Page 33 of Texts From My Exes
Every frame was like pouring gasoline, and every look he gave me was striking a match. It was only a matter of time before it all went boom.
“Harper,” Ezra said leaning against doorway, a note of warning in his voice. “You really don’t have to?—”
“Upload it?” I clickedexportlike it was the laptop’s fault. “Oh, I think I do.”
“Be rational.”
Not. The thing. To say. I spun in my chair. “I just got walked in on by my parents while I was literally on my knees with your—” I waved vaguely toward his crotch “—situation making an unscheduled appearance, Ezra. Rational left the building ten minutes ago.” Rational wasn’t a word I was familiar with at this point. How did this all go south so fast?
His jaw worked. “You’re mad about Lila, then?”
I barked a laugh. “I’m mad about a lot of things. Lila is just the bow on top of the gift basket of my rage of your many lies,EzraWyatt Park.” The hell! I was best friends with a former YouTube prodigy! Shouldn’t he have led with that instead of a goofy missed high five in our English Lit class followed by talking about his spreadsheet like it was his girlfriend over ice cream?
He stepped closer, dropping his voice. He reached out, then jerked his hand back like he was afraid to touch my computer. “If you post that, you can’t take it back.”
I met his eyes, felt the heat of them, and hated that part of me still wanted to kiss him. Best friend. He was my best friend, not this part he was playing, and clearly there was still a shit ton I didn’t know about him. “Good.”
And then I hitpost. Was it mildly aggressive? Yes. Did I potentially bruise my finger form it and become the first person in history to do so with a laptop? Possibly. But it was posted. Done. Our date—my date with the perfect man who actually does exist but got away, Vex, my actual not ex, but best friend and semi famous content creator. What. Could. Go. Wrong.
Ha, ha, ha. And God laughs…
The little progress bar slid across the screen and then the wheel of death took possibly one second before boom, finishing, done.
Within five minutes, my notifications exploded. Hearts. Comments. Shares. It was quite possibly my first out of body experience.
And then?—
Omg is that EZRA WYATT??
No way, that’s Vex! Did she know? Is Vex his nickname?
NO. WAY. He changed his name so she’d see the real him first! Why didn’t they work out? She’s dumb.
Throwback to when he played Jace inMidnight Ashes—I still cry over that finale, I mean for a YouTube short it was hella good, I thought he was signed on for like two more movies?
Wait—wasn’t he in rehab?
I would sell a vital organ to see him as a vampire in any movie.
The comments multiplied. Old clips of him surfaced—movies, interviews, red carpet photos from YouTube awards. His Wikipedia page screenshot. Paparazzi shots with women I’d never seen before all smiling and high fiving him sans glasses, sans everything, back when he really was a star back before he even knew who I was, back before the neon glasses and laptop love affairs.
The tone in the room immediately shifted.
How did that girl even meet him?
She’s not even famous.
He can do better.
The knot in my stomach tightened until it felt like I was growing a boulder.
Across the room, Ezra’s phone started ringing. He didn’t look at it. He just looked at me.
“Told you,” he said quietly. “And for the record, I didn’t think people would care enough to recognize me that much, I mean, to be fair, you’re my best friend in the entire world, you see me every day and you never did.”
A stabbing pain sliced through me because he was right. I did see him every day, and yet, clearly. I hadn’t really looked, had I?
CHAPTER
