As the votes started to pile up, Ryan liked what he was seeing when it came to the Alps getting the popular vote. He had been in a snowboarding sort of mood lately, and even though their little nook in Colorado saw plenty of snow, it was nothing like carving through the snow in the Alps. It was a hobby over here, but in the Alps it was like a religion over there. As people started to argue for their vote, Ryan zoned out as his role in the conversation was done. All he needed to do was to put his vote in. It wasn’t like he was willing to change his vote or had the desire to change anyone else’s vote. His choice was leading already.
He took a few moments and glanced at Delilah - maybe there was one person he could change after all. Her stupid (and rather cute) attempt at being a drama queen was something that caught his attention. The quarterback rolled his eyes as he saw her react earlier. A lot of people saw her as some diva but Ryan knew that there was something underneath that dramatic shell of hers.
They all had something underneath. Ryan then leaned forward and pulled his phone out, making a few swipes before he was on the new message screen. He then pulled up Delilah’s contact.
‘change ur vote to the alps and make it easier on everyone 😊’
Delilah, still feeling happy after having the saltiest person in her class agreeing with her for the first time since ever, suddenly heard a buzzing. Her emerald eyes landed on her desk where her phone sat, its screen illuminated with the notification of a new text message. Frowning, she took the device in her hand, and upon unlocking it and glancing at the sender’s number she had to hold back an excited squeal. Prince Charming was texting!
Ever since kindergarten, Lila had harbored a crush for the all-American hunk that was Ryan Townsend: from the moment she had entered school at age five in a cute frilly dress with pigtails, and up to this very day at age sixteen. She’d never acted out on said crush (much less tell him about it, of course), but had instead chosen to admire him from a distance. She’d do nice little things here and there for him, like give him an extra cookie on Valentine’s Day or be his faithful cheerleader on all his football games, but nothing
too obvious. However, there was something threatening this perfect fantasy of hers in which Ryan confessed his feelings to her and they lived happily ever after as a happy couple: Madison Nichols.
Why
else would Lila dislike the other young woman so strongly, besides her bitchy, entitled attitude? Ryan and Madi had been close, closer than he and Lila had ever been. And Madi, who had caught up on Lila’s secret crush, simply
loved to rub their friendship in Lila’s face. But ever since the accident happened, Lila had noticed the two had drifted apart. She was not happy about the tragic event that the Nichols had gone through (why would she be happy about something that harmed her own best friend Oli-Bear so badly?), but she couldn’t deny that this separation of sorts had kind of worked in her favor.
But anyway, the fact that Ryan was texting
her and not Madison had to count for something, right? Delilah planned to take full advantage of this.
A small smile appeared on the brunette’s lips as she read Ryan’s text, and she couldn’t help but snort as his weak attempt at getting her to change her vote. Like
she would change her vote to do something she wouldn’t want to do in a million years. She typed up a quick reply and tapped send.
‘I’m not changing anything. You can’t tell me what to do. 💁👸😂’
Then, as an afterthought, she sent another one.
‘YOU change your vote to Italy. Don’t you wanna have some yummy 🍝 and 🍕? 👅’
After having sent her messages, Lila had discreetly glanced up in Ryan’s direction.
Ryan propped his head up as he listened to more and more debate. Some words coming from Jareth as well, who Ryan swore he had never heard speak before. It was a
slight bit of exaggeration, but he and Jar weren’t really that close at all. Still though, it was better than listening to everyone bitching to each other as to why their dumbass caribbean island was better than carving trails in the snow.
Then, his phone vibrated in his pocket, and had “Delilah Duclerc (2)” spread out across the screen. He smiled to himself and unlocked the phone, seeing the two texts that she had sent to him. Since Ryan had gotten his phone, he liked to keep things nice and tidy, which meant that he often deleted message threads. His messages with CR only went back a week, the same went for Desi as well. However, he never deleted the threads with Lila. That went back to the very first text he received from her on his new phone, which was really a while back.
‘why would i want to change it to italy? there’s nothing to do there besides eat and I can do that at home.’
Ryan looked up and tried to see if anyone was noticing what he was doing. The relationship between Lila and Ryan was something that could be considered odd considering their history together. Lila had always been strangely particular to Ryan, not like he minded anyway. He just figured that she considered him as a really good friend of sorts, even though they often went a while without talking. There’d be gaps where she’d talk to him non-stop and then send a word a day. It was nice having someone who blew up his phone daily, but at the same time when there was a lull in communications he didn’t mind much since he had things like football to focus on.
