Say Hello For Me

t w e n t y - o n e || afterwards

Dedicated to Brittany because I just finished Z and it was one of the most well crafted short stories on here.

-----

"Vy's so different from Delilah," Liam tells Nessa three days after their date. She can't physically see him, but she can tell he's beaming. His happiness makes her smile. "I mean she actually thinks my jokes are funny. She laughed at one of my puns. Can you believe that?"

Nessa laughs at his excitement. "I can't believe you were bold enough to throw in a pun on the first date. What if she ran in the opposite direction?"

"But she didn't. That's the point. And the only reason I used a pun was because Bold is my middle name. I'm daring, Nessa. I drive motorcycles and go skydiving in my free time."

Liam can't even get himself to believe his words.

"Are you actually being serious right now?" Nessa wonders if there's another side to Liam that she doesn't know.

"Nessa," Liam says, "I'm an engineering student at the University of Washington. If I'm not finishing some ridiculously hard calculus problem on the bedroom floor of my apartment, I'm sitting in a physics lab with my head buried in a textbook."

"When you say things like that, I don't really miss school as much."

As Nessa sits at her desk and twirls the phone cord around her wrist, wonders if she should tell Liam that she's thinking about going back to college to finish her bachelors in art. She doesn't come to a decision before Liam responds, the thought disappearing into the back of her mind.

"I just can't wait until I'm finished. Only a couple more classes until I'm done." Liam can't wait to celebrate.

"You better invite me to your graduation party."

"Of course. You're going to be the first person on my invitation list, Nessa. Maybe that's when we'll finally meet."

"I'll mark the date on my calendar," Nessa jokes, knowing that everything they say is practically an alternative reality. The chances were that they'd never even get to meet each other in person.

"Now that's enough talk about school. Tell me about your date with Vy, Liam."

"Well, do you remember how we were only supposed to go out to dinner?"

"Mmhmm."

"We ended up staying until the restaurant closed, but we weren't ready to go home yet so we walked around the square and caught a midnight showing of a really bad movie."

"Why didn't you guys just leave the theater if the movie was bad? There are plenty of other things to do in Seattle."

Liam quietly says, "Because we weren't exactly watching the movie."

"Oh," Nessa falters. "Forget I even asked that question."

"But I learned a couple of things about her. She's an only child. Her favorite color is blue, the color of the sky when there aren't any clouds out. And most importantly, she likes camping!"

"She must really be a keeper then."

Nessa hears a phone ringing on the other line and a series of text message popping up on a phone screen.

"Is that Vy?"

Liam's sprinting from his living room into his bedroom on the other line. "Vy's calling me right now, Nessa. I think she wants to hang out tonight or something. I'll talk to you tomorrow or something, okay?"

"Wait, Liam, you know what's funny?" Nessa waits a little too long before she continues. "My best friend is named Vy and she goes to the University of Washington, too. She also loves camping."

The connection has already cut off.