A Loser With A Cellphone (Alex Standall)

52

Alex shifted on his bed, trying to find a comfortable position as he waited for her to pick up the phone. Now that the promise of the call was on the horizon, he found that he needed it like he needed the air to breathe. He needed to hear her voice, see if she was as quick and witty on a phonecall as she was via text, and to be able to try and determine if he'd heard it somewhere before.
He was beginning to think that she was going to flake out on him again, leave the phone to ring until it dropped him off at a voicemail, when the call was abruptly picked up.
"Hello?" He asked, a little breathless, excitement and just the slightest bit of fear resting in his stomach.
"Hi," a soft voice said after a few seconds, and Alex breathed out a sigh of relief. She was there.
"Hey," he said again, feeling a goofy smile stretch across his face - He quickly pulled it back into a straight line after feeling its ache on his cheek. His face still throbbed with pain after he'd gotten beaten up, but he didn't mind it. It reminded him that he was alive. He cleared his throat, adding an, "Um, how are you?"
Usually he wasn't so awkward when speaking, but there was just something about her, knowing that somewhere, she was sitting, holding her phone to her ear, speaking to him, that made him want to double guess anything that came out of his mouth.
"I'm good," She said. As if a second thought, she added, "How are you?"
"I'm okay. I mean, my face looks like its been run over, but other than that..."
"I guess you're lucky I didn't ask that we FaceTime."
"I mean, if we did, I'd get to see who you are, I wouldn't even mind."
"Yeah, well, that certainly isn't happening." She remarked, and he could hear the sarcasm etched into her voice. He didn't understand what she was so insecure about - They spoke for nearly an hour until she spouted off some excuse about having to take a shower or something, and she said that she would text him later.
Alex lay on his bed, staring up at his ceiling - Talking with her brought him the best feeling that he'd had since learning that Hannah had died. He wondered if she would ever let me meet her, and if this feeling would last.
Deep down in his heart, though, he couldn't help but think that maybe she was right to take the safe route - Maybe it would be safer for both of them if they never met face to face.
He didn't want what happened to Hannah to happen to her.
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