Through Chrissie's eyes

Complicated Calls

The van stopped in front of the dormitory building. Tim was still sleeping a heavy sleep, poor guy, the night had tired him more than us, which was strange. I had a habit of sleeping early, and my sleep had already arrived, I just had not surrendered to it yet.

I waited a little while, still sitting next to Brian, I noticed that he started hitting his thumbs at the wheel, a sign of impatience or maybe nervousness. Then I opened the door, but it hadn't get out of the van yet. I sighed.

"Thanks for everything," I told him, "it was really cool tonight, because of the show and the pizza. I just wanted to say goodbye to Tim. Tell him I said goodbye."

"Yes, I will" Brian promised, "I'll do it, thank you for your questions, it was really nice to be able to talk to you about these things I like ..."

"Ah, I miss that too" I felt like I'd be talking for hours and hours, but we didn't have any more time for that today, that's when I had an idea "do you know when you will perform here again?"

"I don't know, it depends on the University agenda," he told me.

"Well, if you can, and it's not too much trouble for you, you can let me know when it's going to be the next show, or near here, I really wanted to see you guys again," I asked, not knowing what to expect.

"That's ... oh my, it's a lot of consideration from you," he laughed contentedly and then gave me a more restrained smile, "look, Roger's number of Jo's is the same as you use isn't it?

I nodded, confirming.

"Then I'll get it and I'll let you know when we get here, okay?" "Brian agreed with me.

"Okay, that may be." My words were simple, but I think he realized that I was glad for my huge smile "I think I have to go now."

"Yeah, so do we," he agreed. "So, good night, Chrissie."

"Good night" I got out of the van and waved.

As I went to my room, I didn't pay attention when Jo and Roger said good-bye, but I saw her coming in and getting ready for bed. I had already lain down at that hour, and soon sleep made me fall asleep, but not before thinking that it had been a very pleasant evening.

Well, after that night my life continued, I was focused on finishing the semester with good grades, since it was the penultimate year of my course. And so the months went by. I had some contact with Brian, who sometimes called just to see how I was, and so I also knew how Smile was going, but for Joanne, another thing that remained the same was the almost endless calls from Jo and Roger, except that these links had a slight change in course.

I would usually leave the room when they started talking, and go around the library or cafeteria, and when I came back, they were still talking, quietly, most of the time. But once I heard my friend extremely angry on the phone:

"If I didn't call you, you would not call me, no, don't apologize to me, I don't want to know, before it you made time for me, why don't you do it now, huh?"

I felt embarrassed to witness the scene and didn't know what to do to help her.

"Great, go, go with your show with the girls shouting your name and leave me alone!" She hit the phone hard.

I was afraid that we would be scolded by the headmaster for destroying the university's assets. I looked at her, trying to comfort her. The phone rang again. I didn't know whether to answer it or not. I got up to do this and Jo said nothing.

"Hello?" I asked as I answered.

"Chissie," Brian's voice was also hesitant on the other end of the line, "I've been trying to call it for a while, and no one answer it, are you guys okay?"

"Hi, Brian, I'm fine, I mean ... -I didn't know what to say with Jo there in front of me still angry "I'm fine and you?"

My friend looked at me with a crying face and shrugged, as if to say "you can tell if you want, at least he's a nice guy." And then Jo collapsed in her bed, trying to stifle her cry.

"I'm all right," I said.

"It's Jo, isn't it?" He guessed, "I figured Roger had made something stupid. If I can help in any way, you can count on me."

"Thank you, I think I can handle it well, this is not the first time I've been through this, you know?" I was embarrassed by the whole situation "but you called me for another reason, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah, well we will play there again, and you said to let you know when it would be our next show closer to you, and we're going to stay for a weekend near your University, playing nearby too, if You can go to the shows ... " he explained.

"Sure, sure, I really want to go, and I'll go." I glanced at Jo at a glance "if nothing unexpected happens."

"I understood, go there to take care of your friend and Roger will have to hear me," Brian assured me "return the call to me when you can?"

"Yes, I will" I nodded and then said more quietly, "Thank you for understanding."

"You're welcome, bye." He hung up.

I then approached Jo to see how she was.

"You want to tell me what happened?" I tried.

"I don't know what happened, Chrissie." She turned to me and sniffed, rubbing a hand over her face and under her nose. "Roger suddenly stopped calling me the way he did before. We don't talk more every day ..."

"I've noticed," I said, "it's been a while. But what does he tell you, why is he not calling?"

"He said they're doing more shows than before and he needs to rehearse, just for that, but I get the feeling that if he wanted to make time to talk to me he would," she explained.

"You're right" I had to agree, already taking her pain for me "a relationship like that doesn't work very well ..."

"Do you think I should break up with him?" Joanna's heart was broken, desperate for advice.

"Talk to him first, see what he says about him being absent, and try to come to terms like two civilized adults," I said in my most understanding tone.

"And look, you tried to warn me, tried to make me wonder if he was really a nice guy to date ..." Joanne whined.

"Jeez, it's not the end of the world, and don't think so tragically like that," I pondered, trying to get her to reason. "You're annoyed because he was angry, but if you talk calmly, I'm sure everything will be good."

"Can it be?" she hesitated.

"You have to have a little hope," I tried again. "Look, if you need me, for anything, just talk ..."

"Ice cream with flakes with as many chocolate chips as possible," she murmured, her voice muffled by the pillow, but I understood.

I just nodded and left, it was not the first time I did this, and I hated being right about Jo's boyfriends, since that meant she was going to suffer in bad terms. I still hoped that was not Roger's case.