“Even his–” Olivia ranted.
“Or her!” her bestie, Zoe, interrupted.
“–fine, or her, or whatever, their username even goes with mine. Martini. Shake and stir. It’s creepy!” Olivia brought the phone super close to her mouth and whispered into the receiver, “Creepy.”
“Ok, but, like, it could all just be a coincidence, right? It’s the internet. What are the chances that, one–this person knows you personally, meaning they know your name is Olivia, and two–your besties used to call you Green Olive, which three–evolved to Martini, and finally, they have eyeballs and can see you are small, so four–your permanent nickname and username at every given opportunity is ‘tinimartini’? What. Are. The. Odds. Woman?” Zoe took a breath and raised her brows at Olivia over facechat. “You probably have an internet crush, I’ll give you that. Maybe they really like your taste in that manga porn or whatever it is you read. But I sincerely doubt you have a legit stalker situation on your hands, ok hon?”
Olivia sighed. “Ok, ok. Fine.” She took a few deep breaths through her nose. “When you put it that way, it seems super unlikely, I’ll give you that. But I can’t help having this feeling–”
“I don’t blame you! I would, too. A little paranoia is healthy.” Zoe brought up her index finger and pointed it at Olivia, “But you can’t let that rule your life, young one. Maybe take a break from the forums if they’re stressing out?”
Olivia nodded.
“Yeah, that’s actually a good idea. I think I will.” Suddenly seeing the clock on the cafe wall, she grimaced and said, “Gotta go, Zoolander. Oh! Are we still on for Friday Fri-yay?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“You know it!” Zoe air-kissed her. “Muah! Bye, Tini.”
“Muah! Bye!”
Olivia smiled at the background photo of herself and Zoe, set the phone down in one of the few empty spaces on the cafe table, and sighed deeply. Could Wednesday just end already?
“I don’t want to be here,” she whined quietly to herself, “I just want to be at home, in my jammies, in my bed, on my phone reading my ‘manga porn.’” The last two words were said mockingly, causing Olivia to laugh at herself a little bit. Just a tiny giggle. Yes, sometimes she cracked herself up.
Fuck! Fuck yes, she would rather be reading the “Kiss Me Like I’m Dying” novel or the “Bug Me to Death” manhwa, weird as it was. Weird can be really good, in fact. In the past couple days, she’d already read all 192 episodes of the “Kiss Me Like I’m Dying” manhwa and the (too short, in her opinion,) 72 episodes of “June is Forever.”
That was the problem with good recommendations–it was fucking hard to savor them. All she wanted to do was read them! Burn through them the way they burned through her. Oooh. Shivers.
But no. There’s a stupid quiz on the stupid periodic table on stupid Friday.
“And the element for ‘F-u’ is Fuckyoumium!” she cursed at her notes.
Someone laughed. A low, soft chuckle. Olivia perked up and tried to stealthily look around the cafe, but she didn’t see anyone obvious.
Quit being paranoid, she instructed herself.