After I finished talking I looked at Venice to see if I’d gotten through to her. Because it was really undeniable that Leo was taking up way too much of her headspace and free time. She took her hair out of her ponytail and shook it. Then she smoothed her thick brown hair into another tail, higher up on her head. She looked like she was still processing everything I’d said. I worried I’d upset her, but I also felt like I had a right to tell her how I really felt. She let out a big sigh.
“I thought you’d finished hating Leo,” Venice finally said.
And that was a hard thing to hear. Because I had told her that I’d stopped hating him. But weren’t hate and annoyance two different things? And didn’t she understand that when it was just the two of us hanging out, we should talk about non-Leo stuff? I wasn’t sure how to tell her this any more clearly than I just had. But I took another crack at it.
“I feel like our friendship always came first.” I held up my pointer finger to communicate the number one. “But now with Leo around I come second.” I raised another finger.
Venice leaned forward and tried to protest but I stopped her.
“Leo totally comes first right now. You ride the bus together, hold hands, pop to each other nonstop, and you talk about him when he’s not even here. And that’s the part that hurts my feelings. Because I’m right here, Venice. It’s me,” I said, aiming my number one and number two fingers back at me. “Your best friend.”
I was surprised when I heard my voice crack. But until this exact moment, with Venice sitting on my bed like old times, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her.
“You need to stop,” Venice said. “You’re making me feel terrible!”
But that only made me feel sadder. Because didn’t she realize that I felt terrible too? I felt my eyes getting hot. I couldn’t stop myself. I started to sniffle. “So I’m not supposed to tell you how I feel?” I asked.
That was when I felt myself tumbling off the bed. Venice had scampered toward me to give me a hug, but I was too close to the edge and had toppled over. I opened my eyes. From my carpet I saw Venice’s concerned face staring down at me.
“Perry, I need to tell you something,” she said. Her ponytail slid over her shoulder and swung gently from side to side. “I feel so crappy.”
I didn’t say anything at first. Because she sure wasn’t behaving like somebody who felt crappy. She was behaving like a person who had a terrific life and felt wonderful about it.
“I feel stuck,” Venice said. “And I don’t know what to do.”
I couldn’t believe I was finally hearing Venice say those words. Because it meant that Venice felt stuck in a relationship with Leo and that she wanted out! And while she might not have known what to do, I sure did. Venice needed to dump him. Right now. In my bedroom. She could use my phone. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
“Don’t look so happy,” Venice said. “I’ve been feeling terrible ever since Leo started planning our Halloween costume. I should’ve talked about this with you sooner.”
Wow. They were going to break up over his awful ideas for Halloween costumes. It was like a dream come true.
“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s probably been an ultra-hard decision for you.”
“It has!” Venice said. “But I really think we can find an outfit that works for all three of us.”
“What?” I asked. Because in my mind, she’d already broken up with Leo. Why would she want him to be part of the costume?
“We’ll have way more fun going as three anyway,” Venice said. “Between Leo’s jokes and your funny comments we’ll be laughing nonstop.”
“I’ll actually be working,” I said. “I’m taking pictures. You’re helping me, remember? I can’t be laughing nonstop—all the pictures will turn out blurry.”
“You know what I mean,” Venice said. “We’ll just have a better time if we’re together. Do you care if I pop Leo and tell him you want to be in a costume with us?”
I crawled from my floor onto my desk chair. My emotions were whipping around inside me at lightning speed. Because for one second I had thought Leo might no longer be a part of my life and I was thrilled. But now I was planning a Halloween costume with him. Venice didn’t even wait for me to respond. She tapped away on her phone with a huge smile.
“I feel so much better,” she said. “What a great talk.”
I heard Mitten Man scratching on my door to get inside.
“Do you mind if I let him in?” I asked. Unlike Venice, who never checked with me about anything anymore, I was still a polite friend.
“He doesn’t have gas tonight, right?” Venice asked, making her stinky face.
