. Of course, she's not glued to the computer, Emma. She won't answer that fast, especially since it took you 12 hours to reply to her. I got up the couch and head to the kitchen. Guess who's having pizza for dinner? I'm drinking my fifth glass of water when I hear a beep coming from my computer. Like a kid who's about to miss a Pokémon episode, I run towards the couch, sliding in my socks as I'm near it, and jump back to my seat. Faster than the Flash, I grab the computer and I see that Avery has already replied to me.

Uh, rebel! I think Mr. Fitz wasn't happy about it

What? No, no, no! That's not what I meant! Great, Emma. Now she thinks you don't pay your things. I groan and I throw my head back to stare at the ceiling for a while. My phone buzzes and I see that my friends are highly amused by this situation.

Richard: Of all the things you contemplated to say, you chose to say you're a thief?

I ignore them and I reply to Avery. I try to keep my replies short, casual and uninterested, like this doesn't affect me, although I'm stressing a little. Why am I even stressing, right? Because that's me. I stress over little things as much as I stress over big things. I tend to overthink and I try to plan everything. When I replied to her I didn't plan on having to explain what I meant.

I said I didn't pay. But my friend did. I'm definitely not a rebel.

I immediately see a reply, but it's not from Avery, but rather from Richard saying he can confirm what I just said. Avery's reply never came. At least not on that post. She messaged me instead, saying she's sorry if she insulted me by indirectly calling me a thief. I guess my answer was too short and uninterested. She now thinks I'm easily insulted and she probably thinks I want to cut this conversation short. I tell Sarah and Richard about it, and after mocking me for a minute or two they simply advised me to be myself and to not overthink every sentence I type to her. Do they even know me? I can't be myself and not overthink things. Anyway, I try to follow their advice, still being myself, but avoiding the overthinking part as much as possible. The first thing I write is the first thing I reply.

Emma: You didn't insult me. Sorry if it looked like it. I was just clarifying...I didn't want you to get a wrong idea of me :) I worry about first impressions

Avery: But my first impression of you was that you really want to pay for your things, remember?

I smile, remembering my eagerness to pay for dinner. Wait? No emoji? I don't know her after all. I contemplated saying I didn't remember it until now, to make it look like it wasn't a big thing, although I've been thinking about it a lot. I simply tell her 'I remember'. No smiles.

I can see that she read my reply, but she's not typing. Maybe I could've said a little more to keep the conversation, but I have zero skills in the social game. Sometimes I wonder how I made new friends here, but then I remember Sarah and Richard are not social stars either, and it was easy to talk to them as soon as we met.

I close my computer and I start preparing a nice and relaxing bath. I deserve one after last night...and after this awful conversation that is already dead.

Before going to sleep I check my Facebook again. Hopefully I have a new message from Avery. I see it's not the case. I also see that she replied to Richard saying he's a good friend for doing it for me.

Great. You just pushed her to Richard, Emma.

I'm really confused about this situation. Not just about my own sexuality, but about Avery's too. I probably misread her entirely. She wasn't flirting with the waitress, she was just trying to pay first...like me with my puppy eyes. And she was just being nice to me. Smiling and touching my shoulder was just a polite way to say it really didn't matter that I bumped into her. But it mattered to me. I ended up being the one affected by that.

It's like that car accident that father had some years ago. He hit a car while getting out of a parking spot, on reverse. In the end, the other car didn't have a single dent, but my father's car did. I bumped into Avery. I made zero dents, while she smashed my rear really bad. Emma, you're diverting from the point, and using the wrong words and metaphors.

I groan. It's time tosleep. Tomorrow I have a full day of Skype calls. I need the energy for that.