Untitled Document

Untitled Part Three - Anita

My ringing phone interrupts My Chemical Romance and I'm immediately pissed at whoever's calling me... until I see the name on my screen. I'm Not Okay (I Promise)  returns when I pick up the call, "hello?"

"Anita?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay I need to know what you wanted to ask me at the party last night, it's been fucking with me all day," between the echo of Mason's voice, and her huffing breath, I guess she's in the garage calling me post-workout. She's a dancer, so she worksout often, but the voice in the back of my head tells me she's stressed - my fault.

One of my floor shirts gets caught on my foot as I make my way across the room, "ugh screw off," I mutter under my breath, trying to kick it off my ankle only for it to spin.

"Excuse me?" Mason scoffs, "sorry I didn't know that wanting an explanation for the stress you caused me was my fault."

The shirt finally comes off my leg and I kick it into the corner of the room, where I'll deal with it the next time it becomes an inconvenience to me. "No! No, I wasn't talking to you, one of my shirts got caught on my foot."

"Oh, sorry, I'm kind of out of it today."

"Don't apologize, it was very out of context."

"Yeah." There's rustling on the other end of the line and muffled whispers as Mason covers the microphone with her hand.

"Is that Callie?" I ask, afraid that Mason told Callie everything and it was her that made Mason call me in the first place.

"Yeah, she wanted to know what I wanted for dinner."

"Oh, well tell her I say hi."

"Mhm," I know she won't tell Callie, it just seemed like the polite thing to say. That seems like a lot of what I say recently though. I sit on the edge of the window sill and bite on  my thumbnail, the music sounds louder now that I'm talking to someone on the phone and instead of pondering if Mason can hear it or not, I lean towards my desk and snatch the remote off of it to turn the volume down.

"So why are you talking to me again?" Mason breaks the long silence and I don't know how to respond. I've thought about it all night and day and I don't know what I was thinking before. This is crazy.

Just as I'm about to respond the song changes to i wanna be your girlfriend from girl in red. It takes long enough for me to react that I'm almost certain Mason not only heard the song, but was able to recognize it and my panic as I launch myself off the window sill and across my bed to turn the speaker off entirely, the remote lies forgotten on the floor. Music really hasn't been on my side lately has it? Why of all songs did it have to be that one?

Mason laughs nervously and I cover my eyes with my hands and slowly drag them down my face in agony. Brilliant. "First of all, that didn't happen on purpose." I try to bring some confidence into my voice but I'm not sure if it's working, "however, on that note, I do have a favour to ask of you."

The other end of the line goes quiet. "Oh?" It comes out as a peep, like a newborn chicken. Now it's my turn to laugh nervously.

"Okay this is going to sound really strange, I know, and we haven't spoken in months but can- can you pretend to date me? Please? Just for the summer, you can come on the trip with me and we just need to tell my family we're dating because now that they know I'm a lesbian they expect me to have a girlfriend and if I don't I feel like they won't believe me and I know I shouldn't try to please their stereotypes but I just want to show them I can get a girlfriend and I've known you like forever so I feel like it won't be weird because it's not real or anything, y'know?" I take a big breath in, not realizing how I was rambling on so quickly I forgot to breathe. Mason is completely silent, I can't even hear her breathing. Maybe this was just a shot in the dark and I shouldn't have asked at all. I don't know what happened to us - we used to be best friends, we were joined at the hip. If I had asked her a couple months ago she would have agreed in a heartbeat.

"Hello?" My voice comes out as a whisper.

"Yeah, yeah I'm still here."

"You can think about it if you want, we don't leave until Wednesday."

"No, no it's fine. You're lucky I still love you y'know."

My mind shuts down momentarily, "I- you- is- is that a yes?"

"Yep, I'll meet you at your house at seven AM, Wednesday." And then she hangs up without another word, leaving me in shock. When her icon disappears from my phone screen the music un-pauses itself, playing the same song as it left off on.

This time I don't stop it.