It was good having a cheerleader he could depend on though. The school liked to do this thing where they assigned all the cheerleaders to a player, and Lila had been Ryan’s since the first day of the season for both of them. It was great, especially during a victory in front of the home crowd. Nothing made him feel better than having the crowd behind him, but most of all being able to lift Lila up as the school celebrated. LOL
‘change your vote. there’s more to do in the alps than there is in italy. i’ll teach you how to ski and snowboard if you don’t know how and send your butt down a slope’
Lila’s heart had done a somersault in her chest when she’d seen him give the phone that breathtaking smile that always made her feel all fuzzy inside. She watched as he typed up a reply, while biting her bottom lip and keeping her phone unlocked and open on the conversation. His new message arrived, and it was yet
another request for her to change her vote. Smiling, she gave him a wink and shook her head.
‘no can’t do. I don’t like sports and i don’t like snow, and i refuse to spend my trip on something i a) don’t like and b) can do here at Westworth anyway.’
Once done, she tapped Send again. There was no way she was changing her vote to boring old Alps, no matter how much she liked Ryan.
Ryan’s phone buzzed again and Ryan slipped the phone out of his pocket. Looking at it, it was Lila yet again. He smiled to himself as he read the refusal of his proposal. Why didn’t Lila like snow? A little snow never hurt anyone. Even if you were carving it on a thing of wood, it was still fun to go down. He really did want to go on the snow trip though, mostly because of CR.
‘lila pls if u come thru i’ll make ur hot chocolate or cocoa or whatever girls like nowadays
if u don’t like sports tho… then y do u watch my games?? 👀
you can eat and look at water here too wtf’
Ryan then tried to think of a way he could sweeten the deal for Lila. If Lila changed her vote, then maybe, maybe they’d win.
’i’ll let u wear my jacket if it gets too cold ;)’
’pls’
*insert meme here*
Lila’s phone buzzed in her hand a few times, all incoming messages from Ryan. In the first one, he begs for her to change her vote (
‘Not gonna happen, Ryan, not gonna happen.’), questions her watching his games if she dislikes sports (her cheeks flared up a little at this:
that would be awkward to explain) and again says she can do the same stuff in Italy that she would do here (
WRONG!). The second message was a feeble attempt at bribing her, and the third one was a meme that caused her to hold back some giggles. She wasted no time in firing back.
‘A) My mom makes a great hot cocoa, so I don’t need you to 😛
B) I watch your games to support the team, obvs!
C) We have no coast in Westworth.
D) You don’t need any jackets at THE BEACH 🙌👙🌊🏄
E) Memes will not change my mind. Accept your defeat. 💁’
Ryan saw his phone light up and smiled again as Lila replied.
”Fuckin’ Lila…” And read her rather odd way of responding. It wasn’t like this was a multiple choice question or something like that. He rolled his eyes and began tapping away. He decided to give up anyway. It wasn’t like Italy was going to win.
’your mom isn’t coming with us tho 👀’
’riiiiiiiiight, and i watched women’s volleyball in the olympics for the volleyball’
’we have a pool. water is water.
’accept defeat? my vote is winning idk about yours lmao
Ryan put his phone down momentarily before taking it back in his hands.
’you should meet up with me during lunch, maybe /then/ i can convince you 👀😏
Lila’s phone lit up to a series of messages from Ryan.
‘Why does he have to answer in multiple messages?’ the tiny brunette asked herself. People that sent multiple messages when they can send everything in just one annoyed her. But just when she was about to furiously reply to the avalanche of texts, Remy announced that his vote was going to Italy, and
not the Alps. She let out a small, excited squeal at realizing that Italy was on the lead, and again clapped her hands together. She quickly typed a reply.
‘You were saying…? Italy’s in the lead. 🙌🎉🎈🎊
But yeah, i’ll meet up with you at lunch, so you can help me pick which bikinis i’ll take for those ITALY BEACHESSSSS!!! 🙌👙🌊🏄😌😉😘
She might have got a
bit overboard with the emojis, but the victory of going to Italy on the class trip was closer now, and she HAD to celebrate that!
The phone vibrated in Ryan’s hand again, the dim screen flashing at him as he looked at the message. He was attacked by the flood of yellow, before actually reading the message itself. He smirked at the thought of seeing Lila in a bikini. Lila might’ve been someone he’d known since kindergarten, but bikinis
were bikinis.
’bikinis? sounds good to me 😏’
Ryan sent the message off and put his phone away as he looked up and saw the homeroom teacher shoot him a rather piercing look. He smiled sheepishly as he played off whatever he was doing.