HeartBreaker | Book 1

Late Night Call

Chapter Fifteen
Late Night Call

I'm woken up by the horrendous sound of my ringing phone.

There's no way it's time to get up for work already.

As I slip out of my slumber I realise that it's not the sound of my alarm, but the ringtone of an incoming call.

I rub my eyes and look at my blindingly bright phone screen blinking rapid to adjust my vision.

Desirae.

What could she possibly want at 2:26 in the morning?!

I answer and lie back on my bed nearly falling asleep again.

"Hello?" I breathe groggily.

"Hey Chris," whispers the voice of Desirae, "sorry to wake you."

I don't reply, right now speaking is too much of an exhausting task.

I wait for her to say something as my eyelids get heavier and heavier as the seconds go by, but nothing.

Something is clearly on her mind or bothering her, I can sense it. But why is she calling me?

I heave a sigh and put my own selfish desires to the side for a minute and decide to be a good person for a change.

I lay on my back and I stare at the ceiling,

"What's wrong Desirae?" I ask as politely as possible, which was difficult. I'm a lot of things when my sleep is disturbed but polite isn't one of them

"Nothing's wrong," she says airily.

She's clearly lying, she's either overwhelmed or drunk.

Usually, I wouldn't have the patience for this. If it was any other person, I would've hung up; actually, no, I wouldn't have even picked up the phone.

But it wasn't anybody else; it was Desirae.

The only person I've been thinking about for the last three days since we hugged last Friday night.

Actually the only person I've wanted to see.

I don't know, with her it's like she's slowly but surely breaking down the walls I've built around myself, she touched the heart I didn't know I had with a simple hug.

She is the most powerful person I know because she makes an invisible person like me feel seen, an echo like me, heard and a lonely soul like me; cared for.

That's something I can't convince myself. That Desirae doesn't care for me and the harder truth; that I am not starting to care for her.

"You want to tell me what's the matter? I've had my fair share of bad nights and you're clearly having one," I say with my eyes shut.

"It's hard sometimes," she says, "I don't know how you do it, Chris."

"Do what?" I ask in surprise and somewhat defensively.

"How you live... you're alone in the world... but you don't feel lonely."

"What makes you say that?" I ask, suddenly more awake than ever.

She's quiet, as if figuring out how to word what she wants to say.

"Loneliness is a feeling that even the most supported people feel... it's a human emotion, I feel it all the time.... But I just tell myself that I'm going to be okay," I say, but it feels more like I'm saying it to myself than to Desirae.

She sniffles, I feel an urgent need to say something to her before she starts full-blown wailing.

"Desirae you aren't alone... you have Molly and your grandmother."