Carolyne is to the right ----->
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Chapter 5
I couldn’t look; I covered my face with my hands and threw myself face first into my pile of pillows.
“Keira, I can’t look.” I grumbled into my pillows.
“This is your mystery person, not mine.” She said, crossing her arms over her skinny frame and raising an eyebrow in my direction. I just buried my head farther into my pillow pile and groaned.
“Fine, I’ll look for you,” Keira sighed in defeat. “But don’t say I never did anything for you.” I peeked from behind a pillow and held my breath. Her eyes scanned my screen, and when she snorted with laughter my heart leapt into my throat. I sat bolt upright and looked at her expectantly. She tossed my phone to me and laughed.
“Apparently you brother wants you to ask me what I think of him.” I grabbed up my phone quickly and looked at the message. My eyes shot to Keira, her shoulders shaking in silent laughter, and I could feel my face flame.
“I’m so sorry! My brother is such a lame-o!” I started to type in a response to Tye, and mid-sentence another message popped up on my screen.
“Um…what?” I just stared at the screen, if my jaw tried to hit the floor.
“Ohmigosh! Keira they texted back. THEY TEXTED BACK!” I hyperventilated and almost dropped my phone. She came and sat next to me on the bed and read the short message.
“Well say something back!” she urged, poking me in the side.
“How am I supposed to reply to ‘um…what’.”
“I don’t know! Think of something!” She shrieked. I gave her a flat look.
“No, really?” I rolled me eyes, and sighed. I chewed my bottom lip thoughtfully and decided that I might as well tell the truth.
“I was telling my friend about our wrong number encounter and I wondered out loud if you ever found who you were looking for. She dared me to text you and find out.”
I pressed the send button and chewed my thumb nail nervously. Keira looked at me curiously and I blushed again. I had no idea why I was so worried about what this stranger thought. Before I could think of a reason, my phone dinged again.
“Well, yes I did get a hold of who I was looking for. My girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend now actually.”
“Ooh, it’s a guy!” Keira cooed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively and elbowed me. “Wink-wink, nudge-nudge!” I scoffed at her and hit the reply button.
“I’m sorry! I hope it’s not that you didn’t get a hold of them in time. ‘Cause that’s just unfair.”
“Nope, that’s not it. But I don’t feel like talking about it.” I don’t know why but I cringed. Even through the text they sounded pained. Before I could stop myself my fingers typed out the response that I would have given to any of my friends had they been in the same situation.
“Well, If you ever do want to talk about it-or anything, you can talk to me.” the second I sent it I was furious with myself. But the response I got made it a little better
“Why would you wanna help a complete stranger like me?”
“Because I know what it’s like to have no one to go to”
I sighed and stared at my phone. A movement to my right startled me out my trance. I saw Keira reaching for her phone, and I flushed a bright pink. I had been so engrossed in my conversation, that I had completely forgotten that she was there reading over my shoulder. I shot to my feet sputtering apologies and being grateful that I hadn’t said anything too personal.
“Don’t worry about it!” she said giving me a huge hug. “This was a really fun day! Promise we can do this again?”
“Of course!” I beamed. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”
“Totally!” she squealed. Her phone rang again. “Oh! My mom’s here, I gotta fly. Tell your brother goodnight for me.” She laughed as I rolled my eyes at her. We ran down the stairs to show her out, and she waved as she ran down my driveway to her mom’s car parked at the curb. As I closed the door I smiled, and started back up to my room, happy that the day turned out so well. I had gained a new friend. When I walked into my room, I eyed my phone sitting on my bed. The last thing I had said to the stranger on the other end had been kind of personal, and I wasn’t ready for their judgment yet, so I decided to get ready for bed; the entire time silently chiding myself for letting Keira get me all excited in her hype. What was I thinking? That this mysterious person was all of a sudden be my knight and shining armor? That he was going to make me forget all the years of feeling like I was the kid everyone’s parent MADE them invite to the party, and promptly ignored once I handed over their present.
Finally clean, and relatively calm, I turned off the light and slipped into bed. I looked at my phone and saw I had a few messages. One was from Keira, telling me what a good time she had. One was from my brother telling me to tell mom that he would he home late, he was driving up to Pointe Park with Lilah. I smirked and told him that he could tell mom himself. And the last one was from ‘him’. I had purposefully been putting of looking at the text, because I was afraid of what it would say. Finally my curiosity overtook my fear.
“I understand completely. I could use someone to talk to. It’s almost easier this way you know, getting to know someone’s personality. It’s less superficial. It makes it more genuine.” I gasped. I really was crazy for doing this. What if this person was a total psycho? I guess I could always change my number. Who knows, this person could turn out to be my best friend. So I decided to jump in.
“Like I said before, I’m here if you need to talk. Not to sound pathetic, but I don’t talk to many people”
“It’s usually the silent ones that have the most to say. My mom used to tell me that all the time”
“She sounds like a wise woman”
“She was.” I realized by the short answer that it was probably not best to pry. Before I had a chance to reply another message popped up.
”I supposed I should introduce myself. I’m Jack. And you are…?”
“I’m Carolyne.” I quickly replied.
“Well Carolyne, it’s getting kind of late, and as much fun as this has been, I should probably head off to bed. But I did save your number. I look forward to talking to you again soon.” I smiled at the last part, and typed my response
“Same here. Have a good night Jack.”
“Night Carolyne.”
Before placing my phone on the speaker dock, I save Jack’s number into my phone. I lay staring at my ceiling wondering what I had gotten myself into.
