Cybernetic Pizza

“If you send this to twenty four people in the next twenty four hours, you will have good luck for the rest of your life and the next person who knocks on your door will be your destined partner. If you send this to twelve people in the next twenty four hours, you will have seven years of good luck and will find your destined partner in seven years. If you don’t send this to anyone you will forever be a cursed spinster.” She promptly clicked on delete, “Stupid chain mails...”

She really, really disliked them, and never saw the point in people sending them; there was just absolutely no way they could be real, not even if they were sent by Walter Mercado’s own e-mail.

She was so going to give Stella a piece of her mind for spamming her inbox.

Unfortunately her friend wasn’t logged in, so Sabrina decided she could wait till the next day at school to politely demand she did not receive any more of those annoying junk mails.

Of course, she knew Stella would keep them coming; at the same time, Sabrina’s bugging annoyed her friend, so at least the two of them would go down together.

The about to graduate, high school senior girl went back to work on what possibly was her last history assignment in her life. The D Day topic was quite interesting, if she could admit so to herself, as well as terribly sad and scary, considering how the thought of living during a world war was completely foreign for her, but hopefully she wouldn’t have to broach the subject ever again; after all, she was going to major in math in college, and unless they drilled the history of algebra into her head, history was done for her after that one homework.

She cracked her knuckles and continued typing her assignment, occasionally checking if the background information she was adding was correct, if an important date was missing or if a name underlined in red by Microsoft’s Word was misspelled.

Murphy’s Law dictates though, that when you’re most absorbed by an activity that needs concentration it will be snapped by an outer stimulus, and it will piss you off.

For Sabrina this happened in the form of her house door bell ringing.

She ground her teeth and waited, looking back up the stairs behind her as if her brother would magically appear and get the door.

But... nothing. Trust him to not make a sound when needed; otherwise he’s radio transmitter with legs.

“Sam!” She called, still giving him one last chance. Only a crashing sound answered back, and when the ringing bell sounded again she saw herself with no other choice but get the door herself. “Stupid Samuel.”

Was he this lazy with his college lectures?

“Pff, surely.” That would explain why he was flunking a couple of them.

Annoyed, she put the family’s laptop on the coffee table, and made a point to childishly drag her feet to the door, spreading it open with more force than needed.

And then, her jaw dropped.

There in front of her stood a dashing young man, maybe only slightly older than her brother. He was wearing a lovely beige cardigan, paired with a carefully side swept hairdo; the combination made him look enticingly sophisticated, and Sabrina couldn’t help but ogle with all her might.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he flashed her a pair of dimples that took her breath away, but –again, Murphy’s Law applied on the practice- at that second her brother descended down the stairs with his usual loud, chaotic step and landed next to her.

“Who are you?”

The gorgeous man’s smile fell down, “Uh, I-”

Even worse, at that second both siblings turned their attention to a waving hand right next to the man’s head. It was tied to a neon blue, overall-covered arm that led to a torso with the words Pizza Pizza written across.

Samuel whistled, “At fucking last man, I’ve been waiting for half an hour already! You know what that means-”

Sabrina’s mouth closed, then her lips pursed. The arm across the other side of the Pizza Pizza sign was somehow balancing a large square box that smelled suspiciously of pepperoni, its hand glued to the wall right next to the bell’s button.

Her eyes squeezed shut the moment an obnoxiously familiar voice said, “Not true dude. Look, only twenty five minutes late.”

No flipping way-

“Excuse me,” twenty first century knight in expensive armour spoke, and their attention turned to him, “Is this where Camilla Parker lives?”

Camilla Parker Bowles?

Sabrina’s fantasy of getting it on with the beautiful man crashed and burned at that second; he was either insane, looking for added-royalty in her house, or was simply looking for someone with a much different name than hers.

For a second she wished the chain mail was true.

She opened her mouth to dejectedly send him away when Sam cut in, “No man, that’s two doors down.”

The perfect specimen smiled a bit, “Oh, alright, thank you. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Without further ado he turned away, leaving her completely alone... and smelling of American, Italian-impersonator grease.

“Can you pay for me, sis?” Her brother asked, offering her a cute smile that ceased to work on her about ten years back, “I’m short on cash right now.”

The delivery guy –someone she sadly knew well- grinned at him, “Take your time, I don’t mind.”

Of course he didn’t, she was sure he took that particular order only to-

“Besides, this way I can spend a bit more time with Sabrina.”

She knew it!

