Technically, You Started It
Page 22
I should be telling you that.
I’m going to be in bed most of the time
Especially if my mother has any say.
Which she totally does.
Listen to your mother.
Like when she says I should invite that “sweet Haley girl” over???
We’ll see about that part.
We’re having dinner with Charles tonight anyway.
Charles?
I MAY actually be mature enough to reconsider hating someone when they save my life.
That does seem quite grown-up of you.
I blame you.
Just not for you being late. That was all you.
I’d kick myself if everything didn’t still hurt.
But I really mean it. Take care of yourself while I’m gone.
You too.
And, Haley
Yeah?
I’ll miss you.
I still have no service.
Chicago was fun.
Penguins were cute.
I saw three Deadpools today and had to tell you.
Gotta go!
Glad you’re having fun.
Four more Deadpools and even a Nux.
I may actually have a celebrity crush on War Boys!!!
But no. I just remembered how they treat women, so … never mind.
Oh, and there was a young Professor X too. The cool wheels and everything.
Just had to tell you.
You’re not running off with any of them???
I’m so tired I can’t move
There was a Green Lantern today.
I wasn’t sure if you’d want to know or not.
I want to know everything.
Hey, stranger.
Is this really you or another celebrity crush cosplay update?
Really me. We got in a little earlier than planned, so I didn’t need to sleep all day.
How did it go?
It was fun. Played a bunch of new games. Saw assorted penguins, Deadpools, and a bunch of X-Men.
You didn’t run off with any?
I’m not you. I came back like I said I would.
Though there was discussion about kidnapping a War Boy and making him drive us all the way back.
That seems …
Excessive.
So was an eleven-hour drive.
But it was good.
Lexi called me.
On the phone?
With her voice?
Yeah, I swear she was born twenty years too late.
But she helped me see things in a different kind of way.
???
She said she had suspicions about us all summer.
She said she’s on my side whatever goes down.
AGAINST Chloe?
Oh yeah. I think she hates her more than I do.
That loudmouth Jack told someone who told someone who told Dylan.
Chloe knows too.
I guess she came looking for me.
But you were gone.
Yeah.
Not that it matters.
You’re not worried about what Chloe will think?
Nope.
I’m done with that.
As Lexi said, it’s Sarah’s turn to start acting like she’s our friend.
I like Lexi.
Lexi is smart.
Listen to Lexi.
Yeah. Lexi was crying because she thought I thought she wouldn’t be there for me.
She’s mad she had to hear about all this third hand. Like she did with Sarah and II.
Chloe convinced Lexi that Sarah and I were done with her because of all that stuff with Dylan. So now I’m at war with Chloe and all of Chloe-kind.
But I told Lexi the truth.
What’s that?
That I wasn’t sure what was real.
And … that I really don’t want to do any more Hump Day quizzes.
Her response?
That she has been shipping you and me since the barbecue.
That if I’d told her … she’d have helped.
That I have a permanent quiz exemption so long as I promise to talk to her on a regular basis.
That sounds manageable.
Yeah, I think I’ll have plenty to talk to her about …
When I told her why I really hated the quizzes, she showed me a different quiz.
According to that I’m not weird …
I’m demisexual.
Where’d she find that?
I don’t know. I guess she’s been doing research for the quizzes and came across some stuff that she thought people needed to see.
She wasn’t being sketchy. She was trying to help in her own Lexi way.
But whatever.
Are you back at work already?
I am
My mother has officially turned it into a desk job now, but she’s keeping me busy.
You still down a limb?
I’ve got a brace
I can’t carry phyllosilicates around.
I CAN file and tape up receipts.
Sounds exciting.
You have no idea.
Dylan’s mystery source is not the only one who talked to Jack while you were gone.
You always talk to Jack.
I mean I REALLY talked to him.
Not in the playing-Xbox kind of way?
Well … we played PS4 WHILE we talked.
Did he go all bro on you?
It wasn’t touchy feely but it was good to ACTUALLY talk.
Even if you decide to hate me I’ll have at least figured out how real friends talk.
We even managed to talk about you a little.
You didn’t.
A little.
We had stuff to clear up.
Ugh.
I guess I’m really not as good at hiding things from him as I thought.
I don’t know if anyone is.
He’s kinda creepy now.
He’s observant
That’s why he knew to like you first
He even saw all this before I did.
All what?
Us
How we fit
The mess I was making
He suspected I was texting you after he gave me your number.
In MAY?!?
He confirmed it that day you came to church
It pissed him off … which is why he broke into my phone
But we were so pitiful (his words) he decided to help.
You mean the baseball game was him trying to help?
In his messed-up-Jack kind of way.
