Pictures of You

Chapter Six

James was gone when I woke up the next morning. It wasn't unusual. He often got up before me, whilst I preferred to sleep in. I grabbed my phone from my bedside table to see if he had texted me, but instead I noticed the ridiculous amount of Instagram notifications I had.

I clicked on the app to open it and saw that Alessandro had liked around thirty of my photos. I scrolled down my notification page, and saw it was mainly selfies he had liked. I did post an insane amount of selfies, so the amount he had liked wasn't a huge percentage of the pictures I'd posted. But all the same, it showed that he had taken time going through my photos.

Amongst the pictures he had liked were pictures of me by the pool on holiday last year (with shirt off), selfies I'd taken in my bedroom (with shirt off) and a couple of me wearing a few more clothes (I guess just to show he wasnt just liking the shirtless pics).

I remembered looking at the first few of his pictures last night, but now figured it was time to go deeper, so I clicked on his page and started to scroll.

He was obviously as comfortable as I was posting pictures with not many clothes on. A lot were of him in the gym changing rooms, wearing just his shorts or even just his underwear. You know the type of picture. Taken in the mirror, usually captioned #progress

On one of the photos (gym changing room again) he was fresh out of the shower, wet hair and skin, wearing nothing but a towel. The outline of his cock showed quite clearly through, leaving nothing to the imagination. It hung half way down his leg. I clicked like and continued scrolling. As I did, a load more notifications popped up, as he started more liking my pictures.

I wanted to take a picture for him. Something new that wasn't on my Insta yet. I wanted to post it whilst he was looking at my pictures, so he knew I was posing it for him. I looked in the mirror. My hair was messy from just getting out of bed, but it looked kind of cool. I ran my fingers through it a few times, to tame it a little, then laid on my bed, still in just my boxers. I held my phone up, put it into selfie mode and took a few shots. I flicked through them. I looked cute on a couple. I'd not eaten breakfast yet, so my abs were tight.

Without thinking, I posted one of the new shots. A couple of seconds later I received a new notification. It wasn't a like, it was a comment.

One word:

Wow!

I smiled and felt pleased with myself. I knew how ridiculous I was being. I had a teenage crush on a boy I didn't know, and I felt good knowing he was looking at me and liking what he saw. A moment later and I received a DM.

How are you this morning, sexy?

It was a little forward, but it didn't make me feel the same as when Danny had been last night. Partly I guess because Alessandro wasn't right there next to me, with his hands all over me. It said on his Insta account that he was Spanish born, but living in London. He was at the other side if the country to me. But there was something there already with him, even after just a couple of messages, something that wasn't there with Danny last night.
I told myself to calm down. I didn't even knew this guy. And look at him. He was one if the hottest men I'd seen in my life. He could have any man he wanted. I'd be foolish to have thought he was interested in me. Even if he did like me, I assumed he must have been messaging hundreds of other men on social media.

I messaged back.

I'm good. You been enjoying my pictures?

He replied; I enjoyed your pictures very much.

He finished the message with the tongue out emoji.

I slowly got ready for the day. I had nothing to do, but I knew I couldn't lounge around all day on my boxer shorts. I jumped in the shower and put some music on whilst getting dressed. Every time I got a message from Alessandro, I stopped what I was doing to read it and reply. If he was talking to other guys too, I figured he couldn't be talking to them right now, as his messages to me came back too quickly.

That made me feel special.

I got very little done all day. I went downstairs to talk to Mum, but I constantly checked my phones for messages and replied to them straight away. I could tell Mum was getting annoyed that my attention was on my phone rather than on her. I didn't call or text anyone else all day. The squad's WhatsApp group kept popping up, but I ignored in in favour of replying to Alessandro many messages instead. When I finally checked it, there were over two hundred messages, and I couldn't be bothered to go through them all.

Who had I become? I swore I'd never be one of those guys who neglected his friends for a boy. Yet here I was. I could see it happening, but I couldn't help myself. My heart fluttered every time I got a new message from Alessandro and I was addicted to that feeling. Everyone and everything else were just blurred shapes.

I was pulled back into the real world when I got a message from Danny.

Looking forward to our date. You free to do it tomorrow?

Danny! Shit! I'd completely forgotten about him. Could I cancel, tell him I wasn't interested? It seemed wrong to do so. I'd not even given him a real chance. We were at a party, it was loud and there were loads of other people there. It wasn't really the environment to talk and get to know each other. I'm sure in a more date like setting things would be much easier. And he was really cute. There was a lot to be said for that.

I shouldn't rule Danny out because of Alessandro. Sure, I liked him, but I didn't even know him. He was just an Instagram profile.

Then I got another message. It was from James, separate from the group chat:

Tom has just messaged me. He wants to know if we're going out next week.

Of course he had. They were clearly together, talking about us. I messaged him back.

You want to go?

James: Yeah, do you.
Me: Sure
James: What day?
Me: I'm easy.
James: I know that lol, but what day?
Me: Tuesday?
James: Cool. I'll sort it.

What had I done? I was doing the right thing by going on this date, wasn't I?