Friday night, less than two months left in his senior year of high school, and he was stuck at home.

Jake sighed as he flopped back onto his bed, the bed springs offering a faint groan in response to his slender frame. He could dimly hear the sound of Olivia Hudson's party across the street, echoing through his otherwise empty house.

His dad was supposed to have left him the keys to his car before both his parents went to help his sister move into an apartment off campus but he had forgot. Reaching back and grabbing his phone off the night stand, Jake could still see the text from his dad, “Sorry, Jake-o! Completely slipped my mind!”

He groaned as he read it again.

Jake had a key to his mom's minivan but because they had taken that up to help Alicia, he was stuck at home on a Friday night. Somewhere in the distance he heard a girl practically scream bloody murder accompanied by muffled splashes. No doubt someone had just tossed their girlfriend into Olivia's pool.

He doubted anyone would say anything if he got up, crossed the street, and walked into Olivia's party like he was supposed to be there. He had known her for practically their entire lives, and she had mentioned something about him being welcome when her boyfriend and one of his buddies had blatantly carried a keg through the front door that afternoon. At the time though, he thought he'd have the keys to his dad's car and he said he had plans.

If he went now, and Olivia saw him and asked about it, Jake realized it would sound like he was trying to sound cooler than he was when he said he had plans. And if he tried to explain what his plans had actually been, then everyone probably would look at him like he wasn't supposed to be at a cool party.

Opening Instagram on his phone, he sighed as he saw his feed fill up with posts from where he was supposed to be: the weekly Magic the Gathering tournament at Axe Grinder Games two towns over. He didn't need to check the time to know things were basically done, he only had to look at the pictures flooding in from both the store's instagram and his friends. Jake couldn't stop himself from cursing under his breath as he processed the sweet cards people had managed to snag that week.

“Random, my ass,” he muttered to himself. People were getting good draws because the cosmos was simply punishing him for not being able to make it that week. Sighing, he could only hope they appreciated it.

He perked up when a picture from GMGina97 suddenly popped up at the top of his feed. He instantly clicked on it, and watched as her practically flawless face filled most of the screen next to a rare card that had gone to the winner of the tourney. Jake would never say it out loud, but Gina was his favorite part of the store.

She had been working there the entire time he had been going there. First when she was still in high school and now while she was taking classes at the nearby community college. It wasn't merely that she was attractive, it was that she was easily the coolest person he knew.

And not cool in the sense of Olivia Hudson and all the so-called 'popular' kids at his school.

Real deal fucking cool.

Flicking through her Instagram, Jake couldn't help but see evidence of it with every post. A shot of her playing with her band, her full sleeve tattoo visible as she shredded on guitar. A picture of the model she had built for the big dramatic climax of her current D&D campaign. Her with a big pint of some fancy craft beer on her twenty-first birthday. Even the selfies and the shots of her lunches that he found between her best posts made him wish he had more to say to her than the basic shit-shooting he managed whenever he was at Axe Grinder.

He sighed as his free hand fumbled with his belt and the fly of his jeans as he settled on a picture she had literally captioned 'It's a Trap!' for May 4th. Her blonde hair was piled atop her head in a beehive updo and she was wearing what looked like a TOS-era Star Trek uniform with the neckline plunging deep to reveal her bountiful breasts. Jake grunted quietly as he set to work, trying to zoom in on her breasts but accidentally focusing on her shiny leather Doc Martens instead. Unable to zoom out, he simply tried to scroll back up to her chest but as he passed over the field of Command Gold, he watched the app flicker as he 'liked' the photo.

“Oh shit.”

Jake dropped his phone onto his chest like it was radioactive while he tried to process what he had just done. The photo was two weeks old, and she had taken dozens of selfies since then, even a few more that were clearly designed to get likes from all the guys with crushes on her. Liking that one though, the smarmy 'trololol it's a thirst trap' one.

Only the loserest of losers would like that one.

As he started to reach for his phone and hope that he could undo the like before anyone noticed, it buzzed. He yelped, his hand backing away from the phone before slowly creeping back only for it to buzz once more. He waited, his fingers trembling, before he finally snatched it up and turned it over.

Jake's eyes bugged out as he saw the notifications on his lock screen.

Gina had messaged him.

She had slid into his DMs.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to act cool as he unlocked the screen and read the two messages.

“Hey,” she had written, sounding cool even in text format, “Didn't see you at the draw tonight. You ok?”

Jake's heart skipped a beat. Gina had noticed he wasn't there? He didn't think she thought of him outside of maybe being a friendly customer. Striking while the iron was hot, he replied, “Yeah, I'm fine, just stuck at home this week. No car.” He added a frowny face to complete the message.

The reply was almost instant, “That sucks.”

Seconds seemed to stretch into eternity as Jake felt the potential for a real conversation pouring through his fingers like sand. “Yeah, it wouldn't be so bad if my neighbor wasn't throwing a party across the street.”

“Party?”

The single word response felt like a sudden accusatory stab in Jake's gut. A girl as cool as Gina was probably wondering why he was sitting around scrolling through her Instagram when he could just waltz into the party across the street. Frowning, and doing his best in the limited time frame, Jake shot back, “Yeah, dumb high school party.”

“Ugh, those are the worst. I hated them when I was in high school.”

Jake smirked, suddenly feeling the barest hint of a connection between him and Gina, “Yeah, she like invited me but it was one of those 'don't really come' invites.”

The response came back lightning quick, “Bitch.”

Before Jake could offer anything more, Gina sent him another message, “Want me to go and teach her and all her little friends a lesson?”

Laughing, Jake shot back, “Sure. Maybe you can get them to at least shut up.”

“Cool, what's your address?”

Jake blinked, and whispered quietly to himself, “No fucking way.” before taking the biggest chance he had ever taken in his entire life: he quickly tapped out his address and hit send.

Several long seconds passed and Jake suddenly felt like he had completely blown it.

She was no doubt sharing screenshots of their conversation with her friends, laughing about the stupid high school nerd who thought she was coming over to his place. He shut his eyes tight and cursed quietly to himself as he realized he'd probably never be able to walk into Axe Grinder again while she worked there.

And then his phone buzzed. Opening his eyes ever so slightly he felt them instantly widen as he read the three simple letters she had sent back.

“OMW.”