Timeless

a.

7 March 2017

"Hey Mira, you coming?" My friend Josephine's voice pulled my attention away from my phone, for a moment at least.

I lifted my head and nodded slowly, not quite paying as much attention to her as I should have. My eyes were quick to return to the rectangle in my hands. "Hm? Oh yeah, yeah, hang on... I just got a creepy message.."

"A creepy message?" Josephine repeated, coming closer to me so she could have a look at the screen as well. "What's so creepy about it?"

"It just says Hey :) ..."

"That's not so creepy," she said, slightly amused. "Who is it from?"

"That's the creepy part, I don't know... Never mind, I'll just ignore it.." I shook my head a little and turned off the screen, but before I could stuff my trusty little friend into the pocket of my jacket, Josephine had already taken it from me. "Hey," I protested. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to reply to your Mr Unknown. You're always complaining about how there's no one talking to you, so I'm taking the initiative for you." With a determined expression on her face she typed away on my phone, turning and stepping away from me to keep me from getting my phone back.

"Josie stop," I commanded. "I don't want to talk to some stranger, who knows who he is? What if he's some stalker or a serial killer or something like that?" I asked her, hopefully having an expression on my face that came across as very disproving.

But Josephine just looked at me and chuckled. "He's not a serial killer, don't be ridiculous. How would a serial killer get your number?"

"How did this random person get my number?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Well, I'm guessing you gave it to him?"

"First how all, why do you seem so certain that it's a him? And then, I haven't given my number to anyone recently..."

"Aren't you curious though? I want to know who the person is. So I'm sending this," she said firmly before she handed me back my phone.

The reply she had typed wasn't very spectacular. Hey there :) was all she had typed. "If you want to know who this person is why don't you write to him or her on your own phone? You don't have to use mine for something like that."

"But he wrote to you. So... you have to reply to him," she insisted. "Trust me, I know this kind of situation."

I just raised my eyebrows but decided not to say anything.

"Don't try to hide from me if he replies, you know I will find out," she added, looking at me like a mother would look at her child after finishing a lecture on how not to behave.

"Yes," I muttered, shaking my head. "Now let's go, we'll be late for the lecture." I grabbed her arm and dragged her along with me to the room we were supposed to be in next.

"You're such a goodie goodie, honestly, Mira. Have you ever skipped a lecture?" She teased, following me.

"Yes I have, so be quiet, come on..." I stuffed my phone into the pocket of my jacket and sped up my steps a little more. Much to my relief we made it to the lecture on time and even got some decent seats.

However, my relief was diminished again when just as the lecturer started talking, my phone's notification sound went off, drawing everyone's attention to me. Widening my eyes, I looked around, sinking further down on my seat. I had no idea how, but the volume of my notification tone had been turned all the way up. And that meant everybody in this room, and probably also everyonr waiting in the hall outside it had heard it. "Oh my god," I muttered, hearing Josephine chuckle beside me. "You turned up the volume, didn't you?"

"It was an accident, I swear," she told me, a slightly amused undertone swinging in her voice.

"Sure it was," I sighed. Maybe if I just hid behind my hand for the rest of the day I could forget that everybody was still staring at me. It wasn't that people normally made a big deal of someone's notification tone going off, but normally that tone was a bing sound or something like that. Not me. If you've ever listened to Michael Jackson's Thriller, you know how it ends. And exactly that was my notification tone.

Josephine looked at me, still chuckling quietly to herself. "Maybe you should turn down the volume, and check who messaged you. Maybe it's your Mr Unknown?"

"My god, focus on important stuff, Jo.." I shook my head a little and turned down the volume on my phone before I put it aside and tried to focus on what our professor was trying to tell us. I was bigger than Josephine, I didn't need to desperately check my messages. Or did I? No. I shook my head a little and stuffed my phone into my backpack, hoping that what was out of sight really was out of mind.

However, I was a curious person, and Josephine's constant nudges and whispers encouraging me to check the reply didn't exactly help with trying to resist the temptation.

"Mira, do it now," she ordered quietly. "Or I will."

I wasn't sure if that had been supposed to be a threat or not, but I certainly perceived it as one, which was exactly why I nodded in defeat. "Alright, alright, fine, fine, I'm checking the message, see?" I hissed quietly, digging my phone out of my backpack again. I was curious what the message would say, who it was from. Maybe it wasn't even from that mystery person. But I was proved wrong as soon as my phone screen lit up. I could see that I had gotten a message from the number which Josephine seemed to have saved as Mr Unknown. She was too much...

"Who is it from?" She asked quietly, trying to see my phone, but this time I managed to shield it from her.

"Stop being so nosy," was all I told her before I opened the app to read what this mysterious person had replied.

Who are you and what is this thing?

I furrowed my eyebrows before I showed the message to Josephine, not giving her my phone though.

"That's odd," she whispered. "But you should reply. I want to know what this is.."

To be honest, I wanted to know too. I pondered over my reply for a moment before I typed it slowly.