She endured his puppy look –which always reminded her of an English Toy Spaniel Sam and she had when they were kids- for a moment before tightening her resolve to talk to him as less as she could. It was payback after his nagging for weeks about Prom!

“Ugh, I’ll go get the money, wait here.” She turned around and headed up the stairs, into her room. She checked to see Sam hadn’t followed, and went to get her secret money stash from under the bed. She guessed the place wasn’t the most original hiding spot, but it had worked to keep Sam’s grabby hands away from her cash for years. Not to mention, he was mentally challenged enough so that he never thought of looking there.

When she walked back down she found the two nimrods animatedly talking in the kitchen; her brother was already digging in, thing that was considerably rude taking into account she was the one paying. But she was used to it.

What she could never adapt to was Nathan, also known as Nay –she never called him as such, though-, all around complete pest who worked part time delivering pizzas to fulfil his dream; or so he claims when asked.

“Sab!”

Her jaws tightened again, “Don’t call me that. How much is it?”

She did not like the way his caramel coloured eyes sparkled, “For you, only a yes.”

“For the millionth time, I’m already going with Landon!”

“Who’s Landon?” Her brother asked to Nathan.

The latter grimaced, “Her boyfriend.”

Sam turned a mean glare onto her, and that was enough to feed her up. She threw some money at Nathan’s hands without really checking the amount. “Take the change and leave. Now!”

“Aw but Sab, I wanted to spend some more time with-”

“Now!”

Seeing that she was really, incredibly upset, he seemed to decide his chatty time was over, and walked to the door –much too leisurely for Sabrina’s taste-, giving her a fake sad glance back before disappearing into the night.

At that second she earnestly hoped he could disappear from her life with the same ease.

“So, what’s this about you having a boyfriend, and why didn’t I know?”

The girl groaned; now on her strike list were Stella and Nathan.

--

The next day at school, Sabrina determinedly walked down the entire hall to find her friend. Silly as it may be, she had not forgotten the chain mails grudge, and she was looking forward to starting her nagging as soon as humanly possible.

It was probably a better idea to start during class, God knows Mr. Callaghan was boring enough to tempt students into finding a distraction, but Stella’s locker was on the way to the classroom, so it was better to get on with it sooner than later. The problem was that walking against the masses wasn’t very easy, least of all for someone as short as Sabrina, but she’d make do.

Not one minute late she was bumped against with enough force to send her back flat on her ass; however, a wall behind her stopped her from suffering such feat –and her possible demise, due to the high possibility of being stepped on while on the floor-.

The strange thing was that the wall was sort of... moving, and it was quite warmer than bricks and paint should be. She strained her neck enough to look up and met a familiar face that never ceased to cause a reaction –even if it was only a sneer-.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Is that how you thank your saviour?” Nathan asked, showing his best English Toy Spaniel look –he refused to accept he didn’t look adorable as he intended-.

She noticed his larger hand on her shoulder steadying her, and she immediately unglued herself from him. “Whatever, thanks I guess.”

Sadly, as she had expected he started following her around. Or maybe it was the fact that they had the same class next. “So, are we looking for your lover boy?”

“Er, no...” Maybe she should? Thanks to his question she could now spot couples here and there all over each other, whispering mushy nothings to each other’s ear that she was sure were about how much they’d miss each other come fall. And here she was pouring all her attention on a stupid grudge. But anyway, she needed to take care of that first; she was sure Landon wouldn’t mind if she lavished him with attention at lunch. “Have you seen Stella?”

“Hmm,” he tapped his stubbly chin, “I think I saw her right up ahead.”

“Great, thanks. See you later.” She briskly renewed her pace with the hopes of getting rid of him; unluckily, his much longer legs provided him with enough speed to catch up with her.

“So,” she heard him muse over the noises around them, “Why aren’t you sucking your boy toy’s face?”

Sabrina half gasped, half spluttered for a second before turning around, giving him a thoroughly offended look, “Who the hell gave you the right to talk to me like that?”

“Lets see...” He started dramatically with a little lopsided smirk, “Thirteen years of knowing each other?”

Her lips pursed; almost abruptly she spun around, “Have a good day.”

Of course, he had to hold her back and stop her from making her grand exit, but did he really need to put his paw on top of her head like that? People were staring!

And what was up with his solemn expression?

“Seriously Sab, ditch him and go to Prom with me.”

“No!” She slapped his hand away and sneaked around some groups of people, finally managing to lose him.

The nerve of that guy; he was still insisting even after she hooked up with Landon two months ago. Was he really that stupid-

Yes, he was. There was no point in wondering otherwise.

