Our Little Love Story *NOW PUBLISHED ON AMAZON KINDLE!!*

chapter twenty nine

About a week after I had sent Jared his letter, I was sitting in the living room with my parents watching some movie. My eyelids were getting heavy, and I was about to say to heck with the boring movie and just go to bed, when my phone started buzzing in my pocket. Pulling it out, the number wasn’t at all familiar. I didn’t even recognize the area code. I almost pressed ‘ignore’ and returned the phone to my pocket, but something inside of my head spoke otherwise, so I hit the green ‘answer’ button instead.

“Hello?” I asked timidly, getting up and walking into our kitchen so I wouldn’t disturb my parents.

“Tiff? Hey, how are you?” the line was a little crackly, and the voice sounded a million miles away, but I knew instantly without thinking who it belonged to. Jared. 

“Jared! Hi!” I squealed, instantly smiling from ear to ear. “I’m alright! How are you? Did you have to sneak out or something to call me?” I gushed. My whole day, week, year did a complete turnaround for the better.

Broken up laughter came from his end, because of the bad connection. “No,” he said, “I didn’t break any rules or anything. I’d hate to know what the consequences would be if I did,” he answered, “We’re halfway through boot camp, and as a reward, or incentive to keep doing our best, we’re allowed to call whoever we want, but we only get twenty minutes of total phone time. So this has to be quick,” he informed me. I noticed a hint of sadness in his voice.

“Oh, I see,” I answered, processing his words.

“Yeah, I called my parents, but they weren’t home, so I left a message. But I had to hear your voice,” Jared said. What I would give to hug him right now.

“Oh. They’re going to be upset that they missed your call,” I remarked, a little sad for them.

“Yeah, I know. But I had no way of letting them know beforehand,” he replied.

“Gosh, it’s so good to hear from you, Jared. I’ve been so worried. I miss you so much,” I answered.

“I miss you, too,” Jared paused for a few seconds, “Oh, Tiff? I have to go. My time’s up. I’m so sorry. I love you, and I’ll see you soon at the graduation.”

My heart sank that our call was already ending before it ever really got started. “Okay,” I sighed, “I love you, too. See you soon. ‘Bye.”

“Bye,” Jared said quickly, and with that, the line went dead. I held my phone out in front of me and stared at it for a long time. His voice was gone just as quick as it had been in my ear. But I was thankful that I’d gotten to hear from him. I walked back into the living room and sat next to my mom on the couch. 

“Who was that, honey?” she asked, although I was sure that she already knew.

“Jared,” I replied softly.

“Oh? I didn’t know they could call out while at boot camp,” she remarked.

“He said it was a reward for making it halfway through. But he had a time limit,” I replied. Sadness was creeping back in, and I shoved it away, replaying our conversation over and over in my head.

“Well, I’m glad that you finally heard from him,” Mom replied, looking back at the movie that was almost over on the television.

“Yeah, me, too. I’m going to go to bed. I’m pretty tired,” I said.

Climbing underneath my covers, I laid and looked at my dark ceiling. I fell asleep with thoughts of Jared at the front of my mind. 

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