How To Save You

Step Nine: Three AM phone-calls

It was late at night when I got a phone call. I rolled over onto my side and saw that it was three am. I let out a low groan and clicked my phone. The brightness stung my eyes for a moment before they adjusted and I read: Adri. I answered the call.

"Yes?" I mumbled grumpily.

I heard her breaths, small and uneven, like a girl being saved from drowning. I was quiet, waiting for the breaths to subdue to a calmer pace. I closed my eyes, thinking that it was quite nice to listen to her breathe... It was almost as if she were right there, laying beside me. And I thought that that would be a little peace of heaven, brought to earth.

"Tell me," she whispered, and her voice was thick, either from sleep or tears, "something."

"What?" I yawned, rubbing my eyes with the heel of my hand, letting my body dissolve into the mattress.

"Something... Dumb. Like you," she added.

"Oh wow, you call me up at three am, just to insult me?" I rolled my eyes.

"Some people are worth it," I heard her smile through the phone.

I snorted slightly, rolling over onto my side and making the blankets into a cocoon protecting me.

"Uh, did you know Carl can fit fifteen marshmallows into his mouth?" I said.

"No way, it was seventeen last year," she said.

There was a slightly awkward pause as the air filled with many unanswered questions. There was so much I wanted to know about her, but so little that I did. I kept on hitting a brick wall with her, but I decided that tonight was not the night to push her buttons.

"How's the kitty?" I asked.

"Nya is sleeping on my lap as we speak. I really like her."

"I really like you," I replied, and I wasn't sure why I said it but it was three am, and I just needed to get it off my chest.

"Why? I'm not a good person!"

"Yes you are. You're just a little broken right now," I told her defiantly, and it was the truth, I felt it in my bones.

There was another silence.

"I'm going to bed," I said, "see you tomorrow."

"Okay," she promised, and hung up.

Smiling, I put my phone back on my bed side table.

***

When I walked downstairs in the morning, I was really tired. I was a guy who needed his eight-hours. Joy came out of the kitchen, her hair braided to the side, her t-shirt tight and her skirt short, I saw Brandi give her a slightly concerned look as Joy fished out her phone, tapping away to text.

I pressed my lips into a straight line, remembering my advice to her. I grabbed her arm and turned to make her face me. Joy raised her eyebrows, putting a hand on her hip.

"Yes, Eli?" She asked.

"The advice I gave you was wrong. You be yourself, Joy."

She rolled her eyes and popped a piece of chewing gum into her mouth, "whatever, dude, I know the advice wasn't wrong. I'm so much more popular."

"Are you happier?" I asked, searching her face with my eyes.

I find the truth there. She quietened down and looked down at the ground. I patted her head, unable to not feel guilty.

"Just be you. It'll pay off in the end," I said.

She nodded and I walked into the kitchen. Brandi smiled at me and I gave her a short thumbs-up, maybe being a little nicer was going to be easier than I had anticipated.

***

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