Who Is He?

Alina should be popping by any minute now to drop off my cookie. She seemed pretty joyful while we were texting, so I guess she has some news to tell me as well. I wonder what it could possibly be, she did only go for hot chocolate with Adelle after all. They must've had a lot of fun together or something. Which is good, after all, she enjoys spending time with people. It's honestly inhumane in my opinion with how much she's able to socialize without getting sick of people. But whatever, it's what she enjoys. Besides, it's not like it affects me, so I shouldn't really have an opinion on it.

The front door knocks and Afia finally gets off of the couch to open it. "Woah, you look happy," Afia's voice carries to my room, surprise laced within it.

"Because I am," Alina's smile is audible even all the way to my room. "But I want to tell Knox first."

"Well hurry up, I wanna hear the news," Afia responds with impatience.

They don't continue to talk and the sound of Alina's footsteps gets louder as she makes her way to my room. Joy and excitement make each step more attention-grabbing and thought inducing. It's not long before she appears just outside of my door, smiling reaching from ear-to-ear. Even her posture appears as though she's doing her best to restrain herself.

"Well what's up?" I ask her, sitting back in my gaming chair. I didn't bother to stream today. I don't want to risk the comments and questions that I may get overwhelmed by. "Did you get accepted into university or something?"

Her brows furrow to a questioning gaze, "We're only in 10th grade?"

I shrug, "You're extremely smart."

She giggles and finally enters my room, bouncing on my bed and beaming. "You'll never guess what happened!"

"The zombie apocalypse is finally upon us?" I ask, adding a bit of excitement to my words. "Hell yes! I've been preparing for this for years!"

"No," She laughs, her eyes nearly disappearing with her growing smile. She reaches into the pocket of her coat and pulls out a piece of paper, unfolding it gently in her hands. Then, like the piece of paper was a newborn baby, she carefully hands it over to me.

I lower my gaze after giving her an odd look. My heart sinks when I see it. A phone number. Did she get a number from some guy while she was at the coffee shop? "I-"

"Do you think I should go on a date with him?" She asks, immediately cutting me off. "I already called him and he's really nice. I even warned him about how you and I are really close and he's perfectly fine with it."

Did she seriously? She really shouldn't have to warn people about me every time she meets someone new. I bet she described me like I was someone to be feared. Like the jealous best friend that can't bear to see her with someone else.

"Why are you so quiet?" She asks with a solemn look in her eye. "Is it because of Zack?" She leans forward, getting closer to the edge of the bed. "Don't worry, he and I will be going through a trial phase, and if there's ever a point where you think he might be bad then I'll break up with him instantly." Her hand feels cold as she places it on my knee, from being outside. "I refuse to let anyone ruin our friendship ever again."

"It's not that," I mumble, not really knowing how to react.

"Then what's wrong?" She asks, her eyes not leaving mine.

"He's jealous!" Keita's voice shouts from down the hall.

"Shut up!" I shout back.

"Knox," My gaze turns back to her, she's ignoring Keita and only wants to hear what I actually think.

"I-" I cut myself off, trying to think of a good way to play this entire thing off. "I atleast want to see a picture of him first."

She smiles softly, "Sure." She then removes her hand from my knee, but the cold still lingers for just a bit longer. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone, silently types in some stuff then hands it over to me.

'Daniel Akello, 17, Daisy is my pitbull.' It appears that he also goes to our school, though I never saw him in any of my classes. He also has just a little over ten thousand followers and a little less than a hundred following. Exactly three hundred posts too. Most of them being either latte art he made, photos with his friends, or just some random memes or screenshots of chats. It doesn't seem like he'd be the type to break her heart, it appears that he's mainly focused on enjoying life. So I guess that I shouldn't worry about him cheating on her or anything like that. But I still can't help but shake the feeling that this won't end well for them. Maybe it's just the fact that I just care about her so much. But the profile alone isn't what really reveals what someone is actually like. I swipe over to look at the posts he's tagged in. The first one is him in a basketball uniform holding a trophy with the rest of his team mates. So he's sporty, I guess that will be a good suit for Alina. The next is him wearing a metal from some sort of math contest. He's smart too. I guess he probably is a good fit for Alina.

But just as I notice something odd, Alina speaks up. "Well? What do you think?"

"I'm gonna send his profile to myself and check it out on my own later," I respond and press some buttons, my phone promptly vibrates. "But so far he does seem like a good fit for you."

"I know right?" She squeals and I hand her back her phone. "So you approve?"

"Almost," I nod. "He goes to our school, but I haven't seen him in any of my classes before."

"That's because he's in all AP," She grins, hugging her phone.

"Oh," I mumble. That explains a lot. "I guess I'll have to watch out for him for a bit and see what he's like offline and when he's not trying to please any girls."

Alina smiles calmly, gazing appreciatively into my eyes. She stays like that for about a minute, until she finally speaks softly, "Thank you, Knox." She then gets up and pulls me into a hug. "You're such an amazing best friend."

"Wanna stay over for dinner?" I ask her, not really knowing what else to say.

She shakes her head while still having it against my chest, "No, I'm tired from still being on my period." Once she breaks the hug she laughs softly to herself, "I bet the second I lay in my bed I'll pass out."

My laugh is loud and sounds obviously forced, "Well I'd hate to make you sleep deprived." She takes the little paper off of my desk and slides it back into my pocket. "Want me to walk you home?" I ask her, though I know that I won't enjoy it if she says yes.

"No thanks, it's way too cold for you," She giggles and tosses me my cookie.

"I completely forgot about this!" I mention with joy, taking the large, triple chocolate cookie out of the little paper package. "Thank you," I mumble, taking a huge bite out of the sweet goodness.

Alina giggles once more, "We should go there together sometime, it's really nice and the wifi is fast too."

"Definitely," I speak with my mouth full. She turns around and heads out of the door. "See you tomorrow!"

"Your place at seven!" She reminds me and disappears from my view.

After hearing the front door shut I slump into my chair, placing the cookie on my desk and picking up my phone. "Now who was that girl with her arms around him?"