Page 19 of Hating On Riot

“He’s not talking about Bella,” I tell Riot. “He’s hung up on a girl since high school.”

“I get you. Same for me.”

“That so? Who is she?” Coop asks.

“She’s sitting right here, so I can’t outright tell you, can I?” Riot smirks.

Cooper sputters with laughter. “Seriously? Great tact.”

He tips forward. Riot does too. In front of my face, they fist bump, then make an explosion gesture with their fingers. I inwardly groan. Great, my best friend and my ex-best friend are bonding over their shared hang-ups about different girls.

“You didn’t answer my question. Are you and Arie back on?”

Before Cooper can answer and reveal to Riot my stupid attempts to keep him and every guy at a distance, I point and yell, “There he is!”

It’s awkward enough that Riot is here. It’s even more awkward knowing he slipped me the note about the water girl gig, and I should be annoyed and pissed at him, but I’m slowly warming up to the idea.

Their attention swivels to the rows of apartments. We watch our classmate get out of his car and run around to the passenger-side door. He helps his girlfriend out of the car.

“Okay, we have where the six live.” Cooper makes notes on his cell phone. “Tomorrow, we find where they work and where their girlfriends and boyfriends live and work, and then we go from there.”

He’s ready to crank the ignition. My cell phone pings in my bag at my feet. Thinking it might be my brothers checking on me and wanting to speak with Cooper, I tell him to hold on.

I reach inside my bag and pull out my phone. A notification appears on the screen. It’s from the blind dating app. Curious, I open the message.

Thatrandomguy: Three good reasons to binge-watch a chick flick with my little sis.

Is this guy for real? Chick-flick and little sis in the same sentence? I shake my head. I cluck my tongue. Smiling, I type a response.

Me: One, chick flicks are awesome. Two, she’s your little sis. Three, she’ll think you’re cool as shit.

Thatrandomguy: Lol, I like you.

Me: U r a good brother.

He sends me a GIF of a smiling guy in a suit dancing and tipping his hat. I smile and bite my bottom lip. The sides of my face tingle, and it’s not from smiling big. Crap. Riot and Cooper are looking at me intently, their brows furrowed.

Me: Gotta go TRG. TTYL.

TRG: Promise?

Me: Yes.

TRG: Tonight?

Me: Sure

I respond to his texts rapid-fire, then shove my phone in my bag.

“What was that about?”

“Yeah, Arie, who the fuck is the dude with the backward baseball cap with the smarmy grin?”

Smarmy? I didn’t think the avatar I chose for TRG was smarmy. The model looked thoughtful when I took a screenshot of his picture on the pinning board site, Pushpin.

“He’s someone I recently met.”

“We’ve known one another since we were ten, and I don’t have your new number.”