“It was only that one time,” I said defensively. “He ate something weird in the kitchen trash.”
Venice continued to tap on her phone. “Sure, then. Okay,” she said with a shrug.
I opened the door to let him in, and noticed my parents in a heated discussion at the kitchen table. I worried it was about the Visa bill. Apparently, my mom had bought an expensive decluttering system for the garage. Which seemed like a rotten idea. Because if we wanted to spend a bunch of money on a system, we shouldn’t put it in such a lousy place.
“Don’t eavesdrop,” my mother said, shooting me a stern look. I slammed the door shut.
When I turned back around I saw that Venice was still popping with Leo. It was insane. My talk. My tears. They hadn’t solved anything. She tried talking to me, but she was totally distracted on her phone.
“So when are you getting PopRat again?” she asked.
I rolled my eyes. It was like she wasn’t paying attention to anything important in my life at all.
“I have to wait for Piper to come and give me and my parents a tutorial. I can’t get PopRat until they do, remember? My mom wants to be in my sewer.”
That snapped Venice back to attention. “I would die if my mom got into my sewer.”
“Don’t say that,” I said. I was excited to be popping at all. I didn’t want to think of the downside of it yet.
“Leo just sent me the funniest picture of his neighbor’s cow,” Venice said, laughing. “Guinea pig filter. Look.”
I didn’t want to look, but I did. And it was pretty hilarious. Which made me mad.
“So you’re waiting for Piper?” Venice asked. “She flakes so much since she started dating Bobby. You might have to wait a month.”
It bugged me that Venice was criticizing my sister. So I stood up for her. “Yeah, boyfriends are terrible and change the people I love into completely different people.”
Venice got my message and put her phone away. “Okay. I’m done. Hey, what if I taught you and your parents how to PopRat?”
“Um,” I said, “don’t we need to work on our report?”
“Yeah, but deep, muddy-bottomed lakes are boring and PopRat is fun. Let’s go ask your parents!”
Venice hopped up and zoomed out of my room.
“Dr. and Mrs. Hall,” Venice said, standing at the kitchen table, “I really want to pop with Perry. And she’s been waiting forever for Piper to show you how to do it. Can I show you guys? Would that be okay? It’s super easy. As long as you remember your phone codes, we shouldn’t have a problem.”
It was pretty obvious to me that neither of my parents was interested at that exact moment in downloading PopRat and learning how to use it. But Venice didn’t let up.
“We’re pretty busy,” my mom said, tapping on the checkbook.
“Look at this,” Venice said. She lifted her phone and showed them the guinea-pigged cow. “It’s hilarious, right? Perry would make the funniest pops. Can you imagine?”
Leo hadn’t just made Venice a terrible friend. He’d also turned her into a terrible listener. My parents had said they were busy.
“That is pretty funny,” my dad said, leaning in closer to inspect the cow. “Maybe we could use the break.”
My mother sighed and rubbed her eyes.
“I’ll make it
fun,” Venice said. “I promise it will be quick.”
And poof. It happened. Venice helped us download PopRat.
“Okay,” she said. “You’ll need to pick your usernames and then we’ll sync your address books for contacts. Or you can add them one by one, which I don’t recommend. Total nightmare waste of time.”
My mother looked at Venice when she said that. “I’m sure most of my contacts aren’t on PopRat,” she said.
“Mrs. Hall, I think you’ll be surprised.”
I picked PhotoKilla, which my parents objected to initially, but then agreed to after Venice convinced them it sounded strong and offered me a bunch of anonymity.
“I’m BlabBlab1 and Leo is BlabBlab2,” Venice said like it was no big deal.
Really, it was pretty crushing that they were matching their usernames. Because those things lasted forever. Once you picked it, you couldn’t change it. I’d read it myself in the PopRat Frequently Asked Questions page. My mother decided to use her middle name and add something she thought was hip: Mindy4Real. And my dad went full-on dentist: DrFang.
