HER

5. Texts and Classes

Mark was at Richard's house very early the next morning. He wanted gossip.
Well. He wouldn't call it gossip. Gossip was for girls, he wanted to hear about the girl that his parents had chosen for him.

"Was she awful? Did she have horrible teeth?" Mark asked. He was currently laying down on Richard's bed, with the TV remote in his hand.
Richard on the other hand was on the floor his back pressed against the side of the bed, scrolling through his phone.

"What does that even mean, Mark?" Richard said absent mindedly.

"Well was she horrible or not?" Mark pressed.

"Not" Richard said. He was more concerned with the fact that he had sent a simple 'Hey' to Rahmat the previous night and she hadn't replied since.

"Describe her" Mark stated simply, "Or rate her"

"Rate her?" Richard mused, "She's not a football game or the new kicks"

"Was she hot or not genius?" Mark almost yelled

"Yes. She was hot" he finally replied, "Jesus Mark"

"What's so important on that phone right now?" Mark asked

"Are you okay? Did you take your meds?" Richard asked Mark. His leg was constantly jittery.

"Shut up. Did you call my step-mom?" he asked

Richard nodded, "Mhm" he said.

"Fuck you. Why would you call her? She hates me" Mark yelled

"Deep shit. She doesn't hate you."

"Yes. She just couldn't be bothered"

"You're an idiot Mark, she's just tired of you." Richard said quietly, "you've broken her trust a lot of times. She may not love you but she doesn't hate you. And she takes care of you"

Mark said nothing. He knew Richard was right. Of course he was. So he didn't argue with him, he just muttered a string of incoherent words under his breath

Richard shifted his attention back to his phone, sighing. "Do I just call her?" he muttered

"What did you say to her? I told you you have a gift of making girls hate you. Are you sure she doesn't hate you already?"

"Fuck you" Richard replied refreshing her page. He watched the arrow spin and spin and spin and stop. A green dot appeared beside her name.

Richard felt his heart race with excitement.

Rahmat is online

Rahmat is typing

Rahmat:
Cute profile picture.

+234-809-137-8414:
Thank you. I'm assuming you know who I am?

Rahmat:
Please...
I'd recognize that picture anywhere, Richard.

Do you want to save +234-809-137-8414?
Yes or No

Richard:
Oh

Rahmat:
How long ago is that picture?

Richard:
I was 12 there. I'm going to take it off now.
Seems like you're getting a kick out of it

Richard has changed his profile picture

Richard:
Honestly, I thought you weren't going to reply.