A Selfie to Die For

2)Online Dating

Emily was coming up empty with ideas on who to ask to prom. 
She didn't really make an effort to meet too many people upon moving to Texas. Her father has always travelled due to his military job, meaning Emily's moved rather frequently for  the majority of her childhood.
It's hard to keep friends when you're always moving - people would try and be nice and text or call  the first four months after she'd move, but people always stopped calling. It wasn't fun having a friend that lived across the country. That's why Emily's always had a strong relationship with Jake. He's the only friend she's ever had that's remained a constant in her life - mostly because, he lives the same lifestyle with his father also being in the military. He understood how difficult it was to make emotional investments in people while knowing the place you were living isn't the same  place you'd be living one year from that point.

The sad realization fully took over Emily that the only guy she's ever thought of as a possible love interest is going to prom with someone else.
It was a sucky truth for her.
"Great. Jake's going to prom with Lauren, and I'm going to be alone" Emily said, sadness creeping in. "Actually, no I'm not. I'm not going!"





Vinessa frowned. "You can't not go - you're the one who got Jake to find a date! If you don't go, you're going to look like a spaz."






Emily mentally took note that she should google that term later on after Vinessa left. She had no idea what that word was even supposed to mean. Given the sympathetic expression Vee was making, Emily assumed it wasn't a term of endearment.
"Well what am I going to do, Vinessa? The guys I'm sort of friendly with are taken, and you don't want me to go alone...what option is there??"





A slow grin mischievously lights up Vinessa's features as she hurries over to Emily's dinosaur Dell laptop. Since it was already lit up active, Vinessa launches the internet icon before beginning a mad typing on the keyboard. The site she brought up caused Emily to chuckle.
"Online dating, seriously?"






"Why not?" Vinessa defended with a shrug. "Online dating is the new craze to find people. Everyone's doing it!"





"A lot of people also smoke pot and drink, that doesn't mean everyone should do it." Emily snorted.



Vinessa sighed, spinning Emily's desk chair around to face her. "Honestly, what do you have to lose? Maybe you will find a guy who's better than Jake Moseley - maybe you'll even meet someone who's ten times better looking than that jerk as well!"


 





Emily didn't buy that for a second. Vinessa didn't understand Jake like she did - he was more than just a pretty face with a sarcastic nature. Jake's the type of friend who had your back through thick and thin, and fought your battles harder than you did.
Vinessa seemed to sense that Emily wasn't exactly gun-ho on this idea.




"Otherwise, you're going to be all alone while Jake is dancing the night away with Lauren."  Vinessa challenged, arching a dark brow.

Still, Emily wasn't convinced this was the best of ideas. Online dating was a world she knew she wasn't ready for - it was all about meeting strangers. Emily was barely able to meet new people when they sat beside her in class. Meeting someone over a computer screen? It was a disaster waiting to happen.
It was as she read the name of the dating site from over Vinessa's shoulder did her green eyes grow wide. Perfectmatch.com
"What about that dating blogger Heather Mackerson? She was killed two weeks ago after she went out on a date from this exact dating site!"





Vinessa sighed in exasperation. "Girl, the news has showed Heather Mackerson was a slut who was having affairs with at least three married guys. She wasn't just on Perfectmatch, she was also on that dating site for women who want to steal married guys. I'm not sure if her death is sad, or just karma-"



"-Vee!"





"What?" Vinessa defended, checking her manicured nails. "I'm not saying something everyone else isn't already thinking. The lady got in over her head by messing up too many marriages. Why do you think that married doctor is the only one being investigated for the murder? He's got the most motive considering Heather was planning on telling his wife."





Emily still shrugged uncomfortably. "She met strangers online and now she's dead. Coincidence? I think not...Look at the guy who killed people off Craigslist!"





Vinessa scoffed, beginning to type away on the laptop as she started to begin an account. "Puh-leeeeease. People die all the time for different reasons. There's like, how many car accidents on a daily basis? You have a better chance of dying in one of those than you do by meeting some hottie over the internet."




Emily realized she made a bit of a point. The odds of getting eaten by a shark or struck by lightning were more favorable to happen than meeting a crazy person over the internet the one time Emily tried online dating.
Within a twenty minute time frame, Vinessa finished setting up the new dating profile, putting the finishing touches on writing a description for Emily under  Tell-us-about-yourself.

"Vee...I'm...not like other girls." Emily admitted, removing her glasses to rub her weary eyes. "I don't dress up girly, and I'm not that interesting that guys would find me as....Well for lack of a better word, interesting."





Vinessa turned to Emily. She looked as though she was just slapped. "Girl, you're gorgeous. You've got a slender body and big green eyes. If you let me dress you in clothes that showed off  your boobs along with slathering you in eye products to make your eyes pop, you could easily snag any guy you wanted. Now be quiet...Vee-vee's got to concentrate." She grinned, stabbing away at the keyboard to finish the account.





When it came down to posting pictures to the profile, Emily cringed in horror seeing Vinessa was choosing to use photo's from the trip to the beach they took last summer.
"No! Me in a bikini?! Why???!"






"Ohh just one....Stop freaking! You look like a babe." Vinessa scowled, posting the picture regardless of Emily's complaining. After that, she posted a few more pictures of Emily, all that Emily noticed were pics that did not have her glasses involved.





"Something's missing" Vinessa muttered, tapping her foot nervously as she thought about something. Emily scanned the profile, frowning. "You wrote down that I was looking for a good time?? That makes me sound terrible..."





"Alright, better wording..." Vinessa says, typing away at the keyboard. "Looking to have fun. There, then it doesn't look like you're looking for anything too serious."





There was no objecting. Vinessa provided Emily with the password for the account, but she set it up under her own email so Emily would have a difficult time trying to deactivate it.
After what seemed like a lifetime passing, Vinessa finally sighed as she finished putting the proper tags and location on the site. "Something's missing."



She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth a few times before turning to Emily with a dropped jaw. "A gorgeous profile picture!" She squealed, grabbing Emily's phone from her hand.





"What...?"





Vinessa sat the phone down before removing Emily's glasses. She removed the ponytail holder, letting the light brown curls flow down Emily's shoulders. Vinessa made Emily sit patiently for the next ten minutes as she carefully applied black mascara, an abundance of eyeshadow, and some lip-gloss from Emily's bathroom.





As Vinessa finally took a step back from attacking Emily with a variety of different brushes and makeup equipment, she looked proud of her handy work. "Ittttttt'ssss selfie time!" she declared with a satisfied smirk.





"Selfie....Yeah.... I don't do those" Emily snorted.




Vinessa rolled her eyes. "You also normally wouldn't do online dating. C'mon - you're going to be eighteen next week! It's time to live a little, Emily."







Emily squirmed in the chair Vinessa sat her in, finding herself wishing she would've never brought any mention of going to prom. She could've just had a marathon of gamily and watching a bunch of cool movies while having Jake all to herself.
Vinessa snorted at her resistance, before setting up Emily's camera to hand her. "C'mon girl, what harm ever came from taking a selfie?"