Carlotta had set her phone face down, as she went to the kitchen. In her cupboard, she pulled out a small packet of Advil pills, taking two. She finished it with a large cup of water.
By the time she returned to her room, she heard strange sounds.
She turned the speaker on, to hear better.
"HELL YEAH BABY! IM IN LOVE!"
Lauren was on the other side whooping and yelling.
"MY FIRST CRUSH BABY HELL YEAAAH!"
Carlotta hung up the phone immediately, going back to sleep.
Just like that, the Saturday night had ended. Sunday had come, leaving Lauren eager to try and see Courtney more often. All throughout the morning he had been experimenting with his hair, trying to find the best look.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
Muscle was definitely there, but the only areas of definition were his abdomen and legs. Every other place was smooth. His frame wasn't very wide, being built more thinly.
Lauren left his hair as a mop.
He scheduled himself a haircut for today.
A medium fade, no touching the top.
While leaning into the mirror, he decided to stop shaving, as his school allowed beards.
"Maybe Courtney Windsor likes this kind of style… this kind of guy..?"
Staring at himself for too long made him notice all the deformities of himself.
Becoming quickly uncomfortable with himself, he moved back into his room and dropped to the floor to exercise. The light in his eyes disappeared again. Despite the intensity of the workout, his face remained blank.
"Another day in paradise for me."
Before he even noticed, his watch and phone both said it was half past 12. It felt like time had skipped for him. Knowing it was lunchtime, he left the house to go get a can of coffee and a meal at a local shop.
While walking down the busy backstreets, he ran into some people from his school.
He wasn't sure what grade they were in, as his school was fairly extensive.
Lauren looked forward, so as not to draw their attention.
He only got a few feet past them when he heard a girl turn around and ask:
"Hey, do I know you?"
Lauren's brain was ready to shit itself.
He turned his head slightly, to speak to them.
It was a diverse group of girls.
"Probably not..?"
Another girl chimed in, her hair was solid black and cut short. She wore a pair of skating shoes and a crop top. She agreed with the other girl.
"Yeah, it's Lauren MacKenna, he's a junior! I have him for computer science!"
Lauren found that this wasn't a good spot for him to be in and began to panic.
As they began to chatter away, he found that the strength in his legs was waning.
While moving deeper into a cave inside his thoughts, a voice pulled him away from the blackness.
"Can you girls fuck off? Don't you see this guy is losing his shit because of y'all? Goddamn."
It's a voice he recognized.
The comfort in her harshness saved him at that moment.
Her seemingly rough tone had smoothly glided over his soul.
Lauren found that he was resolute now.
He thought to himself:
"Yeah, I do like her after all."