Twenty three:
"I don't know what to say about this, Bree..."
"You don't think it's a good idea?" I whispered back at Chloe. Miss Bing, the Literature teacher, flashed a scowl in our direction (for possibly the fourth time during this class), and I pretended to finish copying her words from the board.
"I think it's an unbelievable idea," Chloe said, her eyes fixed to the board, "The only thing I'm seriously afraid of is that it might literally be unbelievable."
"What are you saying here, Chloe?"
"I'm just saying, you know, are you sure you'll succeed?" She turned her head towards me and lowered her voice to barely a few decibels. "I mean, surely this thing will make Michael forgive you forever, and maybe he'll even give you a lifetime supply of Pizza coupon," she said, and I let out a small chuckle, "but your idea isn't necessarily a sure thing. It's not all up to you."
"I know," I sighed.
I've had an idea blossoming into my head for a few days now, and it was only the other day when I'd come home from the reunion that I realized I needed to at least give it a try.
So far, Chloe had been the first one to know about it. Even though we hadn't hung out as much during these past few days, she was still my friend. I needed advice from her.
Plus, she'd promised she would help me get things back to normal. With Michael... with Carly...
Unlike Michael's part, the Carly part was still work in progress. Actually, not even that.
I wanted to do something, anything to make her realize that it wasn't okay to make justice on my behalf and spill my secret on Michael just like that. But as much as I hated to admit that, a small, small, practically insane part of me was happy things turned out like this.
After all, Michael had to find out about the blog eventually. And to be honest, I didn't think I could ever bring myself to tell him on my own. I hated confrontations. Especially with him. So, at least he finally found out and took a huge weight off of my shoulders.
Plus, Michael didn't seem to be so mad at me anymore.
I was really hoping my instincts were right this time.
After what he told you last night, are you seriously worried about him being mad at you? My inner voice questioned in a mocking tone.
I chewed on my lower lip, my face turning the colour of ketchup as I remembered Michael's words from the other night.
I started to see you as... I don't know... perfect.
A smile involuntarily climbed up on my face. I tried my best to hide it, but there was no chance of that happening. I was really glad Michael wasn't in this class, cause my face pretty much resembled a clown's up to this point.
"Bree...? Hello?"
I blinked my thoughts away and turned my head towards Chloe. "What?" I inquired, possibly a little bit too loud.
"Ladies," Miss Bing snapped. She lowered her glasses on the bridge of her nose and gave us a warning look. She let her death glare penetrate our eyes for a few seconds, before turning back to the board and continuing her speech.
"Did you hear my question?" Chloe asked whilst her eyes remained printed at the teacher.
"What question?"
"I asked you if you're still going to go with your idea," she replied in a rather annoyed tone, "Though I'm pretty sure I already know the answer."
I lowered my gaze to my notebook. "Well..."
Needles to say, my idea was rudimentary crazy. Even more, whether or not I could do it, it wasn't even entirely up to me. It depended on other factors, and even more, another person.
Only the thought of that made lines of sweat grow into my palms.
"... I need to at least try it," I said, giving Chloe a small nod, "After what happened, it's the least I could do for Michael."
Chloe nodded, her mouth curving into a warm smile. She made a quick pause as her eyes softened. "You know, this may be an obvious thing to say, but... He'll be more than lucky to have you."
My cheeks tinged pink, another awkward smile forming onto my face.
I dropped my gaze back to my notebook, and finished copying Miss Bing's words off the board in silence for the rest of the class.
______
I swung the door of my room open and dropped my school bag onto the wooden floor, watching it land with a loud thud.
I plopped down on my bed and quickly fished my phone from the jeans pocket. I tapped on the Wattpad app and let my only two notifications pop up on the screen.
Yeah, just like old times. Almost zero notifications on Wattpad and no new followers.
It's good to see that at least this hasn't changed.
I ignored the small feeling from the pit of my stomach, and opened the private message section.
All of my previous conversations with other Wattpaders popped up.
The first one to appear was @MichaelL99 himself.
My eyes trailed to his username. They remained fixed on his profile picture. It was the very same one he had when I'd first discovered his account.
Looking back now, I didn't know why I'd found the existence of his account so hilarious.
Yes, it was indeed odd and very unlikely (or as Matt would put it, unpredictable) but it didn't strike me as amusing, much less stomach-pain hilarious.
And weird enough, my lack of humor right now made something strange twitch inside me. It was that same cold feeling I'd had on the day before the Valentine's day when I had been hanging out with Carly.
At first I'd thought I was feeling like this because the Pizza-doughnuts combo wasn't too appealing for my stomach. But I knew it wasn't really that.
Unfortunately, it was something much, much more complicated than that.
And like any other complicated thing that ever took place in my life, I knew it was connected to Michael. To Michael's effect on me.
Damn... The things this boy was making me feel... I really do deserve a free Pizza coupon from him.
I heaved a loud sigh, deciding I needed to take a break from thinking about him so much, or my head would already start making printable T-shirts with his face on them.
I couldn't risk that now, could I?
So instead I decided to try out my idea.
I started composing a new message for one of my old Wattpad friends.
My fingers reluctantly typed their overt-thought sentences and carefully chosen words, hoping luck would be with me on this one.
I really needed her to see this message.
Either that, or my idea would backfire on me instantly, and completely ruin my plan. (A.K.A. no Pizza coupon from Michael.)
Me: Hey, long time no see! I don't know if you remember me, we used to chat back in my early days on Wattpad lol. I've been following your stories ever since, and honestly, it's amazing to have watched them grow from only a few K's to over 5M reads! It's so friggin' unbelievable, and I never got the chance of congratulating you!
Btw I'm also going to need a small favor from you... If it's not too much, of course. I'm sorry if I bothered you. Please respond soon xx
I shut my phone and placed it on the bed beside me. I pressed my back on its soft mattress and rested my head on the pillow.
Now came the waiting part...
______
I woke up to the sound of my phone buzzing.
My eyes flattered open, my body doing a little jumping on its own. I rubbed my eyes and slowly stood up on my bed, feeling a mild pain spread into my neck.
I groaned and scanned my room. The window beside me showed darkness.
It was night.
Sure enough, the clock on the wall let me know I had indeed gone through a three-hour nap.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd fallen asleep so fast. But I guess the last hectic days kind of explained my tiredness.
I staggered to my feet and made my way towards the phone. I lazily picked it up and checked my notifications.
The Wattpad logo appeared on my notifications bar. I tapped on it and it led me to my private messages.
I had one new message.
I opened the most recent conversation which was now in bold, and quickly read the text.
@_screamer: Hello!
It's fine, you're not bothering at all. It's nice hearing from you again. And thank you, I can't believe I reached this amazing number of reads either... It's pretty unbelievable tbh.
So, what do you need help with?
I quickly typed back an answer.
Me: well, I'll get straight to the subject. Long story short, I'm going to need you to make a small shoutout for a book...
______
Hey guys, so I made this a shorter chapter, and yes, as you can see I'm still a fan of cliffhangers *cue the evil laugh*
Hope you enjoyed reading this, and as always, don't forget to press that little star button and comment your opinions!
Also if you haven't seen it yet, I just recently posted a new contest called Wattpad Oscar Awards, so yeah, if you're interested, the book is published on my profile. You have until June 1st to enter and get the chance to win the first ever Oscar for your story! :)
Thank you so much for being here with me, and I hope you'll keep supporting me till the end of this story :3
BTW WE REACHED 14K WOO HOO 🎉🎉
Alright see ya to the next update!
Cheers ✌