As I sat finishing the last part of my English coursework draft, my phone buzzed. I looked over at the screen to see Conor's name but refrained from reaching over for it until I'd finished my paragraph. A few minutes later it buzzed again. And again. And again.
I finished my sentence and saved the document, emailing it to myself and my teacher for tomorrow's lesson. Once I'd clicked the send button, my mind couldn't focus on anything other than Conor and the few messages I was about to see.

Loraini.

My heart felt like it was swelling purely from that one word. A smile grew on my face as I read further down.

Congrats on your date with Liam. He keeps telling me he can't wait.

The smile on my face faded slightly, as did the butterflies and the excitement. He only wanted to talk about Liam? Well it's better than nothing but I wish he could have started a normal conversation.

Thanks for saving us from those girls too. It was awful having so many girls running at me and falling at my feet. 😜 but seriously what you did really helped. I owe you one.

A smile crept on my face again. At least he's showing his sense of humour. I could barely contain my excitement as I scrolled down once more to see his final message.

As you can tell I suck at this whole small talk chatting thing.

A childish grin spread over my face. He was so cute. For someone so popular and well known in our school I was surprised that he wasn't charming me through emojis and quotes. For most of the girls in our college that would be all it took.

Maynard.
It's cool, I love the whole knight in shining armour thing. Couldn't bare to  see you in distress, damsel. 😉
Yeah you do owe me, I don't care what it is but please either let it involve saving my life or giving me food. 👍

The smile wouldn't leave my face as I stood up and made my way over to the bed, falling down onto it as I stared at my screen awaiting his reply like a lovesick puppy.

Please don't call me that. The last name thing is my thing. Find your own 😛
Sounds good, may possibly be trying to think of food related ones as I'd rather you were safe already.

If it were a sitcom, the audience would have gone 'awww' and I may or may not have said it in my mind as I had the message. I regretted not speaking to him sooner in the year, now we were only a month away from graduating and I was just discovering another friend I could have had for ages. My phone never deviated from my hands as I got ready for bed, replying quickly every time a message came in.

Alright CONOR.
Okay, sounds good. It had better be somewhere decent. By decent I mean good portion sizes and messy eating. None of this salad nonsense. I want somewhere fancy where you have to pay for the chips as an optional extra to your burger.

You mean like McDonalds? You COULD order a fruit bag with your burger if you wanted.

I let out a small quiet laugh and shook my head at my phone.

Who ever goes to McDonald's and orders a fruit bag? I mean unless you have kids.

Erm me. Every time. Love putting the apples in my Big Mac.

😷😷😷

Joke! That was a joke Loraini.

So you say... 🤔🤔🤔

As I waited for a response, my phone chimed again as a new number popped up in my notifications. I exited my chat with Conor and headed to that one, anxiety knotting my stomach. I read it a couple of times before I realised who it was that had sent it to me.

'Thanks again for today. I'm looking forward to getting to know you better, are you free to hang out tomorrow evening?''

This could only be one of two people and I was messaging one of them right now. Either Conor has another phone and he thinks this is funny or Liam has somehow got my number and is texting me. There was only one way to find out...

"Hello?" I held my phone to my ear, listening intently to anything that would give me a clue. "Is that you Leah?"

"Yeah. Who's this?" I responded quickly. The wind whipped through the speaker of his phone and crackled down mine.

"It's Liam. I hope you don't mind, I got your number from Conor." He said smoothly, seemingly so confident.

"Sorry, I just wanted to check! Thank you for the message." I said politely. "But isn't there a rule against hanging out with your dates before their scheduled slot?" I could feel the smile creeping back on my face again.

"I'd happily break the rules for you. It seems like it'd be worth the risk." He said. I could imagine his speaking to me with a smile on his face as he leant against a wall making sure he still looked cool.

"Well someone's confident!" I laughed unintentionally. "Just to warn you though, Rae and I are nothing like the girls you normally date. You're either gonna hate it or have the time of your life."

"I look forward to it. Look, I've got to run but meet Conor and I tomorrow. I've got a date but it's just after college at the shopping centre. I'll meet with you and him in the evening." He rattled off a plan he must have quickly come up with. I began to feel nervous.

"When you're having to plan a secret meet up it seems like it's against the rules." I said jokingly. "I'm looking forward to it so long as I don't end up disqualified." Liam let out a hearty laugh.

"I'd never let it happen. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow." He quickly said his goodbyes before he hung up. I quickly switched back to Conor's conversation, but he was now offline after waiting for my response for twenty minutes. I began to feel guilty and my stomach sunk. I hope he's not angry at me.

Sorry CM. Had to speak with Liam quickly. I'm meeting with you both tomorrow evening after his date.
See you tomorrow 😘

It was unbelievable just how different my life had become within a few days. I was now talking to Conor and Liam and had two possible love interests. I lay in bed gazing up at my messages before slowly falling asleep.