70 Telephone (1/2)
Why the hell is my phone ringing at this hour? Who the hell!?
I laid there motionlessly, stunned upon hearing the sudden burst of ringing noises coming from a few inches away from my slightly damp mattress on the floor. Sensing that the caller wouldn't give up anytime soon after a few rings, I slowly placed my phone on the bed and very carefully crawled towards my telephone that was awkwardly sitting there in the corner of the room. Amid the many plastic wrappers and fallen breadcrumbs all over the floor, I saw my black and slightly greasy telephone vibrating as the loud ringing of the phone strengthened. I very briskly moved all the trash around the phone, revealing a once-white floor that is now stained into a darkened state.
I cleared my throat once or twice and gulped a few of my saliva before ultimately answering the call once and for all.
With a silent puff, I placed the phone on my ear to hear what the other side had to say. I remained silent, sitting still without even giving the caller even a tiny bit to present my presence. I blinked twice nervously with my eyebrows knitted tightly as I overheard a few faint noises from the other side of the call. It sounded like a few people are talking in the background, but I could hardly hear what they were saying; it's all too quiet, although they all seem to be making a whole lot of noise out there. It felt like they were arguing, or maybe they were reprimanding someone. The call stayed that way for a while, leaving me hanging there along with my confusion. I could hear a faint murmur of a woman backed by two men, and judging from how muffled their voices are, I concluded that they must have been placed somewhere a few feet away from the phone, not that it was needless to say anyway.
I was about to drop the phone when finally, a voice rang on the phone, sending a wave of vibrations from my head down to the entirety of my body.
”H-hello...” A familiar-sounding voice rang into my ears, making me realize that I should probably end this call once and for all, but a wave of curiosity grabbed onto my body like a few puppet strings, making me do what I would otherwise think as something silly.
I responded, ”Hey.” I tried to act cool, but my heart is racing so fast that I could barely make out the rate in which in beats every second. I decided to have a deep breath, which relatively helped in retaining my calmness, but it did not really fix the uneasiness in my head.
”H-Hey there, man!” The person on the other side of the call stuttered as he mumbled a few words with a shaking voice. ”It's me! Do you remember me?”
”Sorry?” I replied, trying to show an ounce of dominance by making my voice deeper than usual. ”Who's this?”
”This is Mike. Remember? Mike Spencer. We're friends in high school; our house is so close when we were young, remember?” The man swiftly replied without stuttering for once while his voice now seemed a whole lot friendlier than what he sounded like earlier.
”Holy shit, yeah, Mike! How long has it been? Seven years?” I replied as a smile crept up on my face.
”Eight, actually.” He responded with a chuckle. ”Eight and two months. We haven't really had any conversation after graduation, so...”
”Yeah, yeah, but I do remember you, man. What's up?” I loosened myself a bit and let my guard down to him as I leaned my back on the wall while sitting on a whole lot of mess on the floor.
”Yeah, sorry if this is so sudden. Can we... I mean...” He then laughed as I heard a bit of that same nervousness in his voice once more. ”You know... How are you? How's your life?”
I laughed awkwardly, shrugging after hearing this unusual small talk coming from this high school friend who suddenly called me in the dead of the night. ”I'm good. Work, work, work. You know the drill.” I chuckled. ”How about you, man? I heard you went missing and shit, what's up with that?”
”That not true!” Mike shouted after a gasp before puffing a few more heavy breathing. ”Missing!? I'm not missing! Not missing!”
”I get it, I get it, man, chill! We're pals here, no stress, take a deep breath.” I tried to ease him up by playing it cool, but I was seriously considering to hung up on him for a second time now. ”Take a deep breath. I'm just kidding, jeez.”
”Yeah... Yeah, I'm sorry, I...” He said with a sigh. ”Look, man. I called because I've been... I've been very lonely lately, you know? I watched this cool video earlier, I dunno, I think on Facebook or something. Look, the point is that the video said that too much working fucks you up good, you know? Kills you real bad after a while too.”