“And you both want to be added to PhotoKilla’s sewer, right?” Venice asked.
“I’d prefer we referred to her as Perry in real life,” my mom said.
“Right,” Venice said, tapping away.
“Add me to her nest, not her sewer,” my dad said.
I was bummed he’d remembered that. It made me nervous to think that my parents would be seeing every single incoming pop. It was like they didn’t trust me at all.
“So it looks like you’ve added thirty-four contacts,” Venice told my mom. “And you’ve added fifty-eight,” she told my dad. “And you’ve added one hundred and nine.”
“What?” my mother asked with a gasp.
“Because of her job at school she’s got a metric ton of contacts,” Venice said.
“How many do you have?” my mom asked her.
“Over two hundred,” Venice said. “But I’ve been popping for a month. And almost none of those contacts are in my sewer or my nest. They’re just contacts. Make sense?”
My parents both nodded. Then Venice slowly led them through sending their first pops to each other. And then to me.
“Please keep it simple,” I said. “I’m either putting it in my nest or my sewer. People might see these.”
After my phone buzzed and I saw the messages I just stared at them.
“You have to put them somewhere,” Venice said.
I quickly swiped them both into my sewer.
“And they just stay in there forever?” my mom asked.
“You can flush them after twelve hours. But you only get two flushes a week,” Venice said.
“Why?” my dad asked.
“Probably so people don’t overflush and get rid of posts before people in your sewer get a chance to read them. Less flushing is better for your community.”
I felt myself yawning. PopRat had lots of layers.
“See,” my dad said, gesturing with his phone toward my mom, “this will be useful for us. We’ll pop instead of text.”
“Yeah, barring my need to send you pictures of people and objects behaving like guinea pigs, I don’t see this replacing texting for me at all,” my mom said.
“I bet you get addicted!” Venice said cheerfully.
My mom looked disgusted by that comment. “Doubtful,” she said.
“It’s late,” my dad said. “Have you two made headway on your project?”
“Some,” I said, trying not to think about all the research I still had to do. When I’d picked the lake I thought researching a secret submarine-testing area would be fun. But there were way fewer articles about it than other things, like potatoes, which weren’t secret and were globally loved and devoured.
“You’ve got to get up early for your skating adventure tomorrow,” my mom said.
“It’s going to be such a blast!” Venice said.
Didn’t Venice get tired anymore? It was like having a boyfriend had changed her into somebody who was always excited and didn’t require sleep.
“Get a good night’s sleep, PhotoKilla,” my dad said.
“She’s Perry at home,” my mom corrected.
“Night, Mrs. Hall. Night, Dr. Fang,” Venice said, giggling. “Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. ‘Dr. Fang’ is hilarious.”
Venice kept giggling all the way to my room. I got a little bit excited when I felt my phone buzz, until I realized it was just her sending me crazy pops.
“I need to brush my teeth,” I said. I kept hearing my phone buzz, but I was too nervous to bring it near the sink and look at it. I didn’t want to accidentally drop it in water. Finally, my life had PopRat in it. I was connected. And I had 109 contacts to prove it. My life had turned a corner and I wasn’t going to risk ruining it.
I woke up super early, even before Mitten Man, even before the sun rose. All I kept thinking about was Drea and Hayes. Just like I’d been more honest with Venice, I felt like I needed to be more honest with both of them. They couldn’t just keep showing up in my life wherever and whenever they wanted. They were bumming me out in a serious way. While Venice was still sleeping, I crawled out of bed. At five o’clock in the morning, I did something I should have done weeks ago. I got out my phone and sent Drea and Hayes some super-sincere pops.
I scrolled through my contacts. Drea had picked a terrible username: HotdogGrl. For somebody trying to shed an embarrassing Internet puking experience, she seemed pretty okay reminding the world about it every time she popped. As I typed out my message, I wasn’t sure I could say everything that I needed to in one pop. But I tried.
