Turning life around

Sun

"Give her the damn phone!"

Tina's voice, twisted by the phone's speakers, emerged from the back.

Oliver quietly hands it to me. I shake my head, so he takes it back to his ear.

- She can't talk right now.

A second later, he hands me the phone again and whispers "she insists."

I sigh, and reluctantly take the phone from him. I put it on my ear, and clear my throat to let her know I'm the one on the phone now.

"Beatrice, honey.." On the other side of the line, I hear her exhale.

"Did he hurt you? In any way...?" she slowly asks.

"Kinda", I whisper.

- He followed you all the way from New York?

I hum in response.

- And he bumped into you? With his car?

"Yeah"

- Was there any damage? On your car?

"Probably."

- And was it from one hit or more?

"Two."

- Did he hit in the parking or road?

"Um, highway."

- Was there any damage to his car?

"Uh, I don't know."

- Oh, okay. I know that there was a fight but was he aggressive with- with you?

"Look, Tina... I- I know you're trying to understand the situation but I can't... can't do it now. I'm sorry."

With no other word, I hand the phone back to Oliver. I feel Jaden's gaze on me, as he notices my eyes fill with more tears.

As Oliver's still busy with Tina, Jaden leans a little to his right and whispers.
"There's a Chipotle ten minutes from here. Want me to stop there and grab you something?"

I chuckle a little at the sweet gesture.

"Thanks", I say, wiping my cheeks. "But I'm not hungry"

I attempt to give him a smile, then turn away to lean on the window.

~~~

It's been a few days now. I've recieved many texts, calls, and invitations to hang out.

I get that my friends tried to cheer me up a little, but I turned down the opportunities to hang out, answered texts briefly and avoided calling them back for as long as I could.

And that's because these past few days, I focused solemnly on work, cleaning, and movies.

I tried to stay away from my phone, and my screen time on it really dropped.

At first, they came to my house and really tried to help, mainly Jake and Tina. But I think they noticed I needed time alone.

So here I was, on day 4 after that horrible incident: the house was clean, I was way ahead on work, and my eyes were starting to hurt from all these Netflix sessions I was having.