Overthinking It || j. m. (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

17.

Chapter 17

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Ring! Ring! Ring!!

Ring! Ring! Ring!!!

The sound of my old time phone ringtone jolted me out of my uncomfortable slumber as I was propped against the hard headstone. Shifting on the soft grass, I realized that I must've fallen asleep sometime after sitting down as I sat before my sister's grave in the same position I vaguely remember getting myself in. It was now nighttime, and the cemetery looked even more mysterious than it did during the day. A darkness so dark surrounded me that I couldn't differentiate between closed and opened eyes.

My phone rang again and when I went to peer at the contact lit up on my screen, I instead saw just a ten digit number shining up into my eyes below the three digits reading me the time- 9:30. Curious as to who would be calling, I slid my thumb across the screen to answer it and held my phone up to my ear. My voice was cracky from disuse as I spoke, "Hello?"

"Zoe?" A familiar voice called through the speaker. It was a voice I've become accustomed to, a voice that was music to my ears.

"James?" I questioned. A grunt of approval came through the line and I continued, "How'd you get my number? And why are you calling me?"

"Taylor was hanging out with, uh, Tristan and I was tagging along with them. But then your mom called her saying that it was late for a Sunday and you didn't come home so she figured you were with Taylor. Obviously you weren't, so Taylor got worried and tried calling you but you didn't answer. While she was freaking out I took her phone and got your number. I kept on calling you ever since."

"That's- that's nice of you," I gulped. A strange series of thoughts went through my head as I retained the information he just uttered to me. Taylor left me today to hang out with Tristan, who was hanging out with James. She left me for them, and more specifically you could look at it as leaving me for James. He was mine, or at least that's the way I looked at it, and she should know that I couldn't want her to really be around him. It was as if Taylor was completely ignoring my wishes or even ignoring me.

"Where are you though? Your mom really was worried about you." He said. I heard something in the background, a sort of jangling like the shaking of keys. It was strange that he mentioned my mother was worried about me seeing as she never really had. Maybe it was because I talked to her today, because usually we'll go for weeks without speaking words besides yes and no.

"I'm just with my sister." I sighed, running my fingers through my tangled mane. Keeping it simple was easier than trying to explain the whole situation to him. My motives can seem all too complex to people who don't really understand them and no matter what James knew about me, I could never see him understanding these things.

"Your sister? Isn't she-"

"Yeah. She is. I'm at the town cemetery. I was just clearing my head, that's all."

"You're at the cemetery at night? Why haven't you left?" He laughed through the phone. It was more of a nervous laugh than a hearty one, but I ignored that detail.

"I fell asleep and I only woke up when you called. I guess I'll start walking back to my house now though. Thanks for waking me." I said, but quickly James replied.

"No, let me pick you up. I'm not going to have you walk home by yourself in the dark." Again I heard the clattering of keys and this time I heard the opening and closing of a heavy door in the background.

"James I'm in a cemetery now. I'm pretty sure that's a little worse than walking down a lighted street where people can actually see me. I'm fine, you don't need to come and get me."