I grin at the message, walk over to my kitchen, pull a wooden spoon out of the drawer, and take a selfie with it on my head.
Piper: You could have taken that any time. Use a metal spoon.
I grin wider, pull out a metal spoon, and take another selfie for her.
The response dots pop up immediately. My heart flutters. I don’t know exactly what this means, but she’s speaking to me. We are becoming friends. Me and my mate.
Piper: One spoon on your head and two forks left hand.
Me: My left or your left?
Dots blip past.
Piper: Yours.
Piper: Dummy.
I snicker and do what she requested, sending a fourth selfie.
The dots blink at me for what feels like an hour, so I take the initiative.
Me: Any reason for this quest?
Piper: I thought I saw you earlier tonight.
And then before I can respond…
Piper: Can I call you?
Me: Of course.
“Hello?” I pick up the phone on the first ring, too excited to even pretend to play it cool. Why is she calling me? Why tonight?
“Where were you tonight? For real?” She sniffs into the other end of the phone, and my chest tightens. She is crying. Who hurt her? How can I ruin their lives? Hack into their computersand corrupt all their hard drives? Have all their devices regularly forget their Wi-Fi password so they have to log back in every day?
“I’m at home. I have been all evening. What’s wrong, Piper?”
“Okay, okay. Thank you.” Her voice cracks.
“Piper, are you alright?” I ask. “Where are you? Are you safe?”
There is another little sniffle on the other end of the phone.
“Please,” I add. “Piper. Tell me.”
“I’m okay. Everything is fine. I’m…I’m at home. I just thought I saw—” She cuts herself off.
“Saw what?”
“Saw you.” She sniffs and then laughs.
“That made you cry?”
“No. That’s about someone else,” she says very quietly.
“Why are you crying? Who upset you? Are you safe?”
“I ran into Colin.”
