Tea's Texts

For the first few days after Ria’s return to campus, I’d found that my relaxation due to the winter break quickly turned into boredom.

Not only had Ria been my best friend for so much of my life, but she’d also become a source of entertainment lately, with the amusement of her struggling through her first serious love interest.

I was saved from my boredom, however, not long after the new year.

It started with a panicked text followed by a long call detailing her near proclamation of love in front of Tillie and a fourth year called Marcus.

That call was fun enough, but it didn’t compare in the slightest to the events of the next day, which I’d been eagerly awaiting ever since we’d hung up the night before.

For starters, she’d described how she’d asked him out, and exclaimed with excitement how cute he’d been when he was flustered.

And then, as if the whole of the explanation wasn’t good enough, she ended it with a brief muttering about how she thinks she might have gone to kiss him if the coach didn’t show up.

She quickly back peddled, saying she wasn’t sure what she’d have done, but I’d already made a mental note to tease her about it at their wedding if that ever happened.

Also, I made another note to poke at coach and try to hear how Ria had looked at that point, since I’d be willing to bet she was flustered herself.

Lastly, we texted back and forth for a few days, trying to organize their first date, which Ria was surprisingly bad at trying to plan.

We’d eventually settled on a restaurant she’d been wanting to go to, since all of her other ideas were not great for a first date.

And believe it or not, after that, for the first time in my life, I’d been asked by Ria for advice on what to do on a date.

“Well, you’d just eat and talk I guess.” I texted back.

“That’s not what I meant…”

“Hmm. Try not to do those at the same time maybe?”

“Real funny, I meant what to talk about and stuff, maybe like the end of the date too.”

I wasted zero time in sending the eyes glancing sideways and kissy face emojis, before giving a more serious response.

“Just talk about what you normally would, if you try to stress it you’ll make it awkward. And the same for the end, maybe add a hug if you want but you'll probably be in public, so keep that in mind.”

Almost as an afterthought, towards the end of our conversation I added something I hadn’t really planned on.

“Also tell him he’s gotta meet with me.”

Ria sent back a thumbs up and likely went to sleep, or at least tried to.

I couldn’t help but start to wonder what I’d say to Liam, and how much TV ‘you can’t have my daughter’ drama I should throw in there for fun.

After all, if Liam was the one for Ria, I’d only have this one chance to mess with them like this.

And I was absolutely not going to waste that chance.