Selene stepped into her house, already exhausted from her night.
A quick glance at the digital clock on the wallâher father and his boyfriend hated the math that went into figuring out the timeâtold her that she had only been out for a little over two hours.
All she wanted was her favourite silk pyjamas and her Netflix.
"I'm home!" she called out as she slipped out of her heels.
Her feet would usually hurt but she had made sure to put gel insoles in before she left.
Both Carter and her dad were out, it was Saturday meaning it was their date night and in response, it was Zoë and Selene's date night.
Zoë barrelled down the stairs. "How was it?" she asked.
Selene shrugged and headed to the kitchen. "He's interested," she said vaguely.
She knew Zoë was still hurting so she didn't want to go into depth with what had happened at the party in case Zoë would get upset by it.
"You sure?" Zoë sat at the island as Selene got some green grapes from the fridge.
She nodded, washing the grapes and placing them in a bowl for the two to munch on.
"What happened?" Zoë asked.
She took a handful of grapes and chewed. "I found him, I murdered his ego by winning against him at beer pong, and then I left."
"So how do you know he's interested?"
"He followed me out, and tried to get my name and make me stay but I just left in my uber."
Zoë shook her head.
"He's quite full of himself," she said. "You should have seen his face when he lost."
That got her best friend to laugh.
"Come on," she said and Zoë swallowed the last of the grapes. "Let's go watch rom-coms and cry."
Zoë pretended to swoon. "I should just date you instead."
She flipped her hair over her shoulder giving Zoë her best seductive look.
Both girls exploded in laughter.
"10 Things I Hate About You?" Zoë asked.
"God yes," she groaned as they headed for the stairs.
It was well past one AM when Selene's phone buzzed with a notification.
Both her father and his boyfriend were asleep on the third floor above them. She and Zoë were sitting in her bed, Selene in her silk pyjamas and Zoë in a pair of Nike sweatpants and a black tank top. While Selene loved the routine of nighttime; brushing then braiding her hair, brushing her teeth, washing her face and slipping into some clean pyjamas, Zoë just brushed her teeth and didn't bother with pyjamas instead just wearing whatever felt comfortable.
Selene sat up as she picked up her phone.
Her phone flashed with the notification. The snapchat notification of 'Declan Grey has added you as a friend!' flashed at her.
"Declan added me on snapchat," she said.
Zoë glanced at her. They were in between episodes of The End of The F***ing World, the flat screen on the wall, counting down to the next episode.
Zoë exited the app and turned to her. "You're kidding," the pink haired girl said.
She shook her head and quickly unlocked her phone before thrusting it in Zoë's face.
Zoë's mouth formed an o shape. "He's such a pig," she said softly. She said a few more curse words that Selene wouldn't dare say in her life.
"What do I do?" she asked when her best friend had calmed down.
"Add him back," Zoë said as if was the most obvious thing on the earth. "Do you not know how flirting works in this generation?"
She shook her head as she pressed the little add button.
"Now we wait," Zoë said. "You can't let him think you actually want to talk to him; it's booty call o'clock."
"This seems way too complicated to just have a conversation," she commented, turning off the phone screen and tossing it in between them.
It didn't take long for the screen to light up and the phone to vibrate with another notification. 'Declan Grey is typing...' and eventually 'from Declan Grey'.
Zoë slapped her hand as Selene reached for the phone.
"Ow! What the eff!" she exclaimed.
"Do you want him to think you have no life?" Zoë asked. "Wait five minutes."
The two girls stared at the screen, neither speaking as they waited for the notification to boast that it was from 5m ago.
She slowly opened her phone and went to the conversation.
Declan had actually sent her two messages: "hey" followed by, "what is Sel short for?"
She was confused before remembering her snapchat displayed her as Sel and her username was SCalloway.
"Selene", she responded curtly. "How'd you find my snapchat?"
"It's linked in your IG."
She made a mental note to take that out of her bio. "And how'd you find my Instagram?" she typed then added an "lol" to seem more relaxed.
"I have my ways," he responded.
"What a creep," she told Zoë who was watching the conversation over her shoulder.
"This is typical high school boy behaviour," Zoë explained.
"Well it's gross," she responded and begun typing. "I'm sure," she typed as she fake gagged.
Zoë scoffed at her actions. "Stop with the small answers, the conversation's going to die off."
"Good," she said. "He's giving me a headache."
Declan's little bitmoji popped up as he typed then disappeared.
"Here to challenge me to another game of beer pong?" she asked adding an emoji that had its tongue out.
"lol you wish," he responded, "you cheated."
Declan had better grammar while texting then most people their age, she just wished he'd capitalize the first word of his sentences.
"Sore loser," she commented.
"keep telling yourself that."
"wyd?"
"What the fuck?" she asked Zoë. "It's two am on Sunday morning, what else am I doing besides lying in bed? Skydiving?"
Zoë rolled her eyes. "Just make it sound interesting."
