Long-Distance Calls

38

Then I started making fun of teachers. I did my best impression of Mrs. Misura, then I put on my glasses and created a beard out of a napkin and I impersonated Mr. McBride. And they all laughed, and I actually felt cool for the first time in my life.

I thought I could actually forget the past and start a new future, and that maybe my first experience with high school was just growing pains that I successfully outgrew.

"So, uh, what are you doing today?" I asked Andrew, in my desperate attempt to go out with someone, mainly because my mother was starting to become a pain by saying I was always in my room, every day.

"Oh, I'm going out with Layla, today," he said.

"Layla?" I wondered.

"Yeah, she's a girl I recently met. Same age as me."

"Do we have any classes with her?" I asked.

"No, she goes to another school," he explained.

"I see... so you like her?"

He smiled. "Yeah, very much."

When I returned home, I had this feeling that Andrew was lying. Because his answers were the same I used to give when I pretended to have a girlfriend in middle school. So, maybe, after he failed to get Amber, that's what he was doing.

So I searched Layla on Facebook, and she was actually there. The pictures and everything looked legit, but, then again, so did my ex girlfriend.

I looked through her posts, and they still looked realistic. Apparently she was a big fan of the recently formed boy band One Direction.

And the thing that made me the most curious was that every One Direction song she posted, was liked and commented by Andrew.

So, the next morning, I started investigating. "So you like One Direction now?"

"What?" Andrew asked.

"It— It showed up in my Facebook," I lied, "that you liked a One Direction song."

"Oh... well, yeah, no."

"What?" I asked.

"I don't like them, no," he explained.

"Well, then why hit the like button?"

"Because Layla likes them. And I may or may not have told her I was a big fan when we first met."

I cringed. "Come on. That's not cool."

"It kind of is," he said, "especially since we kissed yesterday!" He winked.

I wanted to tell him that lying was no good in a relationship, and I knew from my own experience, but he could've easily told me to mind my own business, so I forgot about it.

"I miss texting with you at lunch," Evelyn said on Skype that afternoon, "why don't you text me anymore?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that— you know, the guys, they want me in their gang now."

"And so you don't have even one second to send me a text?" she asked. "Are they more important than me, now?"

"No," I scoffed, "what are you saying? Of course not. You're the most important person in my life."

"Then I want you to call me tomorrow at lunch," she said.

"Call you?"

"Yeah, why? Is that a problem?" she asked.

"No, well, yeah, I mean— I should call you in front of all the boys..."

"Who cares?" she said, "You can just say, 'sorry, my girlfriend is calling' and then talk to me. They'll mind their own business."