I awaken to the harsh beeping of my arm. I’m not ready for this. I roll over and turn off the arm, before snuggling back up into my bnkets, trying to fall back into the dream I was just in. Unfortunately for me, I can’t remember any of it. It was good though. I know that much.

  With a sigh, I roll back towards my phone, and pull it off the charger. The first thing I notice is multiple texts from an unknown number. I open it, and scroll through the previous messages. Right, Holly…

  ‘Hey, good morning! I hope you slept well.’

  ‘I’m still down to call today if you are. Just let me know.’

  ‘Morning’

  ‘I slept ok’

  ‘Had a good dream that I cant remember so that sucks’

  ‘I don’t have any real pns until tonight’

  ‘Just let me know when you wanna call’

  With that done, I scroll through my other notifs, and then watch some gaming videos while I y in bed. What do I want to do today… I look up at the guitar I have sitting in my closet. One I built myself, with my mom’s help, of course. The bck stained wood calls out to me. I’ll practice today.

  I gnce over at my pc, the used studio equipment sitting next to my desk in my closet. I could always finish working on Echoes… The half finished song brings emotion into my chest. Later, not now. My phone vibrates, and I open it to see a text from Holly.

  ‘I should be free in about an hour, let’s call then, okay?’

  ‘Also sorry about not remembering the dream. I hate that feeling. I might be able to help with that, if you want.’

  ‘Not with remembering that one, but with learning how to remember future ones.’

  ‘That sounds good’

  ‘Id appreciate it’

  ‘Im gonna get some food then we can call’

  ‘Ooh, let me know what you make, I bet it’s gonna be delicious.’

  ‘Probably not’

  ‘Just eggs or smth’

  ‘Ill tell you though when i decide’

  With that, I do get up, and get dressed. Nothing special, just pants and a t-shirt. With that done I head out towards the kitchen. My mom is sitting in the living room, doing something on her tablet. Probably drawing.

  I ignore her and walk down the stairs into the kitchen. What to make… I think for a moment, staring into the freezer at my options. I want to impress Holly… Maybe I could modify something, make it look more homemade.

  I pull out a small ftbread sandwich thing, and pop it in the microwave. Throw some hot sauce and some green onions on it, and it'll look perfect. While I’m waiting for it to cook, I pull out my favorite asian hot sauce. The mayo mixture was weird at first, but I’ve grown to love it.

  I grab a single stalk of green onion out of the cup by the sink, and set about cutting it into small pieces with a pair of kitchen scissors. The microwave dings, and I pull out my freshly made food. It takes me a moment to make it look fancy, but with a nice squiggle of sauce, and some carefully pced chives, it looks exactly like the sort of thing a sophisticated man would make for breakfast.

  I take a quick photo or two of it, before sending it to Holly, and munching happily on my ‘homemade’ breakfast. I did make it in a home, and I customized it. That means I’m telling her the truth, kinda…

  ‘Ooooooh! That looks yummy! Did you make that yourself?’

  ‘Yea’

  ‘We had some left over ftbread from curry the other night so I just threw it together real fast’

  ‘You'll have to make it for me one day. It looks delicious.’

  ‘What’s in it?’

  Crap. What is in it? I pull out the box and quickly look through the ingredients before responding.

  ‘Eggs peppers cheese and a roasted tomato curry sauce’

  ‘From the curry we had the other night’

  ‘Then i just threw some chili mayo sauce and some home grown green onions on top’

  ‘Oh, that’s really cool!’

  ‘I would’ve expected some sort of meat in it. Are you also a vegetarian?’

  I think about that st statement for a moment. She said ‘also’ which means that she is too… This could be a good way to make her like me.

  ‘Yeah i am’

  She probably saw me eat meat st year…

  ‘Its a recent thing’

  ‘That's really cool! I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my life. What made you decide to stop eating meat?’

  I panic slightly at her question, and immediately open a search engine to find out why people go vegetarian. I open up one of the various social media links, and scroll down through the comments, eventually finding one that looks realistic enough.

