Last Night

Part 15

Once Emily had settled down and I'd reassured her that I would keep my promise for the fiftieth time, she left. I was exhausted. With everything that had happened today, I decided laundry and video games would be the safest plan for the rest of the day.

I separated the loads, started the washer, and went about cleaning up my bedroom. My bed was still a mess from the surprise wake-up. Glancing over at the books on my nightstand, my eyes fell upon my current read, the one Ian had been checking out. It had been laid down carefully enough, but some paper was sticking out of it. I knew it wasn't my bookmark because the tassel from my actual bookmark hung limply a few dozen pages further in. Had he made a point to come back to this?

I chuckled at the thought. He must have been desperately bored to have bothered with that. A stab of guilt hit me when I thought about him. He looked so tired when he'd left.

Picking up the book, I flipped to the marked page. The small paper had a note written on it.

Don't forget your promise. I stayed, so you had better call her.

"Shit. I forgot about that." I set the book back down and stared at the note. Nothing else was written. I crumbled up the piece of paper and shoved it in my pocket. "But it shouldn't really count because it was meant for Phil, not you."

A few loads later and several circuit races later, I wandered into the kitchen. There was some left over green curry and rice, chocolate chip cookie dough, and a bit of sautéed chicken with green beans in the fridge. I pulled out the curry and dumped it into a bowl together with some rice. Popping it into the microwave, my hands found their way back into my pockets and to the note from Ian.

"If he hadn't stayed over, he would've been well rested. He held up his end of the bargain." I said with a big sigh and laid my head back against the microwave door. My fingers still gripped the note, wishing that it would burn up and disappear. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cool powers like that. I was just me, Resident Disappointment of the Cooper Family, and he wanted me to call up the Judge, Jury, and Executioner of the Cooper Family.

This was ridiculous. I didn't owe him anything. He made his choice.

I threw the note in the trashcan and returned to the microwave for my food.

After an episode of my favorite Netflix original series, I brought my empty bowl over to the sink and rinsed it. While my hands busied themselves with cleaning, my eyes wandered back over to the trashcan.

Was I really considering this?
Yes, yes, I was.

The microwave lit up the time: 6:09.

They had probably just started eating dinner. Once my hands were dry, I walked over to my phone and stared at it. There was no need to look up the number. I'd memorized it as a child and it was still ingrained so I could easily choose not to answer when it showed up on my screen.

My fingers barely brushed the screen, but it still entered the number much to my dismay. I took a deep breath, counting to three both in and out, and pushed call.

Before it rang even once, I cancelled the call.

What was I thinking? I hadn't even decided what I would say to her. This was ludicrous. I didn't put the phone down though. I stared down at the number in my recent call history. She'd know it was me if the call made it through, then she'd call me back. Did I really want to give her the chance to prepare some line about how I'd abandoned Philip and now I'd abandoned the rest of them? I needed to hold on to my element of surprise, maybe it'd give me a proper chance to talk to her.

There were some loud steps echoing in the stairwell. It was probably Roberta with groceries again so I turned away and sat in my chair, the cushions wrapping me in warmth and support. I stared at the callback button.