The next day, I woke up early because of my alarm. Then I remembered oh right, early enrollment at school. Before I got ready, I checked if he had replied, since I was the last one to chat, but there was still no reply. So I decided to just message my friends instead.
"Hi girls, have you seen the new post on our school page?" I chatted.
"No, just woke up," Amari said.
"Just saw it, are we going now?" Ophelia said.
"Yes, hopefully so we can finish quickly and it's still early," I replied.
"That's right, so I can see my boyfriend," Amari said.
"You're such a flirt," Ophelia said.
"Enough, you two better get ready," I said.
Ophelia & Amari: "Okay."
By 8 a.m., I went to school. When I arrived, I messaged them again.
"I'm here at school, where are you?" I asked.
"Wait, I'm just about to shower," Amari replied.
"Wow! You just started showering now? What were you doing for an hour?" I asked, annoyed.
"Maybe she's having cuddletime with Josh," Ophelia teased.
"Shut up, you're just making stuff up," Amari said.
"Just hurry and come here while there's no line yet," I said.
"I'll wait for you at the gate, I'm almost there," Ophelia replied.
"Heyyy! Let's line up together," Amari said.
"Fine, line up alone if you're taking too long," Ophelia said.
Finally, Ophelia arrived.
While waiting for Amari, I started talking to Ophelia about Sevi.
"Ophelia, remember the boy I told you about that I met on the dating app? While we were talking, I felt something different for him, you know haha," I said.
"Maybe you should confess, maybe he feels the same," she said.
"I don't want to. What if we stop talking after confessing? Or he rejects me because he has a crush," I said.
"He has a crush?" she asked, surprised.
"Yes, they met before when he did early enrollment too," I said.
"You shouldn't hope for that," Ophelia said.
"Amari is here already."
"You're so late, let's go home with Aurelia," Ophelia joked.
"Really??" Amari asked, surprised.
"No, let's go line up now," I said.
While the three of us were in line, we kept chatting, though we got scolded for being too noisy.
"This line is moving so slowly," Amari complained.
"If you had come early, we wouldn't be waiting like this," Ophelia replied.
After a long wait, we were next in line. After finishing enrollment, we went straight to the mall to relax, since it had been a long time since we hung out together since vacation.
Later that evening, on the way home to avoid staying too late at the mall, I opened my phone. I saw that Sevi had sent a lot of messages.
"Hey, sorry I didn't chat yesterday, my battery died and I fell asleep."
"Are you busy?"
"If you're busy, take your time," Sevi said.
Other messages unsent
"Hello, sorry I wasn't online earlier, I was enrolling with my friends and we hung out too."
"What were the unsent messages?" I asked.
"Hmm, nothing," Sevi said.
"Ah okay, never mind then," I said.
"Ok."
When I saw the unsent messages, a lot ran through my mind.
"What are those unsent messages?"
"What if it was a confession?"
"What if he said not to chat anymore?"
That night, I kept opening the chat over and over.
I tried to ignore the unsent messages, but every notification on the screen reminded me of everything he hadn't said.
I couldn't stop pacing in my room, holding my phone, thinking about what each unsent message could mean.
It felt like he was keeping a secret from me, and I knew I should accept it but my heart couldn't stay calm.
"Why do I feel like this?" I asked myself, staring at the screen.
"It's like excited but also scared."
I wondered if it was normal to feel this mix of happiness and pain.
I was happy because he replied, but scared of what he wasn't saying.
It felt like there was a distance between us, and every minute he didn't reply made that gap feel bigger.
Before I slept, I forced myself to take a deep breath and tell myself it was still early.
"Maybe tomorrow, we can talk properly again," I whispered, pressing my face against the pillow.
But underneath it all, I felt that the night wasn't just for sleeping it was for all the thoughts and feelings I hadn't said yet.