Voice Addiction

Chapter 8 (Adrian's POV) - Unintended Consequence, Part 2

Chapter Eight (Adrian’s POV)

Unintended Consequence

Part 2

Adrian couldn’t believe it. How and why did he let this happen?

Was he really falling for Murphy?

He hadn’t even known her for long. He never even saw her.

What’s wrong with you, you big moron?

Suddenly, it all made sense. Even the reason why he chose to sleep with Diane the night he was supposed to meet Sophie. He should’ve realized it sooner.

He was in some deep trouble.

He didn’t want this to happen. Ever.

“Hey, Adrian! The hell are you doing out here?” He heard Marshall yell as he came closer to him. “You’re missing one hell of a party!”

Marshall put his arm around Adrian’s shoulders and almost dragged him inside, Adrian only smiled weakly at his friend’s gesture, still shocked and kind of numb by his own self-realization.

“What’s with the face?” Marshall asked. “Looking at you, one would never believe that you just won a major game and are now in a party full of hot girls and cool friends.”

Adrian shrugged, looking distracted and zoned out. “It’s nothing, I’m just… tired, I guess.”

“Dude, we’ve gotta bring you back. Don’t worry, your friend Marshall is here to help!” Then he laughed. “Along with some booze and a whole lot of female action.”

Adrian was not listening though, his mind was racing, his heart was on fire.

Yeah, he was in some deep trouble.

A couple of hours later and Adrian still found himself in a weird zombie state. He tried to have fun, tried to enjoy the party and the company, tried to forget about Sophie, but he was finding it very hard to do. No matter what he did, Sophie would always find her way back into his mind. The fact that she kept calling him, sending him messages and even voice mails didn’t help either. There was nothing Adrian wanted more than to pick up the phone and talk to her, listen to her voice, know what she was doing and with who she was. On the other hand, he wanted to just forget, create distance. He wanted to talk to her as much as he didn’t. It was pretty messed up. But since he had finally understood that he was falling for her, he really couldn’t face her. He didn’t want to need her. But he did. Damn.

Every time his cellphone rang and he ignored it, the thought of her sadness at his rejection hurt him. He had to summon all his will power not to pick up the phone. No matter how much he wanted to.

Goddamn, he hated feeling like that.

Adrian smiled without any genuine amusement and tried to get distracted by the party surrounding him, but it was being mighty difficult. When Sophie finally gave up calling, he felt a mixture of relief, regret and pain. Had she given up on him? Was she hurt?

It was almost night time when it finally got to be too much. Chad had noticed something was wrong and, though he never said anything, he could feel his black haired friend eyeing him with caution and concern. Feeling overwhelmed by the whole situation and cursing his lack of ability to just relax – like he usually did with such ease – feeling like a foreign to himself and dying to know something about Sophie, Adrian looked for an empty room in Jackson’s house.

He took out his cellphone and pressed Sophie’s phone number. But no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t press the green button. Instead, he looked for another phone number, the number of the person who could tell him what was going on with absolute certainty. Adrian called Charlotte.