Fortunately for her it didn’t take her that much longer to find Stella, although the bell rang already so that meant she couldn’t bitch about to her heart’s content.

Upon seeing her face her friend asked, “What’s got you so pissed?”

“You,” Sabrina said, pushing her friend to the classroom none too nicely. “Would you stop sending me junk mails already? That’s called spamming, and no one loves it.”

“Hmm,” Stella completely ignored what she said and instead asked, “Is that really all?”

Hell if it was all! But she didn’t want to talk about it; that would just make her feel angrier, not to mention Mr. Callaghan was already opening his yap.

Naturally Nathan had to come in late and publically shoot a wink her way.

As Sabrina tried to sink farther into the seat Stella turned to her nodding in understanding, “Nay, I see.”

--

Finally the much awaited night of the high school gala came. There was not one person who wasn’t thrilled about the party; comments and rumours had roamed free through the halls about who was going to be King or Queen, with strangely more interest on the former. Landon was running for it, and even if Sabrina wasn’t gunning for the Queen’s crown she was really excited for her boyfriend...

The one who was much too late to pick her up.

Her mum and dad were giving her these looks she refused to meet; it had been a while since they stopped snapping pictures of her jade green frock. Sam on the other hand kept constantly checking his watch, giving her the feeling he was also waiting, and if she could judge by the look on his face, blood would run if Landon came to pick her up and Sam was the one to open the door.

However, after another hour even Sam got tired of waiting and went away. Sabrina didn’t want to get more pitying looks, and still hopeful she got out of the house and sat on the doorsteps. Her dress was sure to get stained, but it was better than being inside with that stuffy atmosphere.

She tried to arrange the skirt so it wouldn’t wrinkle too much, and placed her elbows on her knees. A ringing sound alerted her about receiving a text message, and she rushed to see if it came from Landon.

Instead, it was Stella’s, “Why aren’t you here girl? This partay is bangin’!”

She was slightly surprised that her friend purposely mistyped two words; usually her text messaging was impeccable, since she was opposed to the butchering of the English Language. That only served to make her think she was really having fun, and didn’t want to spend that much time on texting when she could spend it dancing.

Sabrina sighed at that; she certainly wasn’t having fun, and had all the time in the world to reply a paragraph long text in proper fashion if she so desired.

The truth was that she didn’t.

She checked the clock of her cell phone; he was late by two hours. The party had started at about three hours ago, which meant there wasn’t really that much time left for it on the school gym. People surely were going to carry on their fun to other places... and she was going to miss it completely because her idiot boyfriend –ex after this- stood her up.

She bit her lower lip; she could’ve called him, after all, he might have suffered an accident or an emergency might have come up. But he didn’t even give her a ring either, so why bother?

At this point of the night she didn’t feel like going back inside and facing all the hell her family was sure to raise, so she forgot all about keeping her gown pretty and all but lied down on the grass. She hoped the jade green of it and the grass’ own shade could blend together and make her disappear, at least for a while, so she wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of being dumped that way.

A voice in her mind kept reminding her that it would pass, and in a few years she would barely remember the face of the sucker –and there would only be enough memory of it to recognize him on the street and sock him one-.

Another voice kept telling her I told you so, and it sounded a lot like Nathan’s.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and put her hands on her ears as though she could drown her mind’s chatter that way. Tears begun pouring down unbridled, and stopping them was impossible if she didn’t want to.

She was entitled to some weeping, wasn’t she?

And also, she was in all her right to beat Landon up the next time she saw him. She was sure Sam would want to help.

Suddenly the smell of pepperoni and olive oil drifted to her nose, and she frantically wiped her face even before she dared to open her eyes. In the end, she knew the heat radiating towards her face came from a fresh pizza just out of the oven that was being supported by the same hand that caught her a week ago in the hallway.

“What’s wrong Sab? I thought you were already at the dance.” Still, she stubbornly tried to ignore him by facing the opposite way. “What are you doing, you’re going to ruin your dress if you keep rolling over the grass.”

He was such a girl, worrying about her damned dress. “Leave me alone.”

Of course he didn’t, but it took a few blessedly silent minutes until he opened his pie hole again, “Did he pull a move on you or something?”

Technically, yes. But at the same time there was no chance for Landon to even try if he didn’t take her to the bloody dance. “No, no he didn’t.”

“Hmm,” there he was again, thinking like whatever he was going to say next might save her life. “I see. Then did he...”

“You don’t even need to finish,” she sat up, groaning at the fact that her back was stiff. She pointedly ignored the way he was looking at her and asked, “What about you, why are you working tonight?”

