Chapter 2: Chatting thru Texting [GioGio]

Legs up, head down. That's Brittany's current position, laying in her couch, the book she had been reading wide open covering her face. How it didn't fall to the carpet was a mystery. Her head seemed to be too good of a support for this, and yet she wasn't even trying to keep the book in perfect balance. Should anyone take the book out of the girl's face, they'd find Brittany was...snoring somewhat loud. The girl had a tiresome day and likely she had fallen asleep while reading. The chosen book is nothing less than Fables, the one a certain blond guy recommended her in a bookstore. The same blond guy to whom she has sent a text message one hour before falling into the dreamland, with one arm stretched up her head, holding said cellphone in hopes the answer would come soon. Well, it didn't, and she got tired of waiting. Actually, she was tired already for other reasons. Regardless, should Gio check the message, what would pop up in his screen would be something like this:

"heya
how r u doing?? guess who's it =p
im reading the book you told me to!
its soo cool! really check this bcuz i want some1 to talk about it and i have nobody ='( hahaha
xoxo"

When the message arrived, Brittany was still sleeping. Her phone, however, was unquiet in her hand as the vibrating sound resonated well in the silence of her living room. With that alone, Brittany didn't awake. She would only draw a reaction when said cellphone got tired of her hand and, with so much shaking, ended up falling to the ground, the metallic sound of its encounter against the wooden floor being enough of a nuisance to cause the girl to sit in a sudden bursting move, a sonorous and scared "AAAAAAAAAAH" crossed the apartment. She looked around, still scared in the hazy consciousness between dream and reality, searching for the source of such loud sound. Was it Bernard? Or did someone actually invade her apartment because she left the windows open for the snow owl to roam free? Now that's a more valid reason to be scared. Her first instinct would be to go to the kitchen and grab something to defend herself: anything could do. A broom, a knife, a pan... The second was to notice it was actually her cellphone in a troubling position in the ground. During the fall collision, the battery had pulled out and, while the screen itself didn't crack, the mere sight of each component of her beloved pink cellphone scattered around was enough to freak her momentarily. "Boo...", she lamented, rubbing her sleep eyes before picking the parts and, with some patience, putting her cellphone together in shape. Gladly, there were no scratches on its surface, it would be a major heartbreak if her favorite device was ruined because she was reckless like always.

Past some time (the book that also was thrown to the ground when Brittany awoke could be found back to the couch), the cellphone was turned on and the first thing that popped in the screen was the so awaited message. Gionatan was so formal with writing it almost made her feel awkward replying with such bad grammar and writing, if she weren't excited for having this talk long anticipated with him. Having someone to chat about books was far a new thrilling ride.

"hiii! you found out my secret identity >< hahaha
i feel so bad about snow white u know
i take it back everything i said about her being polyamorous
shes just my favorite character like EVER but really its so creepy what she had gone thru
and to think this also happens a lot in real life makes me feel sad
hey what is urs? and what arc did you like more?
but no spoilers!!"

By then, Brittany had her living room TV turned on. Some musical program aired, the kind that plays some songs and music videos at the audience's choice, but the girl, sat comfortably with the feet over her couch, hardly payed any attention to it, laughing like silly at her own cellphone's screen.

"no way!!
ive just finished the 1st arc 2!!
bigby is handsome and all
but dont u think its weird
hes in love with snow white?
theyre from different lores!!
u know, it looks like shrek all over again
but a bit different bcoz shrek was funny and fables is all dead serious
what do u think??"

"well
he certainly doesnt look like a wolf now
thats all that matters lmao"

In fact, if there was one thing she liked about Bigby, is the fact he looked nothing like the former animal self. And that's a plus! She could always use some eyecandy, even if in this case said eyecandy was too old for her tastes. Anyway, the girl's eyes glimmered at a special fragment of Gio's text. Precisely the last one.

"ooooh
i didnt know u were the romantic type!
r u dating?"

Alright, maybe the question was a bit intrusive, but it's Brittany, she doesn't know the boundaries of personal space. That and she was the hopeless romantic kind of girl who could go on and on talking about love stories and following other people's incursion into the territory of love. Hearing about people's happiness has always been something that greatly gives her joy, even if she couldn't share said happiness on her own.

Amusement aside, Brittany frowned slightly in disbelief. "I'm currently single"? Hah, right. She started to type a response about how Gionatan was probably lying, she found more to be amused at. Admirers, huh? Perhaps she probably had a few here and there, but either they haven't approached her or she hasn't noticed them. Not something she bothered pondering over; the following question, however, did startle her a bit at the same time one name came to mind in recognition. Little by little, the image outlines would fill themselves with pieces of her memory and the aforementioned name gained a face she was fairly used to, a face that brought a rather abashed, dreamy smile to her lips.

"hahahah noooo ><
i wish!!
but i dont have time 4 this"

Was this enough? She bit her under lip in a half smile and typed some more.

"thats what happens when we grow up
we have responsibilities and theres no time 4 anything else =p
lol!!"

Brittany began typing a response, until something inside her brain clicked, like a switch was pressed to activate her thought process. Having left the "sure id lov-" sentence incomplete, the text area cursor glowing in the screen as if waiting for further commands, she realized: was Gionatan asking her out? Is that why he was asking her about crushes and all that small chit-chatting peeking on her love life? Aah, now it all makes sense! Such cleverness! Giggling to the screen, the long, thing fingers quickly erased the previous message to give stage to a new one, with far more mischievous undertones.

"u took all this time 4 that??
u could have just said from the start u know
=p"

Wow, she was really being asked out. To a date. By a guy. Not one of older men her friends from the model agency loved to engage into compensate dating with, some kind of business she never had the guts to venture into despite some protests and insistence under the "they'd love your type", whatever that meant. Oh no, this time was a regular guy, and a rather handsome, polite and respectful one. How would those friends react when she tells them?

Biting her under lip while the corners of her lips acquiesced what was reminiscing of the mischievous giggle, Brittany's fingers set up motion again, giving form to another small block of text right after.

"sure id love to
hit me up anytime!!!"

The response from Gio came shortly after and, unlike before, Brittany kept on surveillance, waiting for the screen to signal his reply.

"the weekend is just fine 4 me ^ ^"

Brittany had some plans for the weekend, involving a fellow model but... she could understand, right? They could always meet some other time; in fact, being under the same agency, they have many opportunities to get together during the week days. As for Gionatan, Brittany barely could see him on a regular day. Yeah, sounds perfectly fair for her.

"hey i gotta get up and make my lunch
so send me a message if you want to meet alright?
ill be waitin!!"

With that said, she did the only thing a regular teen girl could do: get up from her couch in a jump and check her wardrobe for the best outfit for the occasion, even if there were still some days until the meeting date. You can never be too prepared, after all.