I smile at the little ghosts being all cute together, but the number of likes and comments makes me a little nervous. I click over to Heaven’s page and see that she’s up to seventy-five followers. I start scrolling, and for the most part things are pretty chill. Of course @Cara_Cats47 thinks “its ugly, sorry.” And @Momojijo thinks Heaven “ruined a perfectly good cast.” My stomach gets all tight as I keep scrolling. Who cares what these people think? I love my cast and I love that Heaven took her time with it.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Mom says, walking into my room. I drop my phone and start shucking out of my clothes. I don’t want to get my otter chinos wet.
“Mom, how come you don’t delete negative comments?”
“I do.”
“You leave a lot up, though. You only delete the real nasty ones. Why don’t you delete them all?”
“It’s not good for engagement,” she says as we walk into my bathroom. “People get all pissy when you try to control the comments section, so you gotta just let it ride. It’s a part of the job.”
I just let out a deep breath, biting the inside of my lip. I get what she’s saying, but something about it doesn’t sit right with me. And what makes me feel worse is that Heaven is going to see those comments too. I don’t think having her feelings hurt should be a part of any job, no matter how many followers it gets her.
25
Heaven
The next couple days go by pretty fast. Saylor’s been over my house every day. We’re in no hurry to hit bingo before we even make it into July, but since we had all the tie-dye stuff, we figured we could use it. We had a shockingly good time. Especially after I got Saylor’s cast all wrapped up with a garbage bag. We dyed a couple shirts for ourselves and for our parents. Saylor reluctantly made shirts for her sisters, but she figured it would be a nice gift for them when they come back from camp.
We’ve kissed three more times, and we’ve been hugging and cuddling a lot, which is absolutely fine by me. We haven’t talked any more aboutus, but I’m also fine with that. I have no clue what to say, and it feels like if one of us actually brings it up, a witch will appear and tell us how we’ve broken the rules of keeping it cool in your first relationship and we’ll both be banished to the land of no smooches. Okay, maybe I need to give my imagination a break.
Really, I’m just scared if I say something, it’ll ruin this kind of lightning magic between us, so I’m just seeing how this goes and praying Saylor wants to keep kissing. And I’min a pretty good place until Saylor drops a bomb on me. She’s leaving for Santa Barbara tomorrow. It’s only for a week, so they can spend Fourth of July with her mom’s sister. Still, we’ve been spending so much time together, it’s gonna suck not seeing her for that many days.
We’re FaceTiming now, though, stealing some time before she has to finish packing. I never thought I’d be one of those girls hiding in their covers, talking with their crush on the phone, but here we are.
“Your cheek looks better,” I say. “I noticed earlier, but I forgot to tell you. How does it feel?”
“Good. It’s been itchy a little, but my doctor said that’s just a sign that it’s healing. Mom got a referral for a plastic surgeon, but I just want to leave it. It’s a scar, not a character flaw,” she says. My heart warms hearing her so resolved, and I also kinda want to fight her mom and her doctor for making it sound like she’s anything other than gorgeous.
“You’re right. Besides, scars are cool. You’re living life, you know, and you’ll always have a cool story.”
“I am not telling anyone that I ran face-first into a fence.” She laughs. “But you’re right. I think I look fine. I just want it to stop itching.”
“It’ll be all healed up before you know it. And you look more than fine.”
“Yeah?” she says, tucking her chin against her shoulder.
“Mm-hmm,” I reply, not sure which words would be right in this moment. I have a sonnet in my head about her beauty, but it might be a little too much.
“Thank you. You look more than fine too. And thank godfor Fosters Healing Ointment, the number one medicated ointment in America. With its healing magic, I should be back to normal in no time,” Saylor says.
“Oh man, you still have to film the after video.”
“I know, my mom reminded me when she was looking through our makeover pics again. She said she already sent an account manager a picture of my dyed hair and they said it was actually better because it adds to the impact of the after. Like Fosters Healing Ointment suddenly made me look a hundred times cooler.”
“Okay, that’s pretty funny. You were right to pick that color. I really like it,” I tell her. “Oh, I got a handful of followers from your cast post and some nice comments. I had a few crappy ones, but I just said ‘Thank you for your comment’ under each one.”
“Oh my god. That’s amazing.” Saylor laughs.
“I mean I almost cried and barfed first, but I’m really trying to show Miss Kelly I can handle this.”
“You can! You’re doing a great job. I mean a couple weeks ago you were freaking out just thinking about having an account and now look. You’ve been posting a bunch and you’re getting more followers. Followers who don’t tell you how ugly you are since you’ve changed your hair,” Saylor replies.
“Yeah, that’s not cool. Are you okay?” I ask her.
“Yeah. I’m fine. People suck, but that’s not why I’m bummed. I wanna see my aunt and my cousins, but I wanna hang out with you,” Saylor says, her voice dipping into a whisper at the end.
“I wanna hang out with you too,” I say instead of telling her I think I’m going to miss her so much I might cry.