Thursday and Friday at school were much like the previous days had been. Professors stuffing so much information into her head Kate wondered if it might explode all over her desk. At least on Friday, her professors showed some compassion and didn’t assign any reading material or homework for over the weekend. But they all assured her, and the rest of the students, that come Monday, it was back to the hard work, so to enjoy their free weekend while they had it. 

Friday evening, Kate was back in her dorm room a little earlier than usual, since her last professor had dismissed them half an hour early. Picking up her phone, Kate sent a text to Amanda.

‘Hey.. I actually got out of my last class early! What are you up to?’ It read.

It was about five minutes before Kate got a reply. 

‘Wow. That’s great! We should celebrate lol J’ was Amanda’s reply.

‘Sure, that sounds fun. But how about we just order pizza and have a little slumber party here, or at your room. I don’t really feel like going out tonight.’ The text Kate sent back was a little lengthy, but she really didn’t have the energy for a night out on the town. Maybe tomorrow night.

‘That’s fine. We’ll gorge ourselves with caffeine and grease lol’ Amanda answered back.

They arranged for Amanda to be over in half an hour, so Kate went ahead and ordered two medium pizzas, one supreme, the other loaded with three different kinds of meat. The girl told her it would be delivered in thirty to forty-five minutes. Kate figured they would be pretty busy, since it was Friday, after all. 

Amanda arrived right on time, and tossed her stuff in a corner as she walked in. 

“Hey, lady. Long time no see. You’re a hard girl to get a hold of.’ Kate said. “You’re busier than me, it seems,” she added.

“Yeah. Lots of studying. Blah. Let’s not talk about school, though. That’s the last thing on my mind.” Amanda answered, plopping down on Kate’s bed. “What are you doing there?” she asked, nodding at the laptop screen.

“Oh, nothing. Just checking my email and stuff. Killing time, really.” Kate replied. “I was getting ready to check my Facebook page right when you got here.” Kate told her.

“Oh, well, don’t let me stop you from that!” Amanda replied, laughing. “I need to use the little girls’ room, anyway.” Amanda said, getting up and walking around the end of the bed. 

Smiling, Kate turned her attention back to the computer and logged into her Facebook account. Almost as soon as she logged in, the instant messaging box popped up, like it had been waiting for her. It was Pete.

‘Hey. What’s up?’ The message read.

Wow. He seemed to be on here all the time. Or at least every time Kate was. 

‘Not much. Going to have a little slumber party with a friend.’ Kate typed.

Almost instantly, he answered, ’Oh. A male friend?’

‘No, lol. A female one. I don’t have a ’male friend’ like that lol’ Kate answered.

‘Oh. Is she already there?’ he asked.

Kate was a little shocked at his question, but answered, ’Well, yeah, she is. Why?’

‘Oh. Just wondering. I was going to ask you for coffee, but I don’t want to interrupt your slumber party with your girlfriend.’

‘Oh, it’s ok.’ Kate couldn’t think of anything else to type. Suddenly there was a knock at her door. Then she added to her message, ’Well, I’ve got to go. The pizza is here.’ Kate folded down her laptop screen and hurried to answer the door. Looking through the eyehole, it was in fact the pizza guy. 

From the look of him, he had to still be in high school. Messy black hair under a blue hat that read ‘Pizza People’ on the front. His face was in serious need of some facial cleanser and acne medicine. His blue t-shirt matched his hat, and had the same logo on the front left corner. Opening the door and accepting the pizza, Kate paid him for the pizzas, throwing in a five dollar tip.

“Thanks.” He mumbled, turning to walk back down the hallway.

“Oh, good, the pizza’s here. I’m starving,” Amanda said, emerging from the bathroom.

“Yeah, me, too.” Kate said, lifting the lids on the boxes. 

They munched quietly for a few minutes, then Amanda asked, “Hey, you mind if I check my email from your laptop?”

“No, go right ahead.” Kate said, through bites of her pizza. Amanda opened Kate’s laptop.

“Oh, hey. You have a new message here. Want to read it?” Amanda informed her.

“Yeah, sure. But check your email first.” Kate answered. Shrugging, Amanda logged into her email account and looked for any new emails, and not seeing any of interest apparently, typed ‘Facebook.com’ into the browser’s search bar. 

“There ya go, Kate.” Amanda said, getting up from the desk. Kate slid into the desk chair, and typed in her email and password. Amanda had been right. There was one new message. There was also a number ‘10’ above the notification area. 

“Were all these new notifications here a minute ago?” Kate asked, turning to look at Amanda.

“Uh, no. I don’t think so. Just the one saying you had a new message.” Amanda told her.

“Oh,” was all Kate said, turning back to the screen. She clicked on the notifications first. A long list dropped down. They all read ‘Pete Peterson has commented on your photo.’ Kate had almost forgotten about the pictures she had uploaded a few nights ago. They weren’t anything special, just pictures of her and her friends from back home. And a few from the party her and Megan had went to. 

Clicking on each one, Pete had left a long comment on each one. And none of them were comments on the picture, exactly. They were comments about her. 

One read: ‘Your hair is really pretty here. Your eyes really stand out. That outfit looks really nice on you. Love your smile. You’re so pretty.’ 

By the time Kate had read through all of his comments, she was kind of freaked out. He hadn’t said one word about anything or anyone else in any of the pictures. Remembering she had a new message to read, Kate clicked on the little icon of a word bubble to go read it, hoping it was from her mom or Megan. 

But, alas, the message was from Pete also.

“You really are a very pretty girl. I’d really like to meet you sometime soon. 

--Pete P.”

“Oh, gosh. Amanda, come look at this.” Kate breathed, staring at her screen and the message it displayed.

“What? What is it?” Amanda asked. She had been sitting quietly on the bed examining and picking at her fingernails and the polish that was starting to chip off of them. Kate scooted over so Amanda could get a better look at the screen. “So? He thinks you’re a pretty girl. He’s probably just lonely and wants a hottie like you for a date.”

“Yeah, but check this out.” Kate said, going to her photos page to show Amanda all the comments he had left. “He never commented on the other people, or even the picture as a whole.” Kate pointed out.

“True. But he doesn’t know any of those people, does he? Maybe that’s why.”

“No, he doesn’t. But my friend from back home is in a lot of them, and she’s practically a super model compared to Plain Jane me.” Kate replied.

“Huh. Well, I don’t know, then. Maybe he didn’t want to comment about her because he doesn’t know her. I know I wouldn’t.” Amanda told her.

“Oh.” Then Kate added suddenly, “Do you think I should call the cops and tell them what’s going on?”

Laughing, Amanda said, “Good grief, no! What are you going to tell them? A guy on your friends’ list thinks you’re cute and asked you out on a date? They’d probably get a good laugh out of that one.” Amanda replied. She sounded almost incredulous about Kate suggesting such a crazy idea.

“Well, yeah. I guess you’re right. Maybe I should just ‘unfriend’ him. I don’t know him personally, anyways.” Kate replied.

“Yeah, whatever. You could do that if you wanted, I guess. He seems harmless to me.” Amanda answered, going back to nonchalantly picking at her dark orange nail polish. Kate just looked at her for a minute, and then turned back to the computer screen, trying to decide what to do.

****