Reverse Number

I'm Afraid

"Wait, what did you say?" I looked up from the screen of my phone at my best friend. My brows knit together as I tilted my head. "What did you do?"

"We all have number neighbors, I texted mine a few days ago just as a joke. I didn't expect a response, but it was nice when I did get one. Turns out mine is an elderly woman that has just had hip surgery and was feeling down and then got my message. We have chatted a few times since then." I watched as my friend tapped at her phone for a moment before turning it toward me. The woman in the picture was still obviously in the hospital if the background was anything to go by, but she sat there smiling away at the camera. "Meet Gretchen, a 65 year old grandma of 3. She gets to go home today and then has therapy every couple of days."

I looked from my friends phone and then to her face. "Are you sure that's safe? Or smart? I mean, I know we meet strangers every single day, but to just randomly text somebody, that seems weird."

I bit my lip knowing how paranoid I sounded, lets just say that I grew up very sheltered and wasn't allowed to do a lot of the things other people my age were allowed to do. Now that I was an adult, it carried over. Which I guess is why I was still single at my age, not that I was old, but definitely older than most. I didn't date. Partly because I was so backwards and shy that I couldn't bring myself to ask anybody out. Also because I had not really found anybody that I wanted to spend time with. I just kept telling myself that I would find them, eventually.

"That's your problem Nikki, you're too stuck up. No, not stuck up, too reserved. You need to open up to people, like you did with me." Marie said between bites of fries. "Just tap away on your phone to a number neighbor. You never know, it could be the hottie that you've been waiting for."

One of the problems with what Marie had said is that she never gave me a chance to either be her friend or not. She grabbed me up one day and that was it, I've never looked back. Now, I know how that sounds, I wouldn't change our friendship for anything, but it wasn't me that started it. "Marie, come on, you know I can't do that. What if I say something stupid?"

She just shrugged and grinned. "You never know who is out there until you give it a try babe, that's all I'm saying."

I replayed that last line over and over in my head as I sat on my couch later that night. My feet were tucked underneath of me, my fingers absently twirled some of my hair as I bit my lip. What could it hurt, right? I mean, I might meet some new people and that was always a good thing.  But what if it was a creep? A perv? A murder? There goes my mind again, getting away from me and preventing me from doing anything.

I glanced at my phone beside me a second before picking it up. Biting my lower lip as I tapped the corner to my forehead. I can't believe I was going to do this. I could feel my stomach flipping and rolling with nerves. I had to take a few deep breaths as I opened my texting app. After punching in a number, I tapped out a simple "Hello. How are you?" and hit send before I could stop myself.

I quickly threw my phone to the opposite end of the couch as if it had caught on fire. Standing and making my way into the kitchen, away from the bane of my existence at the moment, I stood at the counter and started to make a cup of coffee. Even from the kitchen, over the tv, I could hear the ping of my phone. It was probably just Marie wanting to do lunch again tomorrow, I thought.

But deep in the back of my mind, I thought what if it wasn't? What if it was the person that I had texted, responding to me. I grabbed my mug and the kettle corn from the cabinet and made my way back into the living room. My eyes caught sight of my phone as soon as I got to the doorway, the display lighting up to let me know there was a notification.

I bit my lip as I sat the popcorn down on the coffee table. Taking a sip of coffee as I sat down on the couch, I sighed. This was the life. Coffee, popcorn, comfy clothes and a serial killer documentary. What more could anybody want. Ohh, yeah, somebody to share it all with, that's right. I couldn't help but sigh as I leaned over and grabbed my phone. I didn't even pay attention to the notification as I unlocked my phone and opened up my messages.

Not even glancing at the message or the sender, I started typing about lunch tomorrow sounded great, but something told me to check the message before I sent it. My mouth dropped open when I did, it wasn't Marie like I had thought. It was the other person. Not my number neighbor, my reverse number. That's what I did, texted my reverse number so that I had a better chance of them not being close to me at all.

"I'm okay. What about you? Who is this anyway?"

I deleted my response and just stared at my phone. I couldn't answer them, but they probably had already seen that I was typing and then stopped. I had to do something, say something. Before I could type, I saw the bubble pop up with the dots that meant they were typing. My phone pinged as another message came through.

"I just got a new phone and no numbers are in it yet."

Could I really just tell this person that I randomly texted them? That I did a reverse number text. How weird does that sound now. I smacked a hand over my face and groaned. Before I could lose my courage, I started typing. I explained who I was and that it was just a reverse number text. They didn't have to respond, but I thought it was a fun way to meet random people from all over.