Anxiety is For Nerds.....and Other Unavoidable Truths

Chapter 4 - Grant

I sit in my filthy mind, reeling from what you left behind in me. But I smile because I'm so damn happy.

"Dylan, for the love of all that's holy!" I groan as I drag his staggering body outside. "You threw up like the Exorcist in there!"

There are times when even your closest friends piss you off so badly, you want to bury them in the woods and never give them a moments thought again.

That's how I felt about Dylan as I dragged his drunk ass away from that party. Here's the thing: I was genuinely sorry that he had been cheated on. I felt really bad for him; he was my friend. I can't imagine anything so hurtful happening to a young man. But this was the second time he had been an asshole and ruined shit for me! He was letting his pain ruin other people's lives. Everyone knows that a true homie would never do that. 

I hauled my moaning and drooling friend over to my car and opened the passenger door. I first toss in my wizard's hat, just sort of vaguely throw it into the backseats. Then I toss in Dylan. Dylan plopped into the seat like a broken marionette, his ridiculous green UFO sombrero sitting at an angle atop his head. I slammed his door shut and turned to walk towards my seat.

Just at that moment, my phone buzzed. A text message? Who on earth could it be? I didn't give anyone at that party my phone number, not even that cute girl Murphy I was making out with.

I pulled out my phone and checked my messages. A single unread message from an unknown number was at the top of the phone, waiting for me patiently.

"Heyyyyy. Is your drunk basement uncle letting you go out and have fun tonight?"

I feel a smile crawl over my face as I read it. Looks like tonight took a hard left turn towards a brighter outcome. Purple Shirt! The hot girl from the bar!

I spent the whole drive back to our rental house trying to craft a clever response in my head. Should I be flirty? Should I be mysterious and dismissive? How about funny as hell? 

I eventually settled on a mixture of all three. I quickly type out my response. "Hey, Purple Shirt. What took you so long to text me?"

She responds in less than two minutes. A good sign. "Actually had some family stuff come up that I had to deal with, sorry about that. But that's all taken care of, so we can continue our conversation from the other night."

I text her back. "You mean the other night where you were flirting with me?"

Purple Shirt buzzes me back. "OMG! Who says I was flirting with you? I'm pretty sure you were flirting with me." 

"So what if I was?" I respond. "Anyways, what fun things are you up to these days?"

A few minutes pass before she texts back. "Oh, nothing interesting. I've been trying new things. I recently went on a hike around the lake near here. You know that I've lived in this town my whole life, and I've never gotten around to going to the lake until a couple of days ago?"

"That's wild. How was it?"

"It was amazing. I'm definitely an outdoors type of girl. The lake is really beautiful, and it was great to hike around it and see it for the first time. I'm mad at myself for not checking the place out sooner."

"That sounds like an amazing sparkling time." I text back. "I'm glad you got to see the lake, I can see it meant a lot to you."

"Thanks, you're really sweet." Purple Shirt writes back.

"I like to think I'm really sweet, thanks." I grin as my thumbs text out my response. "Two questions, though: Were you wearing a bikini at the lake, and if you were, why haven't you texted me a picture?"