Filling The Void

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Five years later

June, 2011

“Hello?” Eileen’s groggy morning-voice resonated in Danny’s ear and he found himself smiling and more relaxed than he was four minutes ago. He pressed the cell-phone closer to his ear and walked a bit further from his friends to hear her voice clearer.

“Good morning, beautiful.” Eileen smiled; listening to Danny’s voice first thing in the morning was something she didn’t mind getting used to, at all. “How are you feeling now?” She loved how considerate and so darn sweet he was, always calling to know what was going on and whatnot. The last few days Eileen hadn’t been feeling too well, so the amount of calls just doubled—more like quadrupled—but it wasn’t as if she minded the calls. He had even considered not going to work to take care of her, but Eileen had been adamant on having him go to work—she was not letting him miss work because of something petty like her headaches. But other than that, the idea that Danny was willing to leave something as important as work for her made her feel giddy inside.

“I’m better. Not amazing, but better,” she replied, followed by a yawn. The sigh she let out after that had Danny wishing he had been able to sleep in till late morning like her. But, sadly, that was not an option on that day. For, on that day, he had his graduation ceremony. He hadn’t gotten into Georgia Tech like he had hoped he would, but the community college he had gotten in was one of the best community colleges of America. Plus, he was on scholarship, so he couldn’t complain. After four years of hard work, he was happy to finally be an electrical engineer. And after that, he planned to give Eileen the facilitated life she deserved. He had found a job in a multinational company in the beginning of his final year of college but the pay wasn’t too much—although it was better than what he used to get—as he only worked part time. But since the company valued him a lot and knew that he was a student, they offered to promote him after his graduation. After years of struggle of just making it, he was finally going to be able to live an above average life.

“Well, that’s good. For you, I mean. Personally, I don’t care if you’re better or not, you’d still have to come here, anyway.” Eileen gave a low chuckle at that. Although Danny had been very considerate and called her at least three times a day while she was sick, he was not being lenient in having her at the ceremony. He wanted to see her in the rows of seats and he was determined to make it happen. He even had a back-up plan to have some of the girls from his class to go to his apartment and then drag her to the college if she didn’t leave an hour before the ceremony.

“Yeah, I remember. It’s not like you let me forget for a single second with your constant reminders and whatnot,” Eileen teased. Although she didn’t mind Danny mentioning graduation every minute much, she still did get annoyed sometimes. But, since she understood that he was frustrated, instead of yelling at him she just teased him about it to make the atmosphere a little lighter.

“You love those reminders,” Danny retorted, a small smile unconsciously making its way to his lips. “You just don’t want to admit it. Just accept it: you secretly want me to remind you those things because you love me and want to hear my voice. Just say it! You love me!” Eileen let out a full-blown laugh after that, which caused weird things to happen to Danny’s insides. He sometimes wondered if Eileen was even conscious of the effect she had on him. Even the smallest of her acts, such as her brushing her hair, or walking, had him captivated. And he had a feeling that the effect wasn’t going to die down easily.

“As much as I love talking to you,” Eileen began, “I need to get up and get ready so I that I can attend your graduation. So I’ll talk you later. Goodbye.” All of a sudden, she was in a hurry to hang up the phone, but Danny didn’t notice that.