Page 17 of Try Hard
She looked mildly sick at the notion for a moment but recovered quickly. “That’s basically the username of one of my most… ardent fans.”
“I’m aware,” I said as I dropped the equipment I was holding into the folding trolley it had come from.
When I turned back to Eve, she was grinning delightedly. “Are you, now?”
“What?”
She moved around me, dropping her extension cord into the trolley too, before she grabbed my elbow and led me over to the side, away from listening ears. “I would love to see what your For You Page looks like.”
“Come again?”
She rolled her eyes fondly. “You said you’ve seen bits about me online, but here you are, knowing the usernames of my fans.”
I felt myself blanching, cold spiking through my body that had little to do with having spent hours outside Gatwick Airport. “I knowoneusername,” I pointed out, as if that helped.
It wasn’t even true. I knew at least three others. But, in my defense, they came up frequently, and it wasn’t exactly difficult to remember that there was an Instagram account namedEveArcherr or EveArcherFans or EveLovers or… Okay, maybe I knew more than three.
She watched me pointedly. “And the one you choose to know is ChokeMeDaddyEve?”
“No! I didn’tchooseanything. If you saw a username like that talking about me, don’t you think you’d remember it?”
“Most definitely.”
“Well, there you go. You, me, anyone we went to school with. It’s just… a noticeable account.”
She laughed. “They’re definitely trying to be, I’ll give them that.”
“Right. So. There you go.”
She bit the corner of her lip like she was more amused than she was willing to let on, but it was written across her face. “Remember Timothy?”
I cast my mind back. “No?”
“Really shy guy who sat next to me in our English class in year ten. Said about five words out loud all year.”
“Oh, yeah, I do remember him,” I said, suddenly able to place the memory. I’d only ever had English with him.
Eve nodded. “Imagine if there was a fan account out there for him with that name. I guess I’d remember that.”
“I would too, if only because saying ‘Eve’ in an account for Timothy is odd.”
She laughed and poked my shoulder gently. “Okay, snark. You know what I mean.”
I did indeed. Which had actually been my point, but it didn’t matter much, so long as she wasn’t fixating on weird reasons I knew her fan account names. What mattered was that I was right: you didn’t forget when someone had achoke me, Daddyaccount in their honour.
“Fia?” my dad called, and I turned, honestly a little grateful for the interruption. I’d embarrassed myself enough for one day. “You ready?”
“Yeah,” I called back before shooting a quick look at Eve. “Well, this has been… an experience.”
She laughed freely and held out her hand, palm up.
I looked down at it, puzzled, and, awkwardly, I brought my own hand up to give her a low five.
Before I’d even done it, I regretted it, but I especially did when her eyes lit up and she looked at mefartoo fondly.
“What?” I asked, somewhat defensively.
“Nothing.” She shook her head, keeping her hand out. “I was actually looking for your phone.”
