Random Short Stories from the Pen of Yours Truly

Muna

He lets out a laugh, choosing to ignore the buzzing in his pocket for the umpteenth time. He knows who is calling him but decides to ignore her. Mark already know what she wants and quite frankly, he isn't ready to hear all that bullshit she's about to pour on him. He'll deal with it when he's ready, even though it's starting to become really late.

It's a while before his pocket stops buzzing, and with that his friends stop their teasing.

"Now we all know who that was. Why didn't you pick it up?" His friend, Lucas, asks him, and the others voice their opinions before he could answer.

"She's been getting on his nerves since last night. I wouldn't answer either. Let her blow your phone up, dude. She'll be okay at the end of the day." They laugh.

"No, don't listen to them, Mark." Lucas says, and he simply nods. "You got a wife on your hands, dude. The way you treating her I'm surprised she hasn't left you yet." He sighs. "My old lady blows my phone up too sometimes, but I know she means well when she does. If I ever did what you did, I'd never forgive myself."

"Okay, stop talking about her. You're giving me a headache." Mark shakes his head, pinching the bridge between his nose. "Let me text her back. Lord knows she's sent me hella messages like she doesn't have something else to do." He rolls his eyes as he takes his phone out.

Sure enough, there are more than 30 calls from her and 3 calls from a number he recognizes as her little sister's number. There are numerous text messages from her, and they are not good. From what he can take from her rant:

She's angry. "She's been angry all day!" He exclaims.

Her feet hurt. "Well no one told her to leave her crocs in such a rush." He shrugs.

Her ankle is swollen. "That's what happens when you decide to wear heels." He shrugs again.

She's on her period. "What does that have to do with me?" He laughs.

Her phone is dying, and he has the charger. "Should've taken your bag with you." He face palms.

"Dude," Lucas says, shaking his head. "I haven't known Michelle as long as you have, but I know her well enough to know that she is the purest wife material this world has ever seen. I don't know why you treat her the way you do, but one day you're going to regret it when you see someone else treating her like the queen she is."

Mark knows Lucas is right but decides to snap on him anyway. "What are you trying to say? You're going to be that nigga that treats her like the queen she is? You feeling her on the low or something?" His jealousy sparks loudly in his words.

Lucas just sighs. "I don't want Muna. I just hate seeing her be treated like this by you. Come on dude. Truly look at what you have. A good paying job. A roof over your head with people you love. A whip to drive wherever you want to go. A girl who is absolutely crazy over you. Look at what she has: a best friend she declared her love to because she wants to spend the rest of her life with him. An apartment that is great for her, but created distance between her, her loved ones and you. No job or vehicle because things are really hard for her, but no care because of her high faith that things will get better. Muna knows she's struggling, but it's the fact that by God's most gracious hand she's making it to the next day and the next day and the next."

"I know what she's going through, Lucas. Don't tell me what she's going through." Mark snaps again, irritated that Lucas is right.

Mark has everything he's worked for, and, although she's been working all her life, Muna has barely scraped the surface of getting everything she's worked hard for. She hides this from everyone behind this happy go lucky charade, but Mark sees right through it because he's been there every step of the way. Until recently that is; ever since she made the sudden decision to move 2 and a half hours away from him, the distance has caused problems between them. Sure she goes to school there, so moving there made sense, but what about him?