SILENT CALLS

Chapter 1

ALLY'S P.O.V

"But hun, stop procrasting..."

"No, work can wait. I need to hear your voice a little longer-" He cleared his throat. "Correction; I mean much longer."

"I will never win this over you, huh?"

"Nope." He popped the p.

"So, how's London?" I made myself a messy braid as this raspy voice kept talking to my ears.

"Cold. You're not here anymore. Everything's cold."

"Haha. As if we remember last time you tagged me along."

He coughed, mumbled, but too slowly I couldn't hear. Another sad silence tone hit our ears. From Manila to Orlando, or just anywhere in between - like for now, currently in London.

"It's late night. You should either join the boys in their room or get some sleep." I whispered.

"I'm not done-"

"Anybody there? How can a public bathroom locked from the inside?!" A high-pitch voice followed by a knock interrupted.

"Oh I'm so dead." I quickly hid my phone inside my pocket, tried to make it less shown. "I don't know if you can hear me Connor but I love you."

I unlocked the door with the brightest smile plastered on the face, no matter how humiliating it was. There were a bunch of girls waiting outside. Some of them threw me the look, some other didn't care, and few more smiled back.

"Apologize, didn't realize I locked the front door."

"Says the girl who does it everyday." A salty comment came from the crowd. "Step aside!"

"I'm so sorry..."

"Hey." Ivana wrapped my shoulders. "You okay?"

"Other than I just made myself look bad in front of people, I'm okay."

She only shared a smile, but didn't disagree to my weirdness. Never mind. Been living with that, though.

"What did you do in there?"

"Hmm?" I sniffed.

"It's okay. I also like to sneak in my phone and hide in there for pretty much fifteen minutes." She chuckled.

"It's not-" I tried to make something up but Ivana was a pro. "Busted."

"I don't get it why phones are disallowed around here. It's not that we'd be on it all the time." Ivana led me to grab some coffee.

"Where can I sign the petition?" I rolled my eyes.

"One time, I was having this secret relationship with a guy. He's in Paris for school. My parents were okay with him, unless I had a big problem." She sipped her green tea.

"What could be worse?" I asked to show her I cared, though I was almost dead because same story here.

"Timezone!" She laughed hard. "We broke up because couldn't keep up with timezone. But girl, when I told you I hid my phone with me, it's all for him."

"Talking about sacrifice." I got cut in the throat.

"Huh." She reminisced. "I didn't remember you told me about the bathroom thing?"

"Because I didn't tell you?" I threw the joke back at her. "I don't think it's worth telling."

"Ally, it always is."

"But I'm not ready." I giggled, awkwardly.

"Please make sure I'm your first customer to serve when you're ready." She pulled my hand to our class room.

"Noted, ma'am."

We walked to this packed, giant room. I could still feel the stare some girls threw at me, it's almost like a burn hole they made on my back. Some whispery talk and pointing fingers. Probably they forgot that I also could hear it.

There were two kinds of people in this school. First one, people like Ivana. To say I have best friends would be an overstatement. But Ivana was one of very close friends I always shared lunch time with. The other kind, they were whisperers - if you will. Unless invited to the squad, I didn't think anyone would survive the pressure they put on the underdogs' shoulders.

"Next time you feel like occupy a bathroom, make sure it's your own." Jesslyn, the squad mama, tapped my back rudely.

"Have a nice day." I smiled.

"Gosh! I really want to make her my punching bag!" She screamed out to everybody.

"Am I that annoying?" I eyed Ivana.

"Depends on who you're dealing with." She side-hugged me. "Until tomorrow!"

"Bye bye."

As usual, I waited until hallway was vacant before stepped myself out. I was not a fan of crowded small corridor. I checked around. Safe. Let's now continue where it left off.

Wait. How was my phone still holding a call?

"Connor?" I whispered.

"You never told me such struggle you have to face." His trembling voice cut my word. "Step up, babe."

"How can you still overhear everything? I thought we ended the call."

"You don't answer to my question."

"And you don't answer me either." I insisted. "Con, we have talked about this. How I deal with people here is the way I think is best."

"I can't risk it everytime I want to call."

"But isn't it even more risky if you never call?"

He sighed. "I don't want to hurt you..."

"Nobody's hurt, love. You have to believe me when I say I'm okay." I smiled to the ground, shed the tears that's been falling down. "You'll be the first to know when I'm hurt."

I heard another deep breath. That's the sign of relief. I was glad he left it there. The only thing matter here was us.

"Has the bus arrived?"

"Not yet. Suppose to be in two minutes." I replied. "How's breakfast, nocturnal creature? I don't remember you rested your eyes last night."

"I didn't, indeed." He giggled. "Hey, I've survived five days straight before. I'm good."

"Oh sure, because on the fifth day I remember you almost had to suck people's blood to stay alive."

"Some kind of vampire." He laughed. "Why I love you."

"I don't know, why?"

"I'm not going to tell you why."

I chuckled. My Connor's lovely. He's lovely for his strong determination. He's lovely for his decision to date a girl he would probably never meet again. He's lovely for his sacrifices only to survive another romantic call with me. We're that lovely.

But that pathetic.