Enthrall

Chapter 8

August

The sound of the phone ringing woke me up abruptly, and it took me a minute to figure out what was going on. I lifted up my head and peeled a piece of paper off of my face, realizing that I had been doing homework on my bed before I had apparently fallen asleep. Oops. I glanced at the clock. 9:00p.m. I could either stay up late and try to get my homework done, or I could just do my usual thing and procrastinate. I already knew how this was going to end. Old habits die hard.

I heard my mom knocking softly on my door as she opened it, then paused. It had been light still when I had started my homework, but night had since fallen and my room was now pitch black. She probably thought I had gone to bed early. I could hear her leaving and I stopped her, realizing the phone may have been for me.

"Mom?"

"August? What are you doing in the dark?" she asked suspiciously.

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. "I fell asleep, Mom. My homework was extra fascinating tonight," I replied sarcastically. The light flipped on as I shielded my eyes from the glaring brightness.

"The phone's for you," she announced, raising her eyebrows in interest. "When are you going to tell me about this one?"

I gave her a non-committal shrug, though I said never in my head. She didn't need to know everything.

"August..." she warned, remembering all too well what had happened with the last guy I went out with. Needless to say, I did some stupid things.

"Mom, he's not like David, okay? Like, at all. Let's just leave it at that for now," I insisted. She hesitantly gave up, closing my door on her way out.

I picked up my receiver and waited to hear the click from my mom's end, indicating that she had hung up the other phone.

"Hello?" I heard Miles ask with uncertainty.

"Hold on," I told him, continuing to wait. After a long pause, longer than she would reasonably need to hang up the phone, I finally heard what I had been waiting for. She was so damn nosy.

"Hey, baby," I said in the breathiest voice I could muster. I had seen enough late-night phone sex advertisements to know how to copy one well enough.

"Hey," he answered, a smile evident in his voice. "August, have I ever told you how unbelievably sexy I find you?"

"I can't imagine why you would ever tell me something like that," I responded playfully.

"Well, you are. I want you so bad right now," he said desperately.

"Umm...is this what you were calling me about?"

"I'm so sorry, August. No," he replied guiltily. "I was so out of line. I apologize. No, what I was calling about was that AFI is playing a show in Hollywood, and I was wondering --"

"Yes!"

"Yes?"

"Yes!! I would love to go. That's what you're asking, right?"

"Well, yes," he confirmed. "That was easy."

I had actually already known that they were playing, but I wasn't going to go because my mom stopped giving me money for concert tickets. She said that she was sick of me coming home smelling like pot and being covered in bruises. She doesn't seem to understand that just because you smell like it doesn't mean you were smoking it.

"It's AFI we're talking about. No arm twisting is necessary," I assured him. "So, see you then?"

"Can't wait. In the meantime, do you think we could continue where we left off with that voice you were doing? You sounded like you were kind of good at that," he asked playfully.