In a Matter of Time

Chapter 9

      Author's Note: Because I was gone for so long, here I give you a double chapter day 😎

  "Y-yeah! I'm perfectly fine! My username is..." I began. I looked at my Nstagram account only to realize what a stupid name I had picked. "Uh, repeat after me. And uhm, put these letters into your search bar. The name is hard to pronounce so.. I'm gonna spell it out for you instead."

          Sydney pulled out her phone again and nodded. "G.." I said.

          She repeated after me. "G.."

"A."

"A.."

"B..E"

"Okay.. Gabe.."

"T H E"

"...Gabe..the.."

"B"

"B"

"A"

"A"

          I looked away in embarrassment as I said the last two letters. "B E."

          Sydney smiled and clicked a button on her phone. "Followed!" She said.

          Valerie cackled. "Gabe the Babe?! Seriously?! This guy can't get any weirder can he?"

          Sydney rolled her eyes again. You could tell she didn't really like Valerie. Sydney tapped another button on her phone and then began tapping away, like she was texting someone. I then got a notification from Nstagram. It was a text from her! My cheeks glowed with a bright red as my jaw dropped in shock. I clicked the notification and the message read, "i think that its a cute name :)" I looked up at Sydney with wide eyes. Was this real life?  She giggled and pushed her long, beautiful brown hair behind her ear. I looked back down at my phone and reread the message a million times. Even the way she texted was sweet.

          "Valerie, sweetie let's be nice." Angela told Valerie calmly. 

          Sydney grabbed Valerie's shoulder and slid her phone back into her pocket. "Yeah, Val. Let's go to your room." She added. 

          They both got up and Valerie started to walk upstairs. Sydney turned to me and whispered, "I'll text you later!" 

          Then they were off. I still couldn't believe what had  happened. She really texted me. What should I say back?! Should I be chill, relaxed, and laidback? Or how about hip, cool, and kinda bad boy-ish? I asked myself in my head. I then said aloud, "What kind of boys does she like?"

          I quickly hit my hand against my mouth in attempt to block anything from blurting out of it. Angela looked at me as her jaw slowly dropped. "Gabe! I knew it! It was so obvious!" She whisper-shouted. 

          I removed my hand from my mouth and quivered in fear, afraid of what she knew. "Wh-what was obvious?" I asked, playing dumb.

          "You know what?  I think she likes you, too!" She implied. 

          My fear suddenly went away. I was sent into a state of nirvana. The thought of Sydney liking me back was like a dream, well, I have dreamed of that once. By once I mean like yesterday night. I straightened my posture and scooted closer towards her, even though she was on the other side of the table. "You do?"

          "Totally! The way she teases you," She mentioned.

          I raised a brow. "She..teases me?" I asked.

          "See? You're too in love to notice it! Ha ha!" She claimed.

          I chuckled a little and mumbled a small, "I guess,"

          "You should ask her out. She hasn't had a boyfriend in days." She said.

          I was a bit shocked. "Days? That's..surprising.. She doesn't seem like that type of girl.."

          "Are you blind, kid? Of course she's that type of girl. Look at 'er. Puttin' on pounds of makeup everyday, wearin' those perverted clothes," She listed many, many bad things about Sydney. Why was she talking like this about her? It's so shady.

          "She doesn't look like she wears makeup and..her clothes don't seem perverted to me." I argued in a calm tone.

          Angela raised an eyebrow at me and then shook her head almost like she was "snapping herself out of it" and said, "Anyways, ask her out, kiddo. You and Valerie would be the perfect couple!"

  I froze. I blinked slowly and looked at Angela with a "you're joking right?" face as I then murmured sarcastically, "Ah, yes. I have a crush on Valerie." and sank into the chair.

          What a great day to be me.  I found out my mom was hiding a secret guy in the house, got slapped in the face by my mom, ran away, went to Valerie's house, got slapped in the face by Valerie, and now Valerie's mom thinks I'm in love with Valerie.