Match Made in Quarantine

3. Day Zero

Silence stretched between us as I tried to come up with something to say. Nothing came to mind. I was starting to feel increasingly more awkward with his hand on my wrist and the way he stared at me.

Just say something Aimee, say anything!

"I need to pee." There we go, word vomit, just on cue.

I took a sharp breath after I realized what I'd just blurted out. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said just anything. The thing with me was that I did not do well in awkward situations.

Then again, I guess it would depend on your definition of doing well. I absolutely excelled at making any situation about 110% more awkward than it was a minute ago.

"In the bathroom." A unique skill that only increased given enough time. If I stayed there any longer, he was going to get an unwarranted update on my entire bowel movement history.

Maddox let go of my hand with a smile so big his pearly white teeth almost blinded me. "Here I was, thinking you usually peed on the couch."

My cheeks warmed in embarrassment. This was mortifying. I turned around and stormed straight into my room.

After slamming the door shut, I heard his muffled voice yell from the living room. "I thought you had to pee?"

I bumped the back of my head against the door, slowly sliding down to the ground, and buried my head into my palms. My hands burned from the amount of heat emitting from my cheeks.

Why couldn't I just be one of those effortlessly cool girls that always knew exactly what to say and when to say it?

Once I felt slightly calmer, I made my way to the bed. It creaked under my weight as I sat awkwardly on the edge, feeling completely dazed. Almost like I never woke in the first place, and this was all just a dream. I shot a longing look toward my pillow, for a second considering the possibility of just sleeping this entire quarantine away. If bears could do it, I could do it, right? Only I knew enough of anatomy to know that hibernating was not a legitimate option for humans.

Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my laptop and flipped open the screen, deciding to check every possible social media profile I had for updates – and regreted it almost immediately.

My Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feed shone with continuous updates from, it appeared, literally everyone on my friend's or following list.

That girl I met once at a party, the one that followed me while slurring how I was her new best friend and then I never saw her again in my life? I now had deep insight into the intricacies of her mind during a crisis. It seemed like her biggest concern was how not being able to have her nails done was a violation of human rights. Also her hair was mentioned a lot too.

The asshole playboy from high school that used Facebook like his own personal soapbox, seemed to think this was a joke, and there was no actual virus. He also made some elaborate threats against, well, everyone, if he wouldn't get to attend Burning Man this year. Luckily for those on his friend's list, it seemed like he was put into Facebook jail for the duration of the quarantine.

Then there was the girl that shared some of my classes during the first year of college before she decided to drop out and focus on being a full-time Instagram travel influencer... Well, suffice it to say that she was kind of freaking out about potentially becoming jobless.

I scrolled down the feed, trying to catch up with everything. It was a jungle. Everyone had their own worries, opinions, and theories. Social media was transformed into a community of virology experts. My head started pounding with a mild headache.