"Quotation"

Entries Five and Six

"For a while, all we did was text each other," the Lady in Blue read simply. Lidya, Mikhail, and Irina were sitting in Lidya's usual booth, slurping down Cokes silently. In fact, the whole restaurant was basically quiet as the Lady in Blue had acquired quite a lot of continual listeners. "He would send me random text messages during the night about little details in what he had done that day. In turn, I would send messages about my day while he slept. My phone bill was probably out of this world, what with texting someone half a world away. But I didn't care and, apparently, neither did he."

It was here that Lidya herself received an iMessage.

From: Mom

Lidya, could you come home? The dishes need to be put away.

Lidya instantly made the decision to act as if she never received the message. Dishes could be out of their cupboard for the duration of this entry. She was offended, too, that her own Mom, her own flesh and blood, would send a message during an important live show about dragging her away from the important show for something so insignificant. It was humiliating.

Instead, Lidya focused back on the Lady in Blue. "If I said I didn't miss him," she read, "I'd be lying. I missed him. I missed everything about him, but that was silly. I barely knew him, yet it felt like I knew him more than I should have. Texting can do that to you, I guess.

"I would pass my time by looking for a job or hanging out with my friends. But it only made me feel lonelier. Like I was trying to fill a void somewhere in me that I just couldn't. It was frustrating, and it was stupid, and it was troubling for me. What could I do to take my mind off that smile, those eyes?

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

*~*o.o*~*o.o*~*(o.o)*~*o.o*~*o.o*~*

I was with Katya at her house. We weren't doing much, just hanging about, doing her hair or whatever. My mind wasn't on her and her almost-fabulous looking hair. It was on Agostino and the texts that I had waken up to from him. He had spent his day at home, which was boring for him because he usually had work or friends to go eat lunch with or something. I found his frustration absolutely adorable.

His morning was normal enough. He ate breakfast with his father and sisters, as he lived with them. After that, before lunch his sister Viviana, youngest at age twelve, had come into his room to ask him what a word in her book meant. He gratefully translated the word to me: she wanted to know what "juxtaposition" meant. Simple enough. A little bit after that, he ate lunch with his family. Then his father had him do tasks around the house, such as cleaning out a hall closet, changing the air conditioner filter, and preparing dinner. However, his day got exciting a few hours after sunset. His eldest sister Bianca, one year younger than me, asked her father and brother if she could get a boyfriend. Both men were livid - their precious daughter/sister wanted some other guy to protect her? Peh! Weren't they enough?

Agostino asked my opinion on the matter, which made me smile. I text him back that she was sixteen, she needed a new liberty, and besides, if the guy ended up being an ass, then beat him up. I couldn't wait for his response to that.

In the midst of being caught up in my thoughts, I heard something. "...i... ka... ika... Nika!" I snapped out of my Agostino-induced trance. Katya was calling me. "Honestly, Ni, get your head out of the clouds! Who're you thinking about anyway? Agostino, perhaps?"

I blushed. She was spot on. She looked at me expectantly and I sighed. "I miss him," I said.

This made her blink. "He's gone? Where'd he go?"

Oh, yeah. I didn't tell them, did I? "He went back to Italy. We've been texting back and forth during this separation. Sorry I didn't tell you."

Thankfully, Katya shrugged. "Whatever. How does my hair look?"