The Three Kings

Chapter 20

"What I feel for you
Falls somewhere between
The unyielding love and loyalty
Of true and life long friends
And the delectably dark,
Indecent lust
Of a heated one-night stand"
~Beau Taplin

____________
Hanna
____________

There was silence. The had ringing stopped. But no voicemail came through. And there was no dial-tone. It was just quiet. I thought, that perhaps, she just didn't answer. Maybe she declined the call. Or, she answered and hung up right away. I didn't know, but the silence was killing me. I paced back and forth in my room, silently begging her to say something--anything.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

"H-hello?" My voice cracked. "Jules? Are you there?" I stopped pacing and sat on the foot of my bed.

More silence followed. I was half tempted to just hang up and call again later.

An audible and unhappy sigh came through. 

"I'm here, Hanna." Her tone was clipped, barely concealing the anger that resided there.

"Oh...well um...hi. How are you?" I asked awkwardly.

"How am I?" She echoed. "That's a good question, Hanna. How am I?" Her voice was so cold. I haven't heard her this angry in years, and it was never once directed at me. Until now. "Well, you tell me. My best friend, the person I love, flew to an entirely different continent. Then, dropped off the face of the earth: not answering my phone calls or my texts. Just fucking disappeared. And I've been sitting at home, tearing my goddamn hair out, wondering what the fuck happened to her."

"So...no-not good I take it..." I trailed off. Goddess, my entire body was shaking. I never did well with people being angry at me. Especially if it was someone I was close to. Anger led to yelling and fighting and confrontation. Anger led to me crying alone in my bedroom feeling worthless. I was trying my hardest to not let her anger affect me. She isn't mad at me, she's mad at the situation. She's mad that I didn't call her or text her.

"No, Hanna, not good at all. Not a single fucking text message. No phone call. No note or letter. Not even a fucking pidgin came flying through my window with a piece of fucking parchment paper explaining what the fuck happened and why you didn't bother to text or call."

"Yeah...uh...sorry-"

"Do you know how fucking worried we all are? I had to stop Sam and Jordan from purchasing plane tickets. Do you know how fucking worried I was?" Her voice cracked, about the only bit of emotion she was going to show aside from that freezing anger. "We never should have let you go." Her voice was back to normal. "I knew this was a bad idea. And do you want to know the worst of it, Hanna? I called King Alexander. He couldn't fucking tell me what happened to you or why you weren't answering your phone. Your fucking mate, Hanna."

"Its...um...been kinda crazy-"

"So, I'm going to ask this once, Hanna. What the fuck happened?"

Silence fell between us. Awkward and uncomfortable. The last time it was like this was when we had that moment together in my bedroom.

"Are you seriously not going to tell me?"

I couldn't tell her. She wanted to know for one reason, and one reason only: to find an excuse to get me home.

Tears had sprung to my eyes.

And so it got quiet. Neither of us said anything for a good few minutes.