  ‘I read the statistic that the average american eats 100lbs of chicken a year’

  ‘And chickens are like 4lbs’

  ‘So thats 25 chickens dying a year for me to eat meat’

  ‘And thats assuming you eat the whole chicken’

  ‘I usually only ate breast so thats like 50 chickens’

  ‘And i thought about why i even eat meat to begin with’

  ‘Fvor’

  ‘And i realized i wasnt willing to let 50 animals die just for tasty food’

  ‘So i stopped’

  ‘That’s actually really cool of you!’

  ‘My reasons were simir. I was never really okay with eating meat, and when I found out I didn’t have to, I stopped.’

  ‘What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe?’

  To the internet I go once more. I start to type in a basic sad recipe, when an idea hits me. I told her I ate curry the other night. I’m sure vegetarian curry exists. I look it up, and find a few good options. I pick the first one I find, simply to save time so she doesn't get suspicious.

  ‘A vegetarian curry my dad makes’

  ‘Its got cauliflower chickpeas sweet potatoes and zucchini’

  ‘Another thing I would love to eat some day.’

  ‘I’m going to go sit with my mom for lunch, then we can call. Sound good?’

  ‘Sounds great’’

  She doesn’t respond, so I head back to my room and take a seat at my pc. May as well work on the song now. I open my music editing software, and start trying to figure out where I left off.

  Thankfully, the lyrics are already in, so I don’t have to worry about my mom hearing me sing in my girl impression. The drum loop is in too, so I get started on the synth in the background.

  It takes me a bit longer than I’d like to get something even slightly passable in for the intro. I’ll workshop it ter. With a start, I remember that I hadn’t checked my phone in a while. I frantically reach for it, and find multiple missed texts waiting for me.

  ‘Okay, I’m back. You ready to call?’

  ‘Earth to Danny.’

  ‘I guess you’re busy, just let me know when you can.’

  ‘Hey’

  ‘Im so sorry’

  ‘Got distracted’

  ‘I still want to call if you do’

  She doesn’t respond immediately, and I start to get worried. I’ve only just started typing out another message when my phone changes to the call incoming screen. I jump for the accept button, and hold the phone to my ear.

  “Hi, Ho-” I immediately cut myself off, as being in the mindset of my song has caused me to do my impression on accident. “Sorry about that. Hi, Holly.”

  Her giggle through the phone makes my head feel a little fuzzy. “Hi, Danny. What was that?”

  “Uhhhhh…” I bluster, searching for an adequate response. “Had something stuck in my throat. No big deal.”

  “Okay, okay.” She says, her voice still tinged with mirth. “I was worried you’d forgotten about me. What had you distracted?”

  “Oh, um…” She might find songwriting cool, but she also might ask to hear some of my work. “I was working on a song I’m writing. Got focused. Sorry.”

  “No worries.” She says, putting me at ease. “You’re a musician? That’s so cool! What do you py?”

  “I py guitar,” I reply, while unconsciously rubbing the back of my neck. “Nothing special.”

  “That is too special!” She responds quickly. “I’d love to hear you py some time!”

  “One day.” I cringe internally at the me, noncommittal answer. “I don’t usually py for other people.” Mainly because I can’t really sing in my real voice. It just doesn’t sound as good as the impression.

  “That’s too bad.” She says, her voice lowered slightly. “If you change your mind, I’d love to be one of the special few who get to hear it.”

  “Sure.” I say, already kicking myself. “Eventually.”

  “Eventually.” She parrots, and I can hear the grin in her voice. “So tell me about yourself. I want to know all the stuff my sister never got to learn about you.”

  I cringe even harder at the reminder of May. I really messed up with her. It’s a wonder Holly wants anything to do with me. “Well, I’m a bit of a creative. I have my music, but I’m also trying to be an author. I’m working on a book currently.”

  “Oh really?!” She shouts into her phone. “That’s so cool! What’s it about?”

  “Okay, so…” I sit there for probably way too long expining the details of my romantic tragedy to her. Despite my rambling, she sits there and listens to all of it, asking questions occasionally. “...and that’s where her story ends. Sort of. The book after is sort of a nove set in an alternate universe. Mainly just fluff. The rest of the books follow a different character that we meet in book one as she deals with the aftermath of the events of one through three.”

  “Wow…” Holly says, once I’m finally done. “I’d love to read it. It sounds amazing.”

  “Eventually.” I reply, not wanting to let anyone read the weirdness that is my book series. No. It won’t even be published under my name. I’ll use a pen name so no one can connect me to it.

