Rumor Has It (Rumor Has It #1)(12)

As I meet Jen at her car, she hounds me about the text message again, and I finally cave, showing her my phone.

"Oh, my God!" She reaches for the phone, but I keep a death lock on it. "He practically asked you out."

“I know!”

"No, Emma. This is a good thing. It can be like a blind date or something." She claps her hands, totally giddy.

“Jen, this is horrible!” She shoots me a frown. “You know how I am. You know what happened last year with Paxton. I’m no good at these things.”

"Well, fine." She lets out a huff, putting her keys in the ignition. "Tell him you're not interested then."

“But—“ I stop myself, but it's too late.

Jen's eyes jump to me, a newly excited grin on her lips. "You are interested!”

"I can't believe this. I don't even know the guy. But from these texts, he seems nice. Maybe I could be interested, but I have no clue how to react. I'm not like you; my brain turns to mush when it comes to this stuff."

Even though she pushes my buttons from time to time, and yeah, I want to strangle her on occasion, Jen knows my limits.

“Emma, calm down. Let me see your phone.” I shoot her a concerned look, the death lock still engaged on my phone. “I’ll put it out there for you.”

“No way!”

My phone chimes.

BigBaller27: Hey, sorry about that last message. I was just screwing around :/





“Oh, no.” I groan as I read the message to her.

“Wait, isn’t this what you wanted? He practically took it back.”

“That’s not what I wanted.” I let out a defeated sigh. “Okay, I don’t want to go out on a date with him, right now. But maybe, I don’t know, in the future. I wanted to have that possibility.”

Jen's eyebrows scrunch together, and I can tell she's thinking of something. "Gimme your phone."

“No.”

“Emma, seriously. Just let me read the whole conversation. I promise I won’t reply unless you approve it.”

Giving her an unconvinced stare, I slowly hold my hand out. She reaches over to take my phone, but my fingers stay clasped around it. "You promise?"

“I promise.”

It's weird, watching her scroll through my messages. She nods a little, raising her eyebrows a couple of times as if she's digesting the conversation and coming up with a plan. I start fidgeting with my fingers, getting more anxious.

"Okay." She taps a finger to her lips. "He does come off kind of nice, when you read the whole thing in context."

“Okay?”

"So, I think he was serious. At lunch. But then you took forever to reply, so he freaked out. I would too if I threw something like that out there and the boy didn't reply."

“Not helping.”

“But, I don’t know if he really wanted to take it back. He just wanted to make sure you’re cool, you know?” I nod, her answer somehow making sense. “So, I’m gonna type—”

“No!” I lunge for my phone.

"Stop," she says with a laugh, keeping me at bay with one arm. "Listen, I'm going to type a reply, and I'm not going to send it unless you say it's okay. All right?"

I nervously chew on the inside of my lip, as I give her an uneasy nod of approval.

She begins typing and talking out loud as she does. "‘No worries. And you're not getting my name, or any dates for that matter,’” she emphasizes those words as she’s smiling, “‘until I get yours.’ And I’m adding a winky-smiley face.”

She turns the phone around, and I read it to myself. It sounds good. It's simple and friendly, but it's still a little flirty. I smile at her, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Good?” she asks.

“That’s perfect.”

“Okay.” She looks back at the phone, hits send, and hands it back to me. “There.”

“Jen, you’re a lifesaver.”

She laughs as she starts up her car. “Of course, I am. We should get those little two-way radios, that we can put in our ears. That way, when do you go out with Mystery Boy, I can help you.”

“Yeah.” I laugh with her, as we head out on the road.

That does sound like a good idea, and lord knows I could use as much of Jen's help as I can get, but there's a little piece inside that tells me I need to get it together. I haven't even met this guy, and I'm freaking out. I need to start playing it cool.

And then it hits me. I don't need to play anything. That's how I ended up like this in the first place, trying to play these stupid dating games. So, as we drive to my house, I decide. I'm going to be who I am. I'm not going to try and be flirty like Jen because that's not me. And if Big Baller doesn't like it, then it's his loss.

Of course, all those plans go out the window when I don't hear back from him for the next two hours. As I sit at home, I can't help but reach for my phone every five minutes, anticipating what he'll reply with. I try to distract myself with homework, but it's no use. I end up regularly checking my phone, then try to distract myself with the internet, before rechecking my phone. Until, finally, I get a reply.