Anastasia

29

"Know your worth, then add tax."

Ana really needed coffee.

Today, she woke up early to begin her project and plan out her questionnaire so she could have everything properly laid out and not panic when the due date draws near. However, it seemed that she hasn't been being very productive for the past half hour because she was trying to keep her eyes open at five in the morning. Rubbing her eyes with fatigue, she squinted at the bright screen before her, before pushing the lid down and lying her head on the table.

Waiting for the drowsiness to blanket her consciousness, she let her mind wander to Zachary and Astrid, wondering if she has been third wheeling unknowingly. If this continues - their friendship - he may break it off with her sooner, and that would make her immensely remorseful.

It would be her fault.

Worse, she might develop feelings for him, causing the situation to become knotted and complicated. In addition, she is not going to get involved in some ridiculous relationship, just to let her emotions board a boat set out to the thrashing sea.

Just then, her phone ringed and she jumped from her table, shocked. Who the hell would call her at such an hour? Picking up her phone, she saw an unknown number and a question bubbled inside her. Putting the phone to her ear, she heard shuffling on the other side and frowned. Should she say something?

"Hello?" a voice croaked. It sounded nervous, scared; fearful. It was also a voice that she would never forget - never for her entire life. Confusion and horror surged through Ana. How did she get her number? Most importantly, why did she chose to speak to her? Did she come to confront her for being Zachary's friend?

"H-Hi." Ana stuttered, scared out of her wits. The chance of her being pranked by Astrid is high, but she is going to answer anyways. Ana heard sniffling and lots of sighing, and she just listened to those sounds which seriously made her more annoyed as the seconds go by, because she isn't going to pity someone who had been treating her like a piece of shit since she was ten. But at the same time, what if this wasn't an act? What if she was really crying, and she needed someone to talk to?

"Is this Ana?"

"Yeah. Anastasia." she corrected. Ain't nobody gonna call her nickname except Danielle, and perhaps Zachary. Frowning, the other side became worryingly quiet, and she checked the screen to see if she hung up on her.

Nope.

"How may I be of service?" she said, and immediately cringed at the words she just spoke. She felt like she was bowing down to the queen of her life, and she had to obey all her commands and not able to object. Which, is clearly not the case, as Astrid first called Ana for help.

"I just wanted to talk to you." she spoke after a couple of seconds of silence.

"You must be thinking why you, huh. Well because of all people, I feel that you don't judge as much as others, although I do not doubt that you don't judge at all. Plus I feel that you don't have that....crazy attitude. Like you're calm and thoughtful and okay I think I should stop because I'm rambling too much now." she muttered the last sentence and Ana smiled. It's weird hearing that coming from her nemesis, but it's good to year that from someone. Even though she doubted it was true.

"So do you want to talk about it, or do you want me to keep you distracted?" she asked.

"....I think I want to talk about it."

Well that took Ana by surprise. Normally she would be asked to keep them distracted and forget about their problems, because she was excellent at that job. However, this is her first time being told to actaully listen to other people's problems.

Which she isn't good at, because at one point or another, she would - one - stare at something in front of her and let her mind wander off while someone pours their heart out, or two - be easily distracted. Three - if the problem that she is listening to isn't interesting enough, she would start to have other thoughts in her mind to occupy the boredom. Such as what she would have for lunch. Or dinner. Or what would she do before bed. Random stuff like that.

"Okay." she answered, and hoped that she didn't take a long time to answer her. Due to the previous thoughts running in her head.

"So yeah. Um, okay. So first, I'd like to apologise to you for being an A-hole to you that time in the library. Second, I kinda want to talk about my relationship with Zachary but i know that this is going to sound like you're the psychiatrist and I'm the patient, so let's not go there." Ana heard a slap and she thought that it was most probably her slapping herself on the forehead for rambling again.

"It's alright." It was the only reply she could think of.

"But I don't want to be distracted. So I'm going to talk about it. Side track - I know we don't talk much, and I've been bullying you since the day we met, which I really really want to say, I'm sorry. For all the damage and hurt that I've caused, so I hope you'd forgive me for that. Please don't tell anybody what I'm going to spill to you next. I know that you'd most probably not keep your promise, but this one is really personal and I just hope that it would just be between the two of us." she took in a deep breath and let it out, making static sounds in the phone.

Why would Astrid think that she can't keep secrets? She's an expert at keeping secrets.

"I won't." she assured.

"Thank you." she whispered, overwhelmed with relief.