whispers and mutters • blasnique

Chapter Sixteen

BLASTER

Most of us would wonder why our telephone's ringing when you're getting the call at such a late evening, right? A fraction of us would most likely get creeped out; frightened or even scared. But have you ever felt a sense of comfort with that random telephone ring even when you're not supposed to? My mom always told me every time before getting me to sleep when I was a child was to trust your gut. Well, should you trust it at four a.m. at the near morning where the sun rises around two to three hours? Maybe.

It's not such a smart decision answering the call, you know? My gut feeling might be⁠⁠ quite strong, but it's unwise to settle for something uncertain. Desperate for sleep and drowsy as hell, I just chose to answer the phone call just so I could get back to sleeping.

As soon as I heard the voice from the other line, I knew this caller was someone I knew; but it was never someone I expected.

"Hi, it's Zild."

I was no longer anywhere near sleepy the very second I heard his name. It was familiar and it took at least some time before things could completely register into me that someone I met at a friend's party could just randomly call me at midnight, you know? It's surreal and I find it absurd.

"Uh, hi! Uh- I'm sorry, I'm quite sleepy.." I answer back after a few seconds of trying to process things out with a drowsy mind. "No, it's completely okay if you wanna hang up, ya know. I'm just exhausted and I couldn't sleep... Need someone to talk to and you're all I got left on my little list of phone numbers."

I heard his little chuckle fade into complete silence right after. What's this guy doing at such a late evening? It's not even evening anymore; it's already near sunrise. "You got some gigs, dude. You gotta sleep." I reply. "Damn, things happen a lot when you couldn't sleep. Just a while ago I was considering if I should ask you to come over.. Funny stuff." Said he.

"I mean, I can."

"I mean- I can't.. I'm sorry."

It was like running a marathon chasing your own words. I was breathing heavily but I couldn't show how immensely tense I was. My heart was beating fast and I couldn't figure out if Zild's speaking already or it's just that my heart's beating too intensely.

"Oh, it's okay. Sorry for disturbing your slumber. Back to bed, bud. Real sorry."

It's awful being in this position; feeling like you have to think twice about a certain thing and this person just has full control of you and you can't let go. It's like complete manipulation and my conscience just won't give me peace.

Maybe I should just have a life; maybe I should just go to his place.

"ZILD!"

"Chill.. I'm not hanging up yet, what do ya wanna say?"

"Where do you live again?"

***

The night's been colder than the usual.

No one asked me to bring garbage food in a fragile paper bag over this random stranger's house who turned out to be a friend of Unique's that I never really knew about. It's not my brightest decision, but it's not my worst either.

Well, maybe a change of mind for that one.

Maybe I'd consider this one of my worsts regarding the light that I thought was heaven taking my soul, but ended up the light of a motorcycle whose driver seemed to be a double rulebreaker by driving drunk and being underaged—well, at least that's an assumption of mine.

Didn't wanna react to the dude that almost hit me, but a middle finger and a swear word are enough exceptions for that suppression.

I took my time finding where the house was, but a certain two-storey apartment stood out among the others as I saw Crystal throwing her jewelry that was my gift for her away like a sudden flashback of horrible memories.

I knock on the dark oak-coloured door, filled with nervousness. The door made quite the loud sound just from my soft tapping of knuckles on the surface of it.

"Hi.." I greet him as politely as possible with a soft smile the moment he opened the door. I try to cover up the tension in my system by being as nice as I can; not trying to creep him out though.

"Heya, dude. Come in." He smiled at me. "You didn't have to bring food, sport. These guys are enough make the hunger go shoo." He pats his pocket and pulls out a cigarette box. "I don't smoke." I mumble, "Oh. Is it alright though?" He emphasizes the lighter and the unlit cigarette that's in between his dry and pale lips.

"Nah, it's okay." I smiled, "Unique doesn't even ask me if it's alright for him to smoke.. The next thing I know, he's puffing out smokes on my face." I chuckled. "He's a silly guy." He lights the cigarette right after. "It ain't silly no more when I found out I got lung problems 'cause of him. That's why my parents don't want me hanging out with him. I'm still their little baby boy."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to."

"Well, uh, how about Elijah? or.. the curly-headed girl in the party..? I don't know what's her name. Sorry."

"Her name's Shanne Glyndel. Where'd you get the Elijah?" He chuckles. "Ain't Elijah the curly kid? The girl you're with at the party?"

"She's her sister, dude."

"Oh.."

After a few chuckles, silence has randomly taken over the atmosphere. "Uh, I'm going home now. I shouldn't really be up at this time.." I spoke hurriedly as I stood up.

"I'm sorry but before you leave, can you please do me a favour?"

He grabs my arm and looks at me.

"What?" I ask.

"Can you please just accompany me for the night?"

I really had no choice but to agree.