Hidden Hearts | short story

THREE: THE THIRD WHEELER

THREE: THE THIRD WHEELER

A week later, Eve, Sean and I had been hanging out more often. Whenever Sean wasn't with his friends, he was with us. I had gotten closer to the both of them eventually and I talked more than the very first day. We would share stupid jokes and stories and randomly smack each other's arms out of nowhere.

During certain nights, all I could do is lay in bed, wondering how did a friendship like this bloom? It was like those first two years with each other were a foggy dream and this was the reality I woke up in.

It was ten at night and I was still up, trying to finish up a homework that had kept me awake for the past hour. I procrastinated for most of the time but when I finally decided to answer it, the questions had to make no sense, did it?

Next to me was my phone which I left on vibrate. It had been silent for the past four hours except for the occasional buzzes just to inform me about some uploads of videos on YouTube. This time, it buzzed again and I was honestly ready to swipe the notification away, thinking it would be another upload of a video.

Only, this time, it wasn't another notification for an uploaded video.

Hey, you still up?

That was the text Sean had sent over to me.

My mind started wondering why he had texted me out of nowhere but I simply went with it and replied to him.

yeah

Want to call?

what y

Why not?

fine

OK

Seconds later, an incoming call came from Sean. I immediately answered it and switched it to speaker. My family were all asleep and even if I spoke loudly over the phone, they were heavy sleepers, so I didn't worry too much. Although, I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. If ever a fire would happen in our household, my family would have slept through the whole thing without noticing there even was a fire.

"Hello," Sean greeted on the other end.

"Hi," I awkwardly answered. I was never the type to call people. I rarely phoned another person. So whenever I was calling someone, there was always this awkward atmosphere around us.

"What are you up to now, Lily?" Sean asked.

I clicked my pen a few times before answering, "Homework."

"What?" Sean sounded baffled. "It's a Saturday tomorrow, Lily. Why are you doing homework this late at night?"

"Because I don't want to do it the last minute. Like you said, tomorrow would be a Saturday. I would have no motivation to even glance at my books tomorrow," I answered, clicking my pen a few times again. "But honestly, I give up. I'm just going to wing the answers and go to sleep."

"Isn't it too early to go to sleep?"

I raised an eyebrow at my phone, stupidly thinking Sean would be able to see it. Shaking my head, I told him, "Am I talking to the very same guy who told me it's too late at night to be doing homework?"

"You are." Sean chuckled on the other end. "Lily, don't do your homework now. Just talk to me. Let's talk."

"About what?"

"I don't know. Anything. How about we talk about flowers?"

"I have little to no knowledge about flowers," I told him, closing my book. In the end, I winged most of the answers and decided it was enough to get me through.