It's just a message

Harriet's POV

"Not long to go now huh, H?"

I reply without looking up from my phone, "sorry, I wasn't listening..."

"I said, not long to go now. One more class and we're done for the day."

"Oh yeah," I mumble.

"Harri, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing, Jazz. Well.... ok, I'll tell you but you have to promise not to laugh?" I pled twirling a piece of my hair between my fingers.

Jazz stares at me. Her brown eyes curiously searching mine for a hint of what I'm about to say. "Harri, just tell me."

I can't look directly at her when I say this so I focus my eyes on the vinyl floor below us. "So there's this guy...."

"A guy?" She smirks raising her brow quizzically.

She's the only person I know who has the ability to raise either brow on cue. It's one of the many features of Jazz's that I'm jealous of. "Yes, Jazz. At least I think it's a guy. He followed me on Insta and I checked out his profile, he seemed cool, I mean he quoted Nirvana," I explain without taking a breath.

"Oh, it must be love be if he quoted Nirvana," she replies in an exaggerated tone.

I know she doesn't get my taste in music. She's more of a modern pop-punk rock, Gate Thirty Four kind of girl. I mean they're not bad in fact, they're pretty cool, but I'm a little more old school grunge and she's enjoying this a little too much. "Like I said, I thought he was cool," I say resuming my stare down of the hallway floor, focusing on where the edges are glued together.

"So what's the problem?" she asks looking at me over the top of her red heart-shaped sunglasses which were pushed onto the tip of her nose.

"Well... he told me that I had beautiful eyes," I mumble so quietly that it's barely audible.

"I'm sorry, what?" She laughs, not even trying to keep a straight face. "I don't get it, what's the problem? I mean I know boys aren't really your thing but ...."

"What do you mean boys aren't really my thing?" I reply offended, not so much annoyed at the idea that I'm not into guys but that I wouldn't have said anything.

She places her hand on her heart, her bangles clanging. "Oh, no. I didn't mean that. I just meant, you know, you've never really been interested in them before."

"Well, no. Not the boys here anyway," I say looking around the passage, my eyes landing on a group of guys with greasy hair jostling each other against the lockers. "I mean look at them. They're so.... so.... well they're just not my type".

"Okay.... so what is your type then, Hipster? Goth? Stoner? Jock? Or maybe it's Rocker?"

"I don't know. Anyway, I'm not saying that SJ is my type, it's just that I don't really know what or even if I should write back."

"Ah, so it's SJ now?" she asks, smugness written all over her face.

"Yeah, well at least that's what his profile says. Anyway, stop making big deal out of this. Nothing has happened. We just followed each other and he said he likes my eyes, that's it!" I huff annoyed at how much she's enjoying my awkwardness.

"Touchy much?" she replies with another masterfully executed eye roll. I try and stare her down but my glare has nothing on her self-satisfied expression.

"No, just you're making this a much bigger deal than it is. You asked me what I was looking at and I told you and now you're acting as if I'm in love with him!"

Detecting my angry levels rising she playfully wraps her arm around my neck. "Awww, don't be like that H. You know I'm just playing. Honestly, I'm excited to talk about this stuff with you. We never talk boys and you know how much I looooveee to talk boys".

"Calm down, we're not going to start now!" I say only half meaning it. I don't really have anyone else to talk to about this stuff and Jazz is my best friend, my only friend, so I don't really have many other options. I certainly wasn't about to talk to my brother about this.

"So.... how are you going to reply?" She prods, not taking the subtle hint that I wanted the conversation to be over.

My face protests answering the question but my mouth betrays me, "not sure I am."

"Come on Harri, you said yourself he's cool and he sounds sweet, a little creepy maybe, but sweet. I mean what do you have to lose?" She says letting out an out of control high pitched laugh that is more like the squeal you get from a boiling teapot.

"He could be a complete psychopath," I answer dryly, not entirely joking. I mean I'm pretty sure this is the stranger danger that teachers and parents warn us about.

She calms herself down by fanning her face before placing her hands on my shoulders to steady herself and focusing her eyes on mine. "Well, you'll never know if you don't reply."

"Ok. I'll think abou--  ah, saved by the bell," I chime as the bell rings for last period.

"Well let's get going then, you know how Grayson feels about us being late," she laughs and slaps me on the bum to get me moving.

Sitting in science I can't help but think about my conversation with Jazz. She's right. I don't have anything to lose and really all it is is a message. I know I tend to over analyse things but even this is next level for me. Before I can second guess myself further I pull out my phone type up a private message.

"Hi SJ. Nice to meet you. Thought it would be better to chat privately rather than spam your page. That's really sweet- I'd say the same thing about your eyes if I could see them:) btw, I'm Harri. short for Harriet."

"Harriet, you're not on your phone are you?" Mr Grayson's voice booms from the back of the room sending me into a panic. My hands fumbling with my phone.

"Uh.... no Sir. I was just switching it to silent," I lie, making the mistake of looking to my left to see Jazz laughing silently, winking at me and I can't help but smirk. I regain control over my hands and save the message to drafts before shoving my phone into the pocket of my jeans.

"Soooo, what did you write?" she asks, leaning her tall frame against the stack of lockers as soon as we're free from Grayson's class.

"Who said I wrote anything?"

"Come on Harri, are we back to this? Just tell meeeee," she begs taking out a family sized packet of gummy worms from her bag.

"Nothing yet. I just drafted a private message," I say handing over my phone. "Read it for yourself."

"Wait.....you said you drafted a message, yeah?"

"Yeah, it's there under drafts," I groan a little frustrated that we're back on this topic. Jazz really has no ability to let things go.

Jazz's eyes widen as she hands me back my phone. "Whereeeeee?" I huff, taking back the phone and scrolling through my messages to reach the drafts screen intent on proving my point.

I look once, then twice, then three times but it's not there. I frantically search all messages including my deleted but come up empty, that is until I check my sent items.

My stomach drops, "OH FRUITBOX!"

"You sent it didn't you?" she screams, bursting into another uncontrollable fit of laughter.

My face flushes red and I panic instantly. "OH MY GOSH! What have I done?"

Her eyes widen even further, tears of laughter threatening to spill down her face. "You totally slid into his DM's!"

"Is that a bad thing?" I ask biting my lip to distract from my building anxiety.

"Oh gurllll you have soooo much to learn." she says with an exaggerated drawl. "Listen closely, I'm about to get be you a lesson. Sliding into DM's 101, by yours truly...."

I gulp. Double fruitbox.

~~~~~

Thanks everyone for getting this far.

I'd love to know what your thoughts are on Secret Identity- got any favorite characters? What about least favourite?

Cheers, Trudz