"Come on, Max, it's just a text," Kate said, sitting on Max's bed with her knees tucked against her chest. She leaned against the wall cautiously, taking special care not to mess up the years' worth of photos that had been tacked up. "What are you so worried about?"
Max's gaze fall once again to the phone clutched in her sweaty palm. "It's just… I don't want her to think I'm lame, or something."
"Pretty sure it's too late for that," the quiet girl replied with a glint in her eye. Max had told Kate all about her encounter with Chloe during dinner. That had been her first mistake. Of course, the teasing had been absolutely relentless since then. Her second mistake had been letting Kate know that she had somehow, miraculously been able to obtain the number of "beautiful blue-nette barista." The moment that her friend's eyes lit up with a gleeful, disturbing delight, Max knew there would be no way to wriggle her way out of texting Chloe now.
"I get it, Kate, I'm hopeless when it comes to stuff like this. It's not exactly like they teach Flirting 101 at Blackwell." Max slumped into her desk chair. Why did my parents give me such awful social skills? I'm going to have to have a serious talk with them later.
"I mean," Kate corrected herself, "She liked you before just fine, and I'm sure you were your totally nerdy self. And look what happened!" Kate motioned toward Max's phone, a grin plastered across her face. "You got her number!"
"Dork," Max replied grumpily, though it was hard to resist Kate's optimism. Her thumbs hovered over the letters for a few moments before she pulled them away. "Ugh! I'm being such a baby about this." Max turned to Kate, who was trying and failing to hide her laugher. The photographer immediately flushed, determinedly turning back to her phone screen. "Alright! I'll just do it." Get over yourself, Max. Just say something to her.
Max typed and deleted a few texts before finally settling on:
[Sent 7:44pm] Heya, Chloe. It's Max. It was cool meeting you today. :)
That's good, Max thought. Gotta be casual. Her phone buzzed only a few seconds later. Max glanced at Kate, who grinned. "That was fast. Must have been waiting for you to text her." Max blushed, opening the text.
[Received 7:44pm] Hell yea it was. Wanna come in tomorrow morning to pick up that camera?
She typed out a reply, tongue trapped between her teeth as her thumbs clicked away at the keys.
[Sent 7:46pm] I can't :( Got class. Jefferson will kill me if I keep skipping. How about Saturday? :) :) :)
Today was Wednesday. That would make it three days until she saw Chloe. Max set her phone down on the desk next to her. This reply took longer than the other one had. Max cut off in the middle of her sentence the moment she heard the buzz and dove for the phone, ignoring Kate's snort.
[Received 7:53pm] cant wait. shop closes early on Saturday. wanna chill afterwards? x
Excitement bubbled in Max's chest. She couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face. Max held up the screen so Kate could see, and she bounced up and down on the bed, hitting Max's arm excitedly. God, they were such teenagers. Max would probably be ashamed under different circumstances.
[Sent 7:56pm] absolutely! See you then :) :) :)
[Received 7:57pm] max, no emoji
[Sent 7:57pm] :(
[Received 7:59pm] NO EMOJI, MAX FACTOR
Max grinned down at her phone. Hilarious.
[Sent 8:02pm] see you Saturday ;)
She set her phone down, unable to wipe the smile from her face as she shot a look at Kate. The weekend couldn't come fast enough.
