(5) My Crush Wants a Sleepover

The worst part about all this is that Thyra is not in my school. There was a 50/50 chance, and it hadn't worked out in my favor. I follow her back on Instagram sometime in the afternoon, but then I have to forget about her because I have the rest of my finals. After Calc, but before English and Spanish, I have History.

Jaron waves at me with a smile at the beginning of class. I reluctantly slide into the seat next to him. "Did you memorize everything?" I ask.

"Did you bring the poster?" he counters.

I ignore him because the poster is a giant, white, rolled-up sheet sticking out of my backpack. I know he saw it. He's just being annoying. I run through a script of the things I might have to say if I need to step in if Jaron is unprepared. We are the 8th pair of students who have to present. I open up our poster, pin it to the whiteboard with magnets, and then cross my arms and glare at Jaron.

He begins talking and pointing to parts of the map; he's well-prepared, much to my surprise. I interject here and there, wherever he glosses over or forgets part of the speech we came up with, but he mostly does fine. Frankly, he did much better than I expected, but my expectations hadn't been very high to begin with.

I guess I shouldn't have expected him to be bad at school just because...well. why did I assume that? I don't even know. I roll up the poster carefully because it looks rather nice, and I'll probably paint over the labels and turn it into a real art piece later.

"Think we got an A?" Jaron asks as we walk back to our desks.

"I don't know." I put the rolled-up paper back into my bag. I hide my phone under my desk and look at that for the rest of class instead of paying attention to poorly made projects. When we're let out for lunch, Jaron trails after me to the art room where my pastels are. "What?" I snap. "Why are you following me?"

"I wasn't. I need to go in this direction too."

"Were you planning on making out with your boyfriend again? Find someplace else. The art room is mine."

His easy expression fades into panic. "Indra!" he hisses. "Not so loud!"

"Sorry," I say. "There's no one here." He still looks like I slapped him. I try not to feel bad. No one would have heard.

He scowls. "Ugh." But at least he stops following me, turns away, and begins to text furiously. I assume he's texting Ansel.

I spend a while playing with the pastels, I think I'm getting better, and then I get a DM from Thyra. I scramble to wipe my hands and find my phone. Wait. I should wait a little before responding, right? That's how it worked?

Screw that. I was always going to be a little pathetic for my crushes, and if she didn't like it, then she wasn't the one. It's a flyer for a church event with no other context. This weekend, on Friday night after the two high schools in the district got out for winter break, there was going to be a sleep-in type thing at the church. It was going to be all kids and teens.

That sounded both lame and fun. This wasn't going to include young teens that we'd have to babysit, right? Because if that was the case, I was not going. But also, the chance to spend a whole night with Thyra—no, don't be a perv, Indra. There was going to be plenty of others around, and they were probably going to separate boys and girls anyway.

I fret about how to respond to this, whether or not I'm a dry texter (I've never had to worry about that until now), and if I should punctuate my message. I finally just reply to her.

Indra - 12:49 pm
are you going

Thyra - 12:49 pm
That was fast lol

I flush, though she's not even here with me. Maybe I should have waited before replying. Too late now. I've already shown my hand.

Thyra - 12:50 pm
Yeah I'm a chaperone

Ugh, that means little kids were going to be there. But so was she, and I wanted any excuse to be around her, especially since she didn't even go to my school. Actually, it was probably better that she didn't go to my school since that way she wouldn't know what a loser I am.

Indra - 12:52 pm
is this an invite lol

Thyra - 12:52 pm
Yeah! We could use more chaperones. I promise it's fun

Just my luck. Of course she was only texting me for something dumb like needing more chaperones. I wonder if Jaron was going too. He probably was. He needed to, for optics and stuff, considering he was church royalty.

Indra - 12:53 pm
sure ill sign up

She likes the message, and that's where the conversation ends.

I throw my phone onto my backpack and cover my face. I feel like I'm a dry texter. I wish people still sent letters. I'm artsy anyway — I'd write the most beautiful letters, or tuck little romantic painted cards inside if I couldn't figure out how to wax poetic. Don't girls like that kind of stuff? I don't know.

I know I would swoon if I got a romantic letter. Girls probably don't do stuff like that for guys, though. Not at the start of a relationship, at least, because heteronormativity and patriarchy and whatever.

Anyway, the point is: if I want to be Thyra's boyfriend, I'll have to be the romantic one.

If only I could figure out how to do that.

A/N: I'm sorry for not updating for a while! I upated two chapters and two bonus chapters (Jaron's POV and chatlogs between these two) to kind of make up for it.

I'm back with regular updates now. Friday @ 8 PM PDT :)