Nameless: Chapter Two

Chapter Two: A Second Time Around

The next day was Sunday and Abigail and I were going to the mall. We were in CVS. I was looking at hair products, she was in the makeup aisle (she was “running low on lip gloss.” That means she has six lip glosses but could use another *sigh*). All of the sudden, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Expecting it to be Abigail, I turned around the words “Should I get...” on my lips but the words died as I saw who it was that tapped me. It was Michael! I hadn’t expected to see him again, let alone so soon.

“Julia!” he said, overjoyed.

“H-hey , Michael” I said, flustered at seeing him and also a little excited that he had remembered my name. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was here, um, um looking for something for my um mum, but then I saw you and decided to come over.”

“Um, okay,” I responded, his answer so not credible and such a lie.

“What are you looking at?”

I blushed. I’d been thinking of highlighting my hair with one of those Pantene things but hadn’t told anybody yet. But he noticed the bottle I was holding.

A smile found its way onto his lips. And a hand reached out to lightly touch my hair. “Your hair’s beautiful naturally, don’t ever think about chemicalizing it.”

Now I was blushing furiously. “Oh, well...” I put the bottle back on the shelf.

“Do you have a phone number? I still haven’t forgotten the ketchup yesterday.”

If it was possible to blush even more, I was doing it. He was asking for my number! “Um, I have a screen name.” I offered.

He chuckled. “Oh, right, mums, they always come to the silliest conclusions.” I nodded, grateful at his understanding, but a tiny part of me still wanted him to want my mom to know about him, but that was irrational because I didn’t want my mom to know about him. “I’ll take the screen name, though,” he continued.

“Sure,” I said, ripping out a piece of paper and taking out a pen. I wrote my screen name down.

He then wrote his screen name down for me.

Just as we were doing the exchanging of screen names, Abigail came.

“Hey, Julia, look what I fou-” her eyes found Michael with me before she could voice what exactly she found. “Oh, I don’t mean to interrupt.”

“No, no,” Michael said. “I have to go anyway.”

“I’ll speak to you later” he whispered to me and a huge smile was on my face. He waved and then was gone.

“What was he doing here!” Abigail asked.

“He was,” and I made air quotes, “‘getting something for his mom’”

“Yeah, right.” Abigail could also see through his story completely. “He so likes you. What did he give you though?” She squealed.

I looked at the paper he gave me for the first time then. We both squealed and jumped up and down like complete girls to the annoyance of many customers.

In a beautiful, curled script was written, “[e-mail].”

I clutched the paper to my chest, a precious key to him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That night, I was sitting in front of the computer screen, my im on. I was online and so was he, but I was too nervous to start talking first. Finally, I took a breath and lowered my hands to the keyboard. As I started to type the letters, however, an im came through from him.

michaelm (9:25): hi

Julebunny (9:25): hey!

michaelm (9:25): wat r u doing

Julebunny (9:26): actully, I was waiting for u to im me

michaelm (9:26): : ) y didnt u im me if u new I was on??

Julebunny (9:26): *blush* I wanted u to start

michaelm (9:26): ooo

michaelm (9:27): do u know lay-z bean café

Julebunny (9:27): yeah, theyre the best

michealm (9:28): ummm, u wanta go there w/ me?

michealm (9:30): hello??

I had been hyperventilating – he was asking me out!

Julebunny (9:31): sry,brb

michaelm (9:31): julia????

Julebunny (9:31): This is Julebunny’s refrigerator. Julebunny is not here right
now and I don’t know when she’ll come back, but when she does, you can leave her a message.

Thank G-d for away messages.

My fingers shakily pressed the numbers on the phone to call Abigail’s .

“Hello, Thomas residence, how may I help you?” Abigail’s voice chirped into my ear.

“Hey! Heaskedmeout.” I gasped.

“Who, what, when where why, huh?”

I took a deep breath to steady myself. “Michael and I are im’ing and he just asked me to go with him to Lay-Z Bean!”

I could almost see her jaw drop into a silent ‘o’ as she said, “Oh. My. G-d.”

“Yeah, so anyway my mom would freak if she saw me in a car with a boy going by ourselves, so could, like, you and Yifat go to Lay-Z Bean the same time I’m supposed to meet him and I’ll come and leave with you guys and I’ll meet him there?”

“Ummm, hold on a sec.” She went to ask her mother. “Mom says fine, let’s conference Yifat.”

“’K.”

Soon Yifat was on the line with us and we related the idea to her.
“Sure fine,” she replied.

“Hold on, I have to find out when,” I said. “Stay on the line.”

“’K.”

“’K.”

Julebunny (9:52): hey, sry bout that. ya i’d love to go w/ u

michaelm (9:52): cool. is next Saturday nite at 7 ok w/ u?

“Next Saturday night at seven?” I asked Abigail and Yifat, and in a minute, after making sure, they responded with yeses.

Julebunny (9:53): ya that wud b gr8!

michaelm (9:53): do u want me to pick u up?

Julebunny (9:54): how about if we meet there?

michaelm (9:53): good. cant wait

Julebunny (9:54): me neither

michaelm (9:54): I gtg, sry, bb

I sighed. It seemed he was always running off quickly.

Julebunny (9:54): k, bb