Friendly Dating 2 - Ethan

Chapter 30 - Lessons in Messaging

"Kicks, don't make me come over there!" There's not much point in sending this last one since she has to actually check the messages to see that she is being threatened.

Well, it's not completely useless. Hearing the vibrations at least causes her to glance at me, and I get to give her a stern look, showing her that this is serious business, while I wave my phone to help her understand what I need her to do. She gets the message and grabs her phone from her pencil case to see what I'd sent her.

My threat causes her to roll her eyes and scoff at me cheekily. She is so friggin' cute, but I need her just to humour me this time. I know I'm not going to enjoy her message, even before my phone buzzes in my hand and I read it.

"No, I'm not violating my best friend's privacy."

What the hell?! Typing long words like violating and privacy takes forever!

"You're always violating each other's privacy," I point out, using nice abbreviations to save time. Kira should learn the art of making words shorter.

"You wear each other's clothes." Seriously, they do... even now that Deli has outgrown Kicks by several inches.

"You take baths together with your legs up against the wall while eating leftovers!"

I know that because I saw them do it... They probably thought they were alone at Kira's house... and they were... until I went over there... They didn't close the door properly, and I saw them on my way to Kira's room in search of them.

At first, I thought they'd had some kind of weird accident, and I was about to barge in and save them when I heard them laugh. It took me a while to figure out what I was seeing, and when I realised what was going on, I quickly left. How the hell was that comfortable?!

"Doesn't she show you most of their messages anyway?" There, that's the best point of them all. Deli and Kicks don't have any secrets from each other. They always use each other's phones to send messages and take pictures, and I've often heard Kira begging my sister to spare her the details.

They're like one organism with two bodies... one of which is my twin sister...

No, that makes everything a bit weird because if Kicks and Deli are one organism and I'm the twin of one half of that organism, then I'm probably... uhm... something...

I've lost the trail now.

It was going somewhere weird anyway, so I don't care; besides, Kira is looking at me with a deep frown. I lift my eyebrows and grin at her, daring her to deny any of the seriously insightful things I've just messaged her. The little brat drags her schoolbag onto her desk, opens the lid and holds her phone in the air, before she drops it into her bag and returns it to the floor beside her.

Fine! Challenge accepted, Kira Croft!

I noisily tear a page from my notebook, and using my best first-grade handwriting skills (I had terrible handwriting in first grade), I write Kira a lovely detailed note: "JUST A PEEK!" At first, I plan to fold the note into an aeroplane and make it fly to her, but there is a much better way to irritate her.

I pass the note to the guy behind him and tell him to pass it to the guy behind him, and then I sit back and watch as the note gets passed back and forth – sometimes under my directions - until it lands on Lara's desk. She sits in front of Kira and loves to think she is the secretary of the World Disciplinary Committee. Lara glances at what I wrote on the back of the folded note, "Lara, please give this to Kira. Thanks. Ethan." and turns her head to frown at me.

It was hard work to keep the note on track along the route that would irritate Kira the most. I'm really proud of my achievement. I give Lara one of my best smiles to show her how much I appreciate her cooperation, and when her frown melts away, I sit back to watch the show.