“I had no one to go to Prom with,” he said easily.

“What, don’t tell me I was your only choice,” Sabrina scoffed and stood up, brushing small leaves off her butt with the same offhanded way as she spoke.

“Actually, yeah you were.”

This time that did make her glance his way; he was still on his knees, looking up at her intently with his usual puppy Spaniel eyes. To someone walking by he would look like he was proposing to her, and the greasy cardboard box held the ring inside.

If that were the case, the ring was dripping.

“Um, I think there’s a pizza you have to deliver,” he looked down, his expression changing to that of surprise.

“Crap, I forgot! Your brother’s going to get it for free!”

He sprung to his feet and dashed to the door, ringing the bell repeatedly without looking once back at her.

Sabrina frowned as she watched him fret by the door; he looked concerned about the delivery, mainly because if he didn’t dump it on the client’s hands in thirty minutes he would have to pay for it himself. But at the same time, it seemed to her like he was avoiding her now.

Was that because of what he just said?

She snorted, “You’re so weird.”

The boy’s head whipped towards her a second before the door was opened roughly. Sabrina’s mouth parted as she saw her brother grab Nathan by the collar of his overall and slam him against the wall; the pizza met the floor with a deaf thud.

“What the fuck?”

“Oh,” Samuel blinked before releasing the choking hold; the younger boy coughed and tried to fix his clothes, “Sorry man, I thought you were another bastard.”

“Another? I’m not a- Holy cow, the pizza!”

Both of them looked down between them and saw the gooey mess they made; Sabrina noticed her hands had been raised up, and she quickly put them down. The last she wanted was for Nathan to think she wanted to defend him, or something –even if it was not his fault he almost got a free nosejob-.

“Aw man, there goes dinner!” Sam threw his hands up in the air and very unreasonably said, “It’s all your fault!”

Nathan gasped and pointed at himself, “How is this my fault?”

“You rang the bell when I was expecting someone else!”

“What the- How do you expect me to know-”

Sabrina rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, “You two, knock it off-”

“But he-”

“Shut up and pay Samuel, it’s your fault.”

The older boy glared for a minute. Sabrina glared him down even harder until he yielded, “Fine!”

Then he went back in, banging the door in his wake.

“Damn, he’s so stupid,” she said, tumbling upon the floor as though she was exhausted, which, in a way she was.

“Who, your brother or Landon?”

Now she was the one doing the looking up as Nathan approached; he was facing the other way, though.

“Both, I guess.” She shrugged, even though he didn’t see her. “I suppose I should’ve seen it coming. I mean, like you said, I wasn’t all over him like I probably should have.”

He looked at her then with a disgusted face, “All over who, Samuel?”

“Landon!”

Staring at each other’s completely freaked out faces turned out to be quite funny, and after a few minutes they were laughing at themselves without many reservations. Laughing while feeling down was a melting pot of emotions in her, and the next second she was crying again, and hiccupping because her throat was working over time.

Nathan next to her patted her back somewhat awkwardly, every few minutes muttering, “Whoa...”

She couldn’t blame him; it wasn’t like she was making much sense of herself either.

On the plus side she got fed up of the wailing pretty quickly, so she sat next to him wheezing for a little while, thankful for him not spitting a word, thing that still got her a little surprised.

She used her stupid dress to clean up her face, catching him looking at it with pity. “Don’t worry, it’s not like it’s ever going to be used again.”

“But still, it must have cost a lot...”

It did, and it was all for that moron.

She sighed, “Whatever.”

His lips made a smacking sound when he opened his mouth, “Look, I know this isn’t going to be of much help, but try not to let him get to you. He’s not worth it.”

Even in her pitiful state the tone of his voice didn’t go unnoticed to her; when she looked his way he was hiding his face again. “What?”

“What?” He asked back, now turning to her. At least it got the desired effect.

“What’s up with you?”

His brown eyes blinked a couple of times, and he tilted his head to the side. She guessed right when a second later the Spaniel look was back, “My CPU is not processing.”

“Ugh,” Tired of the game playing she bluntly asked, “Are you now avoiding me because you admitted I was your only choice?”

His face turned the other way with lightning speed, “What- No, why would I do that?”

“Why would you, really?” She hummed much the same way as he used to; it didn’t work as well when a hiccup came at the same time and she chocked a little. His hand was back on her back, giving it light taps and lingering when she calmed down. For some reason he wasn’t removing it; for another she wasn’t biting the limb off like she normally would have.

