The Text

Well... this is it. The end of the world as I know it. You know, maybe I'll actually get lucky. Maybe she'll actually want to go out with me. Maybe that text wasn't a stupid idea. At the same time, maybe I sent it too soon. I mean, couldn't I have just waited until I got back to school? Oh, that's right, I'm an impatient idiot who can't just wait to ask somebody out in person. Whoopty-freakin-doo. God, what do I do? Do I send another text saying to ignore the first one? Do I delete the text and just forget it ever happened? Do I even ask her out at all? I mean, what if I’m just reading too much into this? What if she actually doesn’t like me and I just jumped to a conclusion because I want it to be true? Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god. Don’t you just love how you internalize a decision for ages, then you finally make the decision and regret that you didn’t just stick with your original course of action? Shoot, shoot, shoot.

The signs all seemed to line up when I saw her yesterday. She was bubbly and smiling and all around in a good mood during LA yesterday, and she even wanted me to walk with her to her next class afterwards. We just talked, caught up on the craziness of school and the hopes we had for the future. I didn't expect this genuine of a connection to occur when she arrived at our school this semester, a new student excited to talk to new people, but here I am. I'm the lucky guy that gets to be her best friend, talk to her about her life, keep her secrets. With this text, I may have just ruined all of that.

It’s been fifteen minutes. She probably read that and doesn't feel comfortable even responding. It’s been an hour. She hates me now, I can tell. It’s been two hours. It’s probably gonna be awkward between us from now on. She’s gonna avoid eye contact with me and I’m gonna try to strike up a conversation like before but not feel comfortable doing so because I don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, even if she is still perfectly comfortable with me. God, why did I send that text?!? The phone vibrates. She texted me back! Oh, no, wait, that’s right, I texted another one of my friends to see if we could hang out tomorrow and he’s responding to that text. I text him for a bit to figure out the plan for tomorrow, thinking each time my phone vibrates that it’s her. He stops texting after a bit, and five more minutes pass by after that… then ten more… and fifteen more… and twenty more… and I get another text. Who is it this time? It’s her!! No way, she actually responded! What does it say?

“Really? I’d love to!!”

Wait, really? Really?!? Did she send that to the right person? I text her back, “Wait, really?!?”

She responds, “Yeah, of course!”

My heart is beating out of my chest. It actually worked. She actually likes me!

She texts a second response. “I’m free this Saturday. Wanna go for lunch or something?”

I type faster than I ever have before. In all caps, I type, “Yes, yes, yes!!” I then send a second text that hopefully comes across a lot calmer: “Meet at Jojo’s at 12:30?”

She texts back: “Sounds awesome! See you then.” She sends a smiley emoji.

“See you then!” I text back with two smiley emojis to show how excited I am.

She sends back three.

Oh, my god. That actually worked. She really likes me!! I’m going on a date with her in two days! Oh, my god!! Now, I can’t wait to see her tomorrow.