In Tongues | Jojian

V

"Joji?" Ian asked hopefully when his phone call was answered. "I-it's Ian, wait fuck, you know that, you have my phone number."

He faintly heard a woman say, "Joji, it's Ian."

A woman?

Ian's just getting over a minor mental breakdown, or just starting a major one, so he has an excuse to overreact to a woman answering the phone. He moved on though, he has a boyfriend, so it makes sense for Joji to have also...

"Are you serious Meg? Not a funny joke, after I was just crying my fucking brains out about him to you, you're seriously gonna try to pull that shit?"

Odd. I'd never cry to a girl about my ex... unless they're not together that way? There's not many other explanations.

"Joji, I'm not fuckin' around with you, he's on the phone. You gonna be a pussy and ignore him when he wants to talk to you?"

Ian must have really lost it to be actually going through with this. It is 3 am though, so any bad decisions are justified.

"Ian? I swear to god, if Meg was just messing with me..."

Ian had to clear his throat, but his voice was still raspy. "No, no. I'm just— I don't know. I don't know what came over me, I don't know why I thought it'd be a good idea to call you. It's just I miss you bad as fuck, but— shit, I don't know what I'm saying. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you. This was a bad idea."

Joji was in shock. He had always assumed Ian just left him behind entirely, and never had second thoughts. "I-I miss you too. If you couldn't tell from the entire album I produced about losing you." Joji laughed a little at the end of his sentence, but his words still echoed through Ian's head.

Losing you.

"Joji I'm about to do something irresponsible but I don't really know how I got here and I'm having trouble finding a reason to get down." Ian was surprised at how calmly he spoke. He still felt like he was on his faraway planet, like he was just watching his life unfold without any conscious decision.

He watched the passing cars down below, drunk pedestrians, swearing businessmen, two guys looked like they were about to get in a fight— that could get ugly fast— and he observed the way the streetlights reflected off the water puddles in the road and on the sidewalks. If it were any other time he would have taken a picture, possibly as a car passed by, with the stop light—

"Ian? What do you mean irresponsible? What do you mean a reason to get down? What are you about do to?" It was clear in Joji's voice that his mind had jumped to the worst case scenario. But, he did have good reason to.

"I don't remember climbing up here or how I even managed to get up here, but now I'm standing on the ledge and it seems kind of inviting."

"Ian? Can you please back away and think this through?"

"I think I might jump."