She shook her head. "Lying in bed thinking about how awesome I am at beer pong."
Declan sent a couple of laughing emojis at that. "what are you really doing?"
"Lying in bed," she responded. "Nothing good on Netflix."
Declan's bitmoji appeared and disappeared several times before she got a response. "What are you wearing?"
She turned to Zoë. "Really?" she asked. "You dated this guy?"
Zoë shrugged. "He wasn't like that when we were together, I swear."
When you were together; as in less than twenty four hours ago? She shook the thought away. "What do I say?"
"Nothing," Zoë said reaching for the phone. "We send a picture."
She narrowed her eyes. "I'm not taking nudes."
"Not nudes," Zoë explained, taking the phone from her hands. "Suggestive photos."
She raised her eyebrows and Zoë sighed. "Just lay back."
She did as told, laying back and staring at the ceiling. "You're lucky I love you."
"I know," Zoë responded, straddling her to get a good angle. "Tilt your head."
She did as Zoë said, following each direction.
Look up, down a bit, bite your lip, no stop that looks weird, bite your finger, not too hard, more cleavage, less cleavage, other hand up so it looks like you're taking the photo and finally perfect.
Zoë turned the screen to her and she raised her eyebrows. "Christ," she exclaimed. "I look hot."
She looked like she belonged on the cover of a magazine. Her braided hair framed her face, her head tilted to the side, brown eyes looking seductively at the camera, pale finger between her lips. Her silk pyjamas were golden making her skin look tanner and her boobs looked much bigger as Zoë had pushed them up a bit. She wore no bra underneath so her nipples showed proudly through the thin fabric. Zoë had used a filter that put little hearts around her head.
She quickly saved the photo to her camera roll before sending it to Declan.
Zoë pressed the home button of her phone, making the app disappear from the screen.
They watched as the notifications rolled in. "Declan replayed your snap!" "Declan is typing..." and lastly, "from Declan".
She glanced at Zoë.
"Bedtime," Zoë said. "We'll reply tomorrow. Let him think you have better things to do with your life than be with him."
She groaned as she placed her phone in her nightstand drawer. It would usually be in the kitchen charging by now but she knew with Zoë around she barely touched it anyways.
"Dating is so complicated," she said.
Though Declan was Zoë's first proper boyfriend, as her best friend Selene knew that Zoë had had her fair share of flirtation-ships that never became anything more. She was used to the art of flirting, Selene couldn't even remember the last time she flirted with someone.
Zoë nodded as she grabbed her notebook, flipping past the page tilted 'DOWN WITH DECLAN' to start a new page.
She wrote a new title and begun making a list. Once she was finished she passed it to Selene.
WHAT SELENE X NEEDS TO TAKE HIM DOWN.
She scoffed. "Selene X? Like the new iPhone?" she asked.
Zoë nodded, proud with herself.
With a shake of her head, she continued reading.
(1). We need new clothes (2). Know basic facts; his favourite colour is grey (ironic right), his birthday is Valentine's Day, number of siblings and their names etc. (3). He's actually smart, he's gotten honour roll every year since sixth grade (4). His favourite colour on a girl is yellow (don't ask) (5). Expect cheesy pickup lines and laugh at them like he's much more charming than he really is (6). He's get mad when pushed.
"That's..." she paused, "nice to know?"
"You'll be seeing him on Monday," Zoë said, "which means he'll probably pretend you don't exist but be well aware of your presence the whole time and most likely come up to you much later."
She nodded. "We can go shopping after breakfast with my dad, tomorrow." She reminded herself of the time. "Well in the morning."
Zoë nodded. "Want to keep watching?"
"Is that even a question?" she responded. "I need to find out what happens next, sleep is for the weak."
Zoë laughed as she played the episode, both girls snuggling into the warmth under the duvet.
A/N:
Hey crazy butterflies,
As you know I've been hella inactive on wattpad but I'm hoping to change that in the new year. In 2017 until about a few months ago, writing suddenly became a very hard task for me. I couldn't do what I loved while doing school and looking for a job and a bunch of other personal shit I don't want to get into.
After much thought and realizing that it's actually bad for my mental health if I spend all day every day stressing about updates, I decided that I'll go back to an update schedule... with a few differences. Instead of weekly updates that left me unsatisfied and tired and disappointed because I always end up missing update days, I've decided to give a few updates every month.
This means that at the beginning of every month I'll post two-three updates and it will be your job as the reader to decide if you want to space them out or read them all at once and be forced to wait another month. I think this will be better for me as I typically write between one and four chapters a week so I can stockpile chapters in case of a writer's block and it'll be much less pressure on me to update. This will probably only last until I finish writing this novel and then I'll upload a shit ton of chapters weekly or maybe even daily depending on when I finish writing this.
So in conclusion, be prepared at the beginning of each month for two-three new chapters.
Enjoy this next chapter and Happy Holidays since I won't see you until January.
MWAH. LUV YA. BUH-BYE.