'Left, left, left, LEFT, left, LEFT, LEFT!'
All she did was swipe left. It was as if she thought the app was truly a game in which you were meant to spark flames, and swiping in the leftmost direction was the optimal way to do so. She didn't even understand why she got the app in the first place. Sure, she was lonely, and one of the few friends she had, Ruby, mentioned it offhand. It was, apparently, an app that her sister often used to find new friends or a quick hook up, maybe a date, or two.
It was another night in, and after the ever lively family dinner, Weiss locked herself in her room. The lights weren't bothered with, leaving her with the glow of her phone's screen, and the moonlight peeking in through windows. She laid out across her bed, shifting from side to side, curled to sprawled out, sitting to laying, any new position to keep herself from going numb. She'd done the week's homework in advance, and it was friday of the previous week. There wasn't much else left to do but mindless gawking.
All she had done for the past few hours was craft a shotty profile, and go on to judge others for theirs. She picked a portrait saved from her family's last session with their photographer as her profile picture, adding more candid pictures, that Ruby had been able to take and send to her, to fill it out. None of the pictures other people chose for profiles were of any interest to her. The summary she'd been able to force out wasn't very exciting, or long. She was direct, frank, and absolute. She thought it was better that way. Again, other people's summaries weren't that eye catching to her. Sure, they did attempted to be funny, clever, and attractive in their pics, (it was more than Weiss seemed to do). They accomplished none of those things, according to her.
There was one profile that got a hesitant tick to the right. It was high praise, if you asked anyone but Weiss. She was hard to impress. It took Ruby weeks of wearing her down until they could move from acquaintances to friends, in the loosest sense.
She was matched with him shortly thereafter. Weiss immediately regretted swiping right. His opening line was the ever trite, "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven," and worse than that, he intended to put a personal spin on it, calling her "snow-angel." Weiss was mildly roused. She found his try endearing, but she couldn't shake a sense of disingenuous revelry from the common pick up line. She was intent on typing out some sort of reply, but didn't know how to respond to such a thing. "No, you idiot." No, she deleted that. "Snow-angel? Are you making fun of my hair?" That didn't seem to feel right.. Her responses only became more crass from there. Eventually, Weiss abandoned the endeavor. She clicked out of the chat, and onced over his profile, again. She was less impressed upon this second glance. She went back to browsing potential 'hookups,' though, she didn't want to think of any of them as such. Something more, that's what she was looking for. Finding anything more than a headache on this app was becoming a pipe dream. Her ratio of left to right swipes was proving the point.
Her thumb lifted from the glass of her phone. She wasn't immediately irked to forcibly eject their profile from sight, for once. The username was intriguing, yet clean - not employing odd capital letters or numbers into it. It just read 'Golden_Dragon.' The profile's summary reflected well, too. Weiss even found herself enjoying some of the tries at humor. The profile picture showed a woman draped over a motorcycle in protective leather, with sunglasses on. The girl's titular long blonde hair was a point of focus, with its immense volume and bright sheen. Her midriff was exposed, showing off her exceptionally cut abs. Weiss felt her eyes trace the girl's form, attempting to peer through the leather, to assure that the rest of her body was toned in the same way.
She swiped right.
It was an immediate match.
The chat tab of the app blipped in, and Weiss sat with wide eyes as the girl, she'd just okayed as a match, sent fragmented messages out. They were meant to hit in rapid fire, so she could get her entire point across without being interrupted. It worked. Weiss let her hand settle, reading the two to three word bubbles that updated each second. When the barrage ended, the extent of the message read, "Hey, if you were vegetable you'd be a cute-cumber." It was a pick up line - it got Weiss to sit up straight, that's for sure. She felt foolish for trying to stave off a genuine smile from forming. It was childish, but Weiss felt herself appreciate the pun, it was the most literary-intelligent manner of humor. She read it over once more and felt a need to take her own jab.
"Cucumber*" She typed it, and sent it off, without a second thought. As the read receipt came back, alerting her that her sarcastic correction of the girl's spelling had been received, Weiss felt herself want to retract it. It didn't very well seem to be a jest in good nature, when taken objectively. She half meant the correction, which only made her feel worse.
"Smart AND beautiful." The chat bubble slide up from oblivion. Weiss was a bit relieved of such a docile retort. "Score!" Now that, that had made Weiss smile.
"Why, thank you." Weiss took to her safest stance. She was raised as a Schnee, so that charm clicked on whenever emotion threatened to compromise decision making.
"Welcome, Weiss!" The girl's knowledge of her name almost shocked her. That was until Weiss remembered she was not as creative as the woman she was speaking to. She plastered her full name on her profile. She felt disenfranchised.
"May I have your name, then?" Weiss required equal ground.
"Yang!" Weiss realized this girl seemed to enjoy putting exclamation points in her texts. "You know, like you'll have a Yang-up time if you go out with me!" Another exclamation. Weiss had to take a second to realize the girl's name was in substitution of another word.
"Is that so?"
"I am a wonderful time, let me tell you." The girl had confidence, that was for sure. Weiss liked that.
"Then, tell me." Weiss laid back down, grinning, and ready to be continually dazzled.
"Well, it'd be easier to do that over dinner." Weiss felt that was certainly forward, but she was not entirely off put by the statement.
