Alternia Residential Complex

Close To You

"Hey! I was just, um, calling to see if you wanted to hang out."

Wait, no.

"Hello. Would you like to hang out later today?"

Too formal.

"Hi!! Can we, like, go hang out or something later today?"

Too needy sounding.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. It's just a phone call. I can do this. No big deal, right?

I pick up the phone.

And put it back down on the glass coffee table again.

My eyes drift to the clock. Almost four o'clock. It's Monday, two days since I saw him at the party. Since he ran out and I followed him and he told me he didn't know what he was doing and he needed time to think.

Is two days enough time? Or was that just an excuse not to see me. It seemed genuine, before. He really seemed like he liked me, but…

I pick up the phone and press and hold the 2. He's on my speed dial.

I could just hang up now. Just put the phone down and not have to do this.

"…Hello?" His voice sounds the same as it always does, and I can picture him in my mind.

No going back now.

"Hey! It's, ah, Aradia." I stumble over the words. All my practiced phrases have flooded out of my mind.

"I know. I have caller ID." 

"Oh!…Right."

There's an awkward pause.

"Do you want to hang out? Sometime?" I try. It sounds weak and pathetic.

I can hear him breathing on the other end of the line. I remember what his breath feels like on my neck, my cheek, and then I can't get it out of my head.

"Aradia--" He starts, but I cut over him. There's something I need to say.

"Sollux. I-- I don't know how to say this, but. Whenever I'm alone with you…you make me feel like I'm whole again."

"…Ithn't that the Cure?" He says. His accent is adorable. Now I feel mortified. Oh god he recognized it.

"Um, yeah. What I'm trying to say is, uh, I like you. And I would like it if we could try again. I really like spending time with you, and I think you're nice, and I don't care about your eyes or anything, you're amazing just the  way you are."

"Bruno Marth?"

"Um, yeah." I blush. "So, do you want to, like--"

There's a sudden meow and a cat jumps onto me. I fall backwards onto my bed and the phone falls out of my hand while the cat kneads on my stomach. Its nails push through my shirt into my stomach, scratching me hard. "Ow, god!"

"Aradia?" Sollux's alarmed voice comes faintly from the phone.

I pick the cat up and shove it back out the open window it came from, and then close the window quickly before it could come back in.

"Cat attack." I say, picking the phone up again and brushing off my shirt. "Nepeta lets them wander all over the goddamn place! Sorry. But it's irresponsible! And they always end up getting in here."

"Jutht like me, they long to be clothe to you." He says quietly.

I blink a few times. "Carpenters?"

"Yeah."

"Tomorrow good for you?"

"Yeah. Your plathe?"