Tell him not to help again!
I’m glad he did.
You know I wouldn’t completely hate you.
You did before.
Well, yeah, but I didn’t know you then.
You weren’t real.
Now I’m real?
A little too real.
Are you freaked out?
Never not.
Look, can we meet?
I’m working now.
After work?
Where?
My house?
You know where that is.
You’ve been here.
You’ve made a decision?
Yeah. But as you said, it’s an in-person thing.
Cool.
Drive carefully, okay?
Of course.
I wouldn’t miss this for the world.
I mean it.
I swear I’ll be hyper vigilant.
Maybe you should get a Lyft.
My mother has cleared me to drive just not for work.
You can too.
Okay, fine. If your mom says so.
So I’ll talk to you after work, I guess.
Definitely.
What are you doing???
I’m reading this super interesting article on closed time-like curves in BTZ black holes.
I see …
Why?
I enjoyed dinner with your family and that was a really cool game we played
But …
But?
Are you sure? That stuff you said earlier?
What about it?
You’re ready for us to be a thing?
Well …
Yeah.
Why?
Then would you PLEASE put your phone down?
What? Why?
I’d very much like to kiss you now.
A book is never just a book, it’s all the stories that came before and every experience that brought those words to that page. I don’t have room to acknowledge every experience that brought me to this point, so here’s a sampling:
First of all, thank you to my lovely agent, Bridget Smith, who not only saw Haley for who she was but has been helping me through my adventures in publishing even before she knew who I was. To my brilliant editor, Jody Corbett, who loves these two nerds nearly as much as I do and was willing to go to battle over commas. And to everyone at Scholastic Press who has gone above and beyond for my strange little book, especially Baily Crawford for making it so very pretty; Josh Berlowitz for fitting it into a book-shaped thing; and Rachel Feld, Julia Eisler, Elisabeth Ferrari, and the amazing sales teams for getting so very many people excited.
Thank you, Beth Phelan, for creating #DVpit, a space where writers can share their stories, even when the world pushes the dream further away.
I wouldn’t be here without my writer gang: Adib Khorram, who read everything, even the pizza party. Kosoko Jackson, who shared EVERY LITTLE up and down along the way. Kaitlyn Sage Patterson, who believed in this story before I did. Michelle Hulse, who shared her brave publishing adventures. And Mary, who knows the difference between typhoid and typhus (and pushed me to write Haley’s story authentically). Cabin 81, thank you for being there when I needed you most; I wish you all the best wherever your path may lead. And special shout-out to everyone from the AmberMUSH days who drilled voice into me and made grammar and punctuation cool.
And all my friends who supported me: Sarah Moeller over many lunches, Joel Roth and Adana Washington over many chats, and Peter and Robbie over many years.
I could not possibly have written this book without my day jobs. aBt made technology easy—thank you, Doug, for always expecting me to accomplish the impossible and giving me at least a day to do it. The Bridge for Youth gave me a place to connect with my community; thank you, Sue and Alisha, for being there every step of the way. And thank you, Fran, for being the one true Francis.
Matt, thank you for surviving all of everything with me. Michael, thank you for bringing my life joy. Monica, thank you for making all my dreams seem reachable. Thank you for being my family.
Lana Wood Johnson was born and raised in Iowa in the time before the internet but has spent the rest of her life making up for that. After years working in wireless communication for companies of all sizes, she now works doing the same for a local youth shelter. Lana lives in Minnesota with her husband and their English bulldog.
Copyright © 2019 by Lana Wood Johnson
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Johnson, Lana Wood, author.
Title: Technically, you started it / Lana Wood Johnson.
Description: First edition. | New York: Scholastic Press, 2019. | Summary:
In Haley’s high school there are two boys named Martin Nathaniel Munroe
II (cousins), and one of them has started a text conversation with her, which becomes an all-consuming exchange between two people who see themselves as outsiders. The only trouble is that Haley really doesn’t know which Martin she is talking to, and actually meeting face-to-face may lead to an epic meltdown.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018044096 | ISBN 9781338335460
Subjects: LCSH: Text messaging (Cell phone systems)—Juvenile fiction. | High school students—Juvenile fiction. | Interpersonal relations—Juvenile fiction. | Communication—Psychological aspects—Juvenile fiction. | Dating (Social customs)—Juvenile fiction. | Young adult fiction. | CYAC: Text messaging (Cell phone systems)—Fiction. | High schools—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Interpersonal relations—Fiction. | Communication—Fiction. | Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. Classification: LCC PZ7.1.J6285 Te 2019 | DDC 813.6 [Fic]—dc23
First edition, July 2019
e-ISBN 978-1-338-33548-4
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.