She wanted to peg it on the depressing mood.

“You’re being weird,” she said at last, “You’re avoiding looking at me, and yet you’re still here.”

After a small pause he said, “Well yeah, Sam hasn’t come with the money. I’m not going back without it.”

At that she did slap his arm away, shamefully hurt that he didn’t say something ridiculous like... he was there for her, or something. Although, just why would she want Nathan to say something like that?

She shook her head a little to herself and sighed, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll pay for the damaged goods and you’ll go back right away, okay? I’m tired and I want to go to bed, so...”

Her voice drifted when she turned to look at him; his face was surprisingly very close to hers, and this time the Spaniel’s look was working.

“I just... can’t believe how you let yourself be used by that motherfucker,” he said, making her grind her teeth. She had to agree, but it wasn’t like she wanted the fact to get rubbed on her face! He must’ve seen her thoughts reflected on her face when his eyes softened a little, “He doesn’t deserve you at all.”

“Then who does?” She sounded a little defiant, as if her cynic mode had been activated full blast after the whole night’s ordeal. Who knows? After this she might be inclined to believe no one was deserving of her affection. It was a better escape goat than thinking there was something wrong with her every time she was dumped.

She could so imagine that little douchebag dancing away with some blonde-

“I do.”

Whoa, what?

“I do,” he repeated with a bit more confidence, “I had kind of thought that maybe I stood a chance after knowing each other for so long but... you kept pushing me away, even after this asswipe waltzed into your life.”

Once more her mouth formed an o-shape.

“But- But I thought you were joking all along!”

Damn, trust him to be able to stupefy her!

He snorted, a little smirk curling his lips up, “Yeah, you’d think I was joking, especially when I’ve been saving money for the past two years to go to UPenn with you. Har, har, what a big, fat joke.”

Holy sh-

“But oh well,” this time his voice was a mix of disappointment and anger; he stood up and imitated her butt-brushing move down to the pat, “I suppose continuous rejection is one of those spirit enrichment experiences; the money won’t be unnecessary when I go to Duke in the fall, either.”

At that point she did exclaim, “Holy shit!”

He looked down at her for a moment before offering a tiny, sad smile, “Should’ve probably told you before, huh?”

“I- holy-”

“Good bye Sab,” he sighed before adding, “I suppose.”

Her shock melted down when he started walking away; for some strange reason she reflexively latched onto his closest leg. He might, or might not have noticed her there because he kept walking, dragging her across a small expanse of the front lawn until she whimpered, because the dragging was making her dress roll down, and she was about to flash her boobers.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Sabrina?”

She looked up at him, trying to imitate the Toy Spaniel eyes, “Stopping you?”

He huffed an exasperated sigh, “What the hell for?”

“Your money?”

Why did the excuse sound meek even to her? And after all the crap she constantly put him through without knowing, why did she want him to stay by her side?

She should be thinking about Landon, damn it; about killing him very slowly with a pair of tweezers-

“That’s okay, I don’t mind paying for the pizza. I saved enough money so-”

“Don’t spend it,” she said with sudden eagerness; it made his eyebrows rise. “Keep saving it so we can...”

She bit her lower lip; she was about to say so they could go to the same college together, but that would be completely excessive, not to mention she didn’t have any right anymore –not that she ever did-.

In the end she wound up saying, “So we can go on a date.”

That made her cringe. Who would have thought she would ask Nay on a date? Stella was going to have a field trip when she told her.

It got a little bit awkward when, after a full five minutes of her suggesting an outing he still remained in front of her just staring.

She looked down, but her dress –all smudged and wrinkled now- was still in place, and she wasn’t showing him any more than he had ever seen from her. But then, why was he pulling a goldfish on her now? She would have thought the laughing, crying and hiccupping combo was more deserving of such reception.

“Er,” finally he said; not very eloquent, but certainly less strange than silence, “Really?”

She nodded, “Really?”

“Even though you’ve turned me down for years?” She nodded again, “Is this only because you just got stood up?”

Sabrina nodded one more time before punching his shoulder; he still had no right to say it. “Don’t make me change my mind, idiot.”

That one caused his lips to form a face splitting grin, and she found it wasn’t so ugly when she wasn’t working hard on hating his stuffing.

“I would be honoured to take you out,” he bowed down like she always imagined Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice did, before taking her hand tenderly and placing a light kiss on her knuckles.

She spoke to the tuft of his very dark hair, “You know, I’m not going to hit you this time, but please never do this again in public.”

