Message In A Bottle

Oct 22

"Still..."

"This is just weird," Bree continued passionately. "Why is he being so passive aggressive? Have you guys fought before?"

Danielle was baffled. "No! Well, of course we have our disagreements but it's never anything big... honestly, maybe he's just socially awkward."

Bree pinched the area between her eyebrows. "You're being too nice, Dani."

Danielle sighed. "Can we stop talking about this for a moment? Let's just have a nice day out. Y'know, we can go to that second hand bookstore you've always wanted to go."

Bree was silent again, and so Danielle sternly tugged on her sleeve. "C'mon, get murder off your mind for a while."

"I'm gonna search for crime books at the second hand bookstore and you cannot stop me."

"Right, right."

As the two girls walked away, Danielle slipped her phone out of her pocket. The surprise was beginning to settle in and a strange sense of worry wormed into her heart.

-

October 22. 12:12pm.

Danielle is now online.

Danielle: you good?

Danielle: did you see me at the mall lol

-

Ah, right, the classic "lol" to make everything seem more lighthearted and silly.

Wait. Danielle peered at her phone more intently.

-

Eugene Lee [School] was last online October 21 4:47pm.

-

Huh. He hadn't been on since Friday afternoon. Maybe his parents took his phone again. But that didn't explain him ignoring her. Or perhaps he was just grumpy?

Well, it wasn't like she could contact him at this moment. And worrying wasn't going to do anything. She was sleep deprived from listening to Taylor Swift's Midnights dropping last night (and she would probably continue to listen to it once she got home), so.

Danielle shoved her phone back into her pocket and pretended to not care.

(But she did.)

-

Fred returned to his house after a couple hours of basketball practice with "the bros". It was just plain satisfying to run around and relax during the weekend. Fred loved it- the warm sun on his skin, the weather neither too hot or cold, sweat staining his shirt, calling out to his buddies. To him, that was like what living was like. The bond forged from playing sports together was magical. The competitiveness, the fire in his blood, yet the mutual respect everyone had for everyone.

Fred knew he had homework to do and tests to study for, but now he was tired (and wanted to procrastinate). Since his mom would complain about him stinking the place up, he took a shower (hey, he took care of his hygiene!). Not everyone on the basketball team made it (Eugene in particular had told him yesterday during school) but their group chat was still blowing up as they shared new tactics they had tried during practice. As the captain, Fred felt obliged to reply (and send a few memes of his own).

Now he was bored. Absentmindedly, he got on the Forging Friendships website.

-