After I sent it, I realized that pop felt a little bit rude. And it also didn’t really say everything I meant to say. So I tried again.
Two pops and my Drea problem was done. Over. Fixed. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to solve it. And I’d solved it for Piper too. Sure, Piper hadn’t complained about her yet, but eventually that would’ve happened. Drea had a problematic personality. She was way too forward and needy. I glanced over at Venice, but she was still sleeping. So I turned my attention to Hayes.
I didn’t really understand his username: HACanoe. But I wrote to him anyway. Because I didn’t need to have a crush. I really didn’t. And I was going to tell him that as politely as I could.
Just like after I sent Drea her first pop, I got worried that maybe I’d been too harsh, or said what I meant to say wrong. So I sent Hayes another pop really quickly.
Sending those pops made me feel a tiny bit anxious. Because I wasn’t sure I’d said things the right way to Hayes. I really truly didn’t want to hurt his feelings. But I also didn’t want to deal with him anymore. It would have been okay if he’d crushed on me from a distance, but his trip to Fro-yo Unicorn had been the last straw, even if Javier had invited him. Then a great idea struck me. Just in case Hayes read my pops and decided to call me, I needed to give his number a special ringtone so I knew to never answer his calls. And the perfect song jumped into my head. It was a song Piper sang in the car at red lights: “Stressed Out” by Twenty-One Pilots. The lyrics didn’t make much sense to me, but the beat felt perfect.
Then I thought about sending pops to Javier too, letting him know I was sick of his tasks, but I was suddenly feeling sleepy again. And I had so much skating to do in a few hours. I figured I could write that one later. So I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew, Venice was gently shaking my shoulder.
“We need to get ready,” she said. “We have to pick out our outfits. Zipper-braid my hair. And eat breakfast and it’s almost ten.”
Our lives were so jam-packed. So we hurried as fast as we could, and even though I had watched four tutorials, zipper-braiding Venice’s hair was only a partial success.
“It feels really loose,” she said as we sat in the backseat of my dad’s Camry.
“It doesn’t look loose,” I said. Even though some of the bottom loops did seem a little unsecured.
It
was rare that both my mom and dad drove me someplace together, let alone Venice, but that was exactly what happened that day.
“We’ll be browsing at the bookstore,” my dad said. “Pop us when you’re done.”
“You actually don’t pop people,” Venice corrected. “You send pops.”
“However you want to say it,” my dad said. “Transmit us pops when you’re finished.”
“Right,” I said. I liked that my ride wasn’t going to be too far away. Considering everyone who was going to the rink, it was nice to think that I could flee the scene whenever I wanted.
“Venice, if you need a lift we can do that too,” my mom said.
She climbed out of the car and smiled. “Thanks, but I’m set.” Then she spotted Leo and screamed. “Leo!”
I watched her run to him as he stood leaning against the bright-blue rectangular building. I climbed out of the car too and stood beside my dad’s rolled-down window.
“I’m sure they’ve got their transportation all figured out already. Couples are like that,” I said.
My dad shook his head. “I can’t believe Venice has a boyfriend.” Then he gave me a concerned look, like he was asking me with his eyes to never get a boyfriend.
“I don’t even like anybody right now,” I told him.
He broke into a small smile. “Have a good time.”
“And don’t get stunty,” my mom said. “I want you to come home unbroken.”
“Don’t worry,” I said as I waved goodbye. It was like my mom didn’t know me at all sometimes. I had no desire to engage in risky, bone-breaking behavior at a skating rink.
When I walked inside I felt a little bit nervous about crossing paths with Hayes. Luckily, I didn’t see him around. Venice and Leo had already put on their skates and they rushed right over to where I was renting mine.
“Did you see that Hayes gave us free snack coupons?” Venice asked. “He’s so awesome.”
That was actually really nice of him. I glanced around.
Totally Crushed Page 11