  “Eventually is your favorite word, isn’t it?” She asks, a slight teasing tone in her voice.

  “I guess so, yeah.” I say, unsure of how best to respond. “Um… Can you tell me about yourself? I feel like I’ve been talking a lot…”

  “Sure.” She replies happily. “But you definitely haven’t been talking too much. I liked listening.”

  “Thanks…” I reply mely.

  “Okay so… about myself…” She takes a few moments, probably to gather her thoughts, before responding. “Well, I’m really into witchy stuff. Tarot cards, spells, pagan rituals, that sort of thing.”

  “That’s really cool.” I respond instantly.

  “Do you know anything about it?” She asks.

  “No, but I’d love to learn.” I say, before adding onto the end. “If you’re willing to teach.”

  “I am, I am. How about tomorrow?” Her words cause fear to build in my heart. Tomorrow? “Want to come hangout at my house?”

  “I don’t know…” I say, more than a little worried about what might happen.

  “You’re worried about May, aren’t you.” I don’t even have to respond, because she already knows. “I’ll make sure she stays in her room, and you and I can stay in mine. It’ll be fun.”

  I take in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Sure. Why not? Let’s do it.”

  “It’s a date. Two o’clock sound good?”

  “I… um…” I stammer at her words, trying to form a complete thought. “Yea, that works. Let me check if I can get a ride. Worst case scenario, I’ll walk.”

  “Sounds good to me!” She responds, before her tone falls a bit. “Hey look… It’s been really fun talking to you, but I’ve got some stuff to do. Do you mind if we go back to texting for a bit?”

  “I don’t mind at all.” I enthuse. “I’ll be busy here in an hour or two, so it might be text for the rest of the night.”

  “That’s fine.” She says, her bright tone returning. “Talk to you ter!”

  “Talk to you ter.” I say, and then wait for her to hang up.

  That amazingly terrifying conversation over, I immediately rush out to the living room to ask my mom about it. She’s sitting where I left her, still pying on her tablet. She barely looks up as I enter the room.

  “Hey, mom?”

  “Yeah, kiddo?” She asks.

  “Can you drive me to a friend's house tomorrow at two?” I ask, worried about the possible responses.

  “Sure, Caleb’s?”

  “No.” I respond, shaking my head. “She’s a new friend, her name is Holly.”

  “Oooh! She?!” My mom asks, suddenly excited. “Tell me about her.”

  “She’s the sister of one of the girls in my grade.” I expin. “I knew her a bit in school, but because she’s one grade below, we didn’t have any csses together.” I sigh, and continue. “We’ve been texting recently, and she invited me over.”

  “Sounds good to me.” My mom says with a smile. “Get me the address so I can pn ahead.”

  “I will.” I promise, and then head back to my room to continue texting my new friend.

  ?????????????

  “So,” May says, before plopping down on my bed. “How’d it go?”

  “Exactly as pnned.” I say with a wicked grin. “He’s coming over tomorrow at two.”

  “That soon?” My sister asks, another one of her trademarked worried expressions on her face.

  “Yes, that soon.” I respond, my smile refusing to fade. “He fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. It was so obvious that he already has a thing for me.” I chuckle slightly. “Check this out.” I say, holding up my phone with the image of his ‘homemade’ breakfast. “He cimed to have made this from scratch.”

  She takes my phone and starts scrolling through the messages. “Heh… yeah no way.” Her expression turns from amused to shocked. “And he cimed to be a vegetarian? That’s crazy! I know for a fact he’s not!”

  “Right?” I say, gd she’s starting to enjoy the pn. “It was calcuted too. All I had to do was mention that I was a vegetarian, and suddenly he is too. This is going to be easy as pie. Maybe I’ll even have him in makeup by tomorrow.”

  “I wouldn’t move that quickly.” May says, a regretful smile on her face. “Give it at least two or three hangouts.”

  “And constant texting.” I respond. “That’s honestly the worst part about this. His way of texting is so annoying. No capitalization, no punctuation, and every thought is a new message.”

  “Yeah… You’ll need to fix that if you’re going to survive it.”

  “Oh I will.” I respond. “That’s low on the list of things I’ll get him to change about himself. This is going to be so fun!”

  “Yea…” May says as she walks out of my room. “Yea, it is.”