Just them in me

Long Distance

The phone screen lit up the dark room, but the silence remained, and the body sprawled on the bed didn't get disturbed. The room slowly turned bright as the sun rose, the phone had lit a few times and had calmed down. The dawn passed, morning followed, and the untouched phone ran out of battery. Morning turned to noon, and the temperature rose to the day's high by the time the body under the blanket revealed its face.

"Ughhh...mmm" Pete groaned and stretched. But he sat right up once he noticed the hours hand on his wall clock. He quickly looked around to find his phone and gave it a few presses, but it remained blank and dead. He hastily plugged it in and fidgeted a few seconds before pressing it on again. 

This time the phone came back to life and took its time to turn on. Various notifications piled up on his screen. Not bothering to remove it from the silent mood, Pete straight away loaded the chat app. There were hundreds of unread messages but to his disappointment,  only two he wanted to read.  

The messages revealed themselves as soon as he clicked on three red hearts... 

"Looks like you are fast asleep, I am sorry I called so late, Let's talk tomorrow" 

There was another message with a minute's gap... "Good Night Ja :X" 

They were sent around 5 AM. Pete then opened his call logs to find three missed calls around the same time from his beloved three hearts, Kao. He couldn't stop himself from pressing the callback button.

The call was answered almost immediately, but all Pete could hear was breathing.

"Kao!" He called out into the phone

"Ummm..." A muffled sleepy response came from the other side. Pete wore a smile unconsciously. 

"Oo.. You are sleeping!" Pete murmured to himself... "Ofcourse you are sleeping, I will call back in a couple of hours then"

"Nooo..." the resistance came immediately from the other side... "I am up now"

"Really, It's okay, Sleep well, Let's talk later" Pete suggested

"I can talk now, I am up, I AM UP" Kao's voice grew louder and was followed by crackling sounds.

Pete sat up straight on the bed... "Then Why don't you face the camera?"

Kao's screen shook and moved a lot before going blank again, and then the voice came... "Oh, It's a video call"

"Yes, I want to see your face" Pete slowly confessed

"But I haven't washed up yet" Kao sounded underconfident

"It's okay, I am still in bed too, Let me see you na Kao please" 

There was no response from Kao's side for a few seconds and then his screen slowly brightened up showing his face. As if it was the first time, Pete's eyeballs shook to focus,  his chest took in a deep breath to calm the vibrating rib cage, his toes folded and stretched and a lot more small things happened to him as he struggled to find vocabulary to speak. 

Unaware of everything happening on the other side of the screen Kao slowly lifted his eyes to the screen as his skin subsequently started blushing. Unlike Pete, Kao visibly checked out Pete's reflection on the screen... "You must have slept well!" Kao uttered

"Uu?" Pete frowned confused

"You glow on the days you slept well, You must have slept well" Kao repeated

"I am sorry, I missed your calls" Pete apologized... "I was not sure when I fell asleep, It must be the alcohol"

"Alcohol?" Kao frowned.