He straightened his torso and laughed, “Does this mean I’ll be able to do it again when we’re alone?”

Her teeth ground, “You are so-”

“-Sappy,” her brother finished for her. Nathan let go of her hand like it burned, and turned to see the older boy leaning on the doorframe. “I must say, I kinda saw this coming from a way back, but it still took you both a long time to hook up.”

She gasped, “We have not-”

“Since when have you been watching?” Nathan asked without minding her denial.

“Half an hour maybe? It was more interesting than the Cubs and Yankees game, anyway.”

“You are so dead, Samuel!” She marched up the doorsteps with the intent of physically giving him a piece of her mind; behind her the pizza delivery boy followed.

“Hey man, did you bring the money? I have to take your sister out on a date, you know?”

She turned around to glare at him as well, but Sam’s laughter threw her for a loop. “Sure thing Nay, here you go. Take her somewhere fancy.”

Strange, her brother was sort of... treating her to a date with Nathan.

She really needed to go to bed after all of that; she had the feeling that if she stood awake for much longer new weird stuff would happen. Was it bad to hope the hot dude from the other day showed up again? She wouldn’t mind if the chain mail became true with that piece of-

She squeezed her eyes shut, “Alright that’s it, I’m going to hit the sack now. I can’t stand you both for longer.”

Her own mind was tiring her as it was.

“Can I join you?”

“Yo, back off homey,” Sam joked, “You still have to steal some bases before getting to that, plus getting through me.”

Sabrina hoped that last part wasn’t really any jesting.

“I’ll see you on... Friday?” Nathan asked her, pointedly ignoring Sam’s existence.

She nodded, and would have smiled hadn’t her agreement dawned on her later. “S-Sure, see you then.”

Sam piped in, “Can I get another pizza?”

“If you pay for it-”

She closed the door, effectively stopping their conversation, and told her brother, “If you keep eating pizza like a pig you’ll start looking like one.”

Sam groaned, “You are such a parade rainer, I can’t believe that guy’s had a thing for you for ages.”

She wanted to tell him that the word rainer doesn’t exist, but fatigue won over her inner debate. Also, she kind of wanted to hide her face.

At least in a couple of years she’d be able to say her Prom night was interesting, right? Her boyfriend dumped her and she got a date with the guy she had been trying to avoid for ages.

Half an hour later her breath was fresh from the mint toothpaste, and her face was practically squeaky clean. But before crashing she decided to check her e-mail.

There were three new mails; the last one came from Stella. It was sent about six hours earlier.

FW: The Way to A Man’s Heart

Sabrina groaned, “Not another chain mail! Damn it woman, why can’t you listen to me?”

Still, curiosity got the best of her and she clicked on it.

It was definitely the strangest chain mail she’d ever gotten; it was comparing a woman’s heart to a pizza. The more slices you fed a man, the happier he became. The key was to put the right ingredients on each slice, to make him fuller. Love, harmony, compassion, understanding and all that jazz; she didn’t finish reading the list of ingredients and scrolled down to the very bottom.

“If you don’t send this e-mail to at least eight contacts, your pizza will rot and it will never be eaten by anyone. If you do, the next person to call you is going to be your soul mate.”

Sighing she clicked on delete, and made another mental note to strangle Stella; it might work better than just polite asking.

A ring startled her out of her wits; she waited to see if it was the door. Maybe Nathan was bringing over that second pizza. But after one more minute it stopped, and she realized it came from her cell phone.

She stood up abnormally fast; her eyes widened. There was no way...

But the ringing didn’t start again, and she got a little annoyed at herself by letting the stupid mail get to her head. This time she nonchalantly walked across her room to retrieve the small mobile and flipped it open. It was a text message... from Nathan.

“Pff, see? No fateful calls.”

She clicked on the read button and almost dropped the device.

“I have a pizza with love topping, you can have it all if you want. But it might be too hot for your tongue so eat it slowly! P.S. Does pizza sound fancy enough for our date?”

Sabrina re-read the weird message about six times... and laughed insanely hard.

AG’s note: Here’s the thing, a certain SKoW judge called LilyAnna (simplicity0o1 here) conned me- I mean, challenged me to writing a one-shot and dedicating it to her if I won the SKoW my story Everybody Wants Ryan was nominated for (Best Awkward Moment), with the only condition that I mention a certain dog (hence the puppy Spaniel look thing). Pff, I didn’t think I’d win... but I did! (Thanks to all those who voted for me!) And so I lost the bet, so here you go LilyAnna, I hope you like it. If you don’t... Grr.

AG Out