Lesson 116- Always be careful giving out your personal information online!
I spend a few more minutes reassuring my brother that I’m fine and that he doesn’t need to come looking for me, then I end the call after promising to call again in the morning and repeatedly reminding him that I’ll be answering my phone from now on. I feel about a million times better now that I know my brother is okay and I don’t feel guilty for ignoring him constantly. It’s like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Not to mention, for the first time since I got here, I’m actually pretty confident I’ll get to leave sometime soon. It’s weird, knowing that I might not be stuck here much longer actually reduces my eagerness to leave. I used to think that the moment the binding spell was removed I would be OUT of here. Like I would come back to visit of course. But I’d be rushing home first. Now