"Are you asking me out?" Weiss's eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the text she just received.
"Depends. If I were to ask you out on a date, would your answer be the same as the answer to this question?" The inquiry was equivalent to mental gymnastics as far as pickup lines went.
It took Weiss several typings of "No," and "Yes," before she stopped. She debated having a prolonged discussion of the intent, and meaning of what she was asking, but that didn't sound appealing. This wasn't a scenario Weiss could have ever imagined to be in, so she felt horribly ill equipped. The situation was foreign. Any 'suitor,' as she and her family called them, that attempted to court her in the past was known beforehand. This would be, essentially, a blind date. Emphasis on the blind.
Weiss flicked back. Like she had done before, she took a second look at the girl's profile. She seemed harmless enough. Plenty of levity in her summaries, and certainly more thought poured into it than Weiss had done. She analyzed the other photos. They were all of her for the most part. One of her at the gym, she seemed to take pride in her body and looks. One of her in the bathroom, hair tied up, and a farcical selfie pose. The last picture was of her cheek mashed against another girl's, who seemed to be enjoying the photo far less than Yang did. They way their hair clashed, blonde against black, was indicative of their relationship it seemed - Yang was elated, while the other girl seemed to hope the photo would capture her soul. They looked to be at a rave, or a party, or something - Weiss had no clue.
Her viewing party was interrupted as the app alerted her of new messages. She'd taken to long to respond, to Yang, and to the previous match. She checked the failed pick up artist first. He was not happy. He bemoaned her lack of response, claiming he knows she had viewed the message. Weiss only scoffed. Yang was looking to be the preferable choice, at this point. When she checked Yang's message, she found something with just a modicum of care put into it. "Coming on a little strong, huh? Sorry, BF tells me I do that." The picture of Yang overwhelming the black haired girl came to Weiss's mind.
"Where" Weiss let her thumb type out the word without realizing. She quickly added a "?" for posterity.
"Huh?" The blonde was clever, and hot, but didn't follow. Weiss felt her shoulders roll. She had to work her heart up a few beats before elaborating. She wasn't quite sure she wanted to go through with it after being questioned like that.
"Where would you like to go out?" Weiss halted for a second. "When?" She tried to be formal. But she also wanted to get it out quickly.
"Oh!" It wasn't much of anything, Weiss didn't know what to do with it. "Cool!" That made her feel a bit better. "I mean, I'm down for anything, anywhere, anytime. As long as you're there." Yang seemed insistent on flirtatious glib.
Weiss eyed the analog clock in her room, it was dark, since she'd let the backlighting of her phone strain her eyes instead of turning on any dim lights in the room. She also always let the fact that her phone functioned as a clock itself escape her. Her eyelids came closer. '8:32.' She'd spent far too long moping on that dating app. She cursed herself for it, but refocused on the prospects before her. She didn't want to spend the rest of the night alone, in her dark room, doing the nothing that usually consumed her friday evenings.
"Now." Weiss began to ponder places that'd be open in an hour or two.
"Now!?"
"Yes." Weiss had to let the back and forther fester in her mind. The absurdity was clear. "Unless now is not the best time." To be honest with herself, she hadn't exactly earned another dinner. She was still full from her family's lovely silent family feast.
"No, that's great! Now is totally cool." Now she was locked it. "I know this great burrito place." Weiss never had a pension for ethnic food. Luckily, she didn't seem to need to butt in. "I also have been religiously going to this deli for weeks now." Yang was changing their eatery of choice by the second. 'Stream of consciousness,' Weiss assumed, after a few more suggestions came. "Oh my GOD. I know the perfect place." This was the seventh suggestion so far, but Weiss felt it would be the last. "The Midnight Snack Shack. It's this awesome pseudo-bar, place. Great jalapeno poppers." The whole message threw Weiss through a loop. The restaurant's name was interesting, to say the least, and she had never even seen a jalapeno popper, much less eaten one.
"Sounds charming." Weiss was ready to do her own research on the establishment.
"Coolio." That was a new word to Weiss. "I can meet you there in 45 min." Weiss did quick math.
'About 9:20.' Seemed late, but Weiss couldn't back out now, she was the one who proposed it.
"Make it an hour, actually." Even worse. Weiss almost growled, but shook it away.
"Understood." Weiss pushed off from her bed, and stretched out, on her feet.
"See ya there. Be safe, sister!" Weiss realized she was in for a very different night.
She had an hour, and her investigation into the place Yang picked out estimated a ten minute travel time. The place must have been downtown, near Weiss's estate. She could walk, if she even thought of doing so. No, a car would be summoned to escort her to the establishment. She would have to be nonchalant, discreet, and confident. She didn't want her family asking unnecessary questions. Not that this was, by any means, a deplorable act, Weiss just hadn't the nerve to deal with the annoyance.
She ran her hand through her hair, smelled her breath, and checked her form in the mirror. She would have to change, of course, maybe fix her hair up, brush her teeth just in case. Shower, though, that was a more troubling question in the air. She had the time. She didn't see the need. She was perfectly clean, having showered in the morning. Her clothes were clean, and she was a clean person. And, it wasn't like she needed to make sure every inch of her was pristine for her late night date night. Her decision was made with a nod. No shower, she wouldn't regret that, 'surely.'