I glance at the message, brow furrowing in confusion. “Hey, do I know you?”
“No, I don’t think so. Why did you add me?” I typed back, my confusion deepening. I felt my face flush with heat as I waited for a reply.
I excused myself from my seat, walking towards the bathroom. As I closed the door, my phone buzzed with his response. “I just saw your cute face and it intrigued me, I guess. Is that weird?”
A small smile played on my lips. “Kind of, but I’ll take the compliment.”
“Are you Tanner’s sister?” he asked.
“Yeah, how do you know my brother?”
“Oh, I play hockey with him and we party together sometimes.”
“Cool! So you’re a senior then? What school do you go to?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“I go to Central High, in town. I graduated in the spring, but I’m taking a victory lap this year to improve my grades for university next year. What about you?”
“I’m starting at Central next week.”
“I didn’t realize you were so young! Now I feel like a creep. Sorry.” He admitted.
“No, it’s totally okay! I was the one who accepted you.” I responded, relieved he was self-aware.
“Soooo, out of curiosity: why did you accept a strange older guy?” He asked, a playful tone in his text.
My face warmed, reflected in the bathroom mirror as a bright pink blush crept across my cheeks. A cute, older boy thought *I* was cute. The thought sent a shiver through me.
“Honestly, I didn’t recognize your name at all. So I opened your profile to look at your photo, and when I saw you, I thought you were very handsome. The more I swiped through your photos, the more interested I became,” I confessed, unable to resist the truth.
“Well aren’t you a sweetheart. Thank you. Well I hope it isn’t weird of me to say that I hope to see you around sometime this year.”
“Not at all. I was just thinking the same thing!”
“Cool. Well I’m off to football practice. See ya around B.”
And with that, Tyler went offline, leaving me with a flushed face and a racing heart.