Page 75 of We Shouldn't Be Together
I’m left wondering if I should ask if she’s okay, and if she wants to talk more about her friends, when she messages me again with a subject change.
"What have you been up to tonight?"
"Kicking it at home after going hiking,"I reply."Feeling kinda sore. Not great when I gotta get up early for a soccer game."
"Eww. How early do you play?"
"Eww? Soccer’s not eww."
"Lol, I meant the time was eww."
"Oh, well, practice is at 7 a.m. and the game is around noon."
"You practice for 5 hours?"
"LOL!! No, we don’t practice the entire time. Practice is an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Then we kick it around the field, watch some other games, and maybe run a few more drills before our game starts."
"Sounds like it takes up a lot of your Sunday."
"Yeah. We’ll finish our game, and you’ll just be getting out of bed."
"Rude. I don’t sleep in that late."
"Sure, sure."
I put the phone down after my last text and stare up at the ceiling. What am I doing? It’s like I’m addicted to every incoming text from her.
How do you stop addictive patterns? Cold turkey?
I release a deep exhale and nod to myself. Yep, that’s it. I won’t look at her next reply.
My fingers twitch. Whenever it comes in.
I glance back at the phone, face down on my bed. If she replies.
Why wouldn’t she reply?
Gah! Kai, you’re not supposed to care!
You don’t care.
Snap out of it.
The text chime taunts me.
Nope, not looking at it.
I wriggle further down my bed and get comfy against the pillows. It dawns on me I need to look at my phone to turn my podcast back on. With a sigh, I rub my palms over my tired eyes.
I don’t want to look. I don’t want to look. I don’t want to look.
I lower my hands and in one fluid motion, scoop up my phone.
Tabitha texts, "Well, I’ll let you get your beauty rest then. Good luck with your game tomorrow."
Whoa.What the heck? There are tingles under my skin. Gross. I hate it.
But it was a really frickin’ sweet message.
