You Plus Me

Chapter Twenty-Four

  Beds are where dreams are made, yet at the moment, my bed was the actual dream. It just filled me with coziness. It made me forget about all my troubles for the smallest fraction of a second, and that was enough for me.

  I propped my back up on my gigantic collection of pillows so I could eat my snack. As I ripped open the wrapper, I heard a familiar “Bing!” noise coming from my desk. I turned my head towards it, only to see that my laptop wasn’t closed. I brought my body in an uncomfortable pose to retrieve it, and after a little bit of a struggle, I succeeded. I brought my laptop onto my lap to see what was happening. It was then that I realized that I had never signed out of my online page, meaning that it showed that I had been online this whole entire time.

  In the bottom right corner it displayed my unread messages. My thirty-seven unread messages, to be exact. Clicking on the sign that showed this, I noticed that they were all from Maria.

  MariaLuv123 says: Hey!

  MariaLuv123 says: Hello?

  MariaLuv123 says: Ariel, where in the world are you?!?!?!

  MariaLuv123 says: WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME?!?!?!? :’(

  MariaLuv123 says: You don’t love me anymore, don’t you?

  MariaLuv123 says: Ariel May McArthur, I’m seriously scared right now. Are you alright?

  MariaLuv123 says: ANSWER MEEEEEEE!!!!!

  The messages went on like this. The first one had come an hour ago, and Maria was still at it, messaging me like there was no tomorrow. Not wanting her to worry anymore, I finally typed back a response to her.

  Red_Ariel says: Hi! Sorry, I forgot to sign out last night. I was at the hospital and I didn’t have my laptop with me.

  MariaLuv123 says: THANK THE HEAVENS YOU’RE ALIVE!!! Is everything alright?

  Red_Ariel says: Hospital and cancer wise, yes. Otherwise, no.

  MariaLuv123 says: Oh no, what happened?

  I proceeded to tell her everything that happened between Caleb and I. I gave her every single detail, besides the recently added part with Leno. Come to think of it, Maria had no idea about anything that was happening with Leno and I.

  At first she didn’t respond, but in a matter of seconds she typed back to me messages of fury and rage. They kept coming in at lightning speed, one after the other, her anger growing with each letter she typed.

  MariaLuv123 says: You’re not SERIOUS are you?!?!?!

  MariaLuv123 says: This is insane.

  MariaLuv123 says: Everything that was cute and great about Caleb has officially disappeared. How could he do this to you?! That’s just cruel. I am so shocked right now. Oh my freaking god. I swear, when I get back I’m going to do some horrible things to him.

  I typed back my reply as quickly as I could.

  Red_Ariel says: Oh no Maria, please don’t do that.

  MariaLuv123 says: Why not?!

  Red_Ariel says: I want to make him live with the guilt.

  Feeling my eyes getting droopy, I told Maria that I had to get going, that I missed her and that I loved her like a sister (a tradition on how we ended every single conversation of ours.) I made sure to log out this time and I then placed my computer back on my desk. With that, I ate my granola bar, put my crumpled wrapper on my bedside table and got under my covers.