The day Garfield Logan started talking to me it was raining. I remember sitting at my desk, book on lap and pencil in hand, annotating a copy of Shakespeare's Macbeth when my phone buzzed. Underlining one last phrase with a slight flourish, I put the pencil down and reached out for the phone. When I saw the Facebook message, my eyes immediately fixated on his name. I couldn't really figure out why he was talking to me. It wasn't like he was popular or anything, he was normal just like me. I just had never really talked to him before.
"hey" the message said. Raising my eyebrow, I entered my passcode quickly and opened the chat. I decided to keep my messages short and straight to the point. I had heard many a story about creeps on facebook hitting on girls they would never talk to in real life.
"hi" I replied. A few seconds later, a new message popped up.
"i dont mean to bother you but do you know the english homework?" Ah, mystery solved, I thought.
"yeah, i was just doing it now. let me check the pages." I did so, then returned to my phone.
"act 5 scenes 4 till the end"
"thanks! :)" was his quick answer.
"anytime" I replied, setting my phone down and sliding it away from me before diving back into my reading. A few minutes later, however, the phone buzzed again. I waited before checking the notification, reading the last part of the page before reaching out for my phone again.
"wait, macbeth dies?" His message was followed by a few more question marks and a "what the hell?" I suppressed a need to roll my eyes before replying.
"ever heard of a shakespearian tragedy?"
"ya"
"well, in them, these things happen a lot. try not to get too attached to the main characters"
"i wasnt attached to him, he was a complete jerk. it just kind of sucks he was killed in such a rushed manner" I took a moment to pause
"yeah i guess so"
"i mean, after all that drama he just gets slain and that's it?"
"basically"
"anti climatic much?"
"you could say that." There was a break in the conversation and i was about to put down my phone before he messaged me again.
"so whats your favorite shakespeare play?" i raised an eyebrow before typing my answer.
"i dont really like his plays much"
"really? favorite book then?
"how do you know i like to read?" I asked.
"you dont need to like reading to have a favorite book." He replied. "plus you just seemed like the type of person who does"
"and what type of person is that?"
"idk. you just kinda give off that vibe"
"oh" I said. "and thats a good or bad vibe?"
"its bad for me cause that means i might get swept away in a flurry of literature that i dont get." A small smile crept across my face as I
read his answer.
"not a reader eh? i could guess as far"
"whats that supposed to mean?"
"you just give off that vibe"
"ooh sass"
"hardly." I said. "look, as scintillating as this conversation is, i have a chem quiz to study for and im hoping for three hours of sleep
tonight."
"ending it so soon? i was starting to have fun" He said.
"now you sound creepy. goodbye garfield"
"haha have fun rae"
it wasnt until i had signed off did i realize he called me that. i didnt have a problem with it, really. i actually kind of liked it.
That conversation triggered the beginning of a new friendship that was immediate almost from the start. We started talking every night after school. In class we gave each other weird looks and occasionally chatted. When we passed each other in the halls he would smile and tell an awful joke. It's not to say we immediately became best friends and were always together, we simply just became more aware of one another. Of course, this was not unnoticed by my friends. They ran the usual girl protocol, quizzing me if I liked him, if I thought he was cute, if he liked me, if I was sure i didnt like him. I answered honestly (I don't think so, i don't know, no, and yes) and soon enough they backed off and dubbed him as just another friend. Well, most of them did. My best friend, kori, was determined there was something going on between us. Despite my valiant efforts, her mind was made up and she continued to ship us intensely.
"Raave," She would say. "Are you blind? Can you NOT see the chemistry?"
"That's called friendship" I would reply with a roll of my eyes.
"I didn't know friendship involved googly eyes and flirting."
"Garfield and I don't flirt, and you of all people should know I don't do googly eyes for anybody, least of all Garfield Logan." She would ignore me.
"See! Even the way you say his name suggests something." She would protest.
"Kori."
"What? I'm your best friend, I can do this."
"So does that mean i can bring up you and Dick Grayson?" Dick Grayson being her long time crush. Kori would blush furiously, and glance at her shoes.
"... Okay I won't mention him." And the conversation would change topics until the next time I accidentally mentioned him. I detailed these conversations to Garfield, and he would laugh heartily and wiggle his brows at me.
"You and me, huh Rae-Rae? Not a bad idea." he would say suggestively. I would punch him in the chest. Kori said I was flirting. Garfield said it was me succumbing to his charm, which he later changed to "getting punched by a mean friend". When he told me that, I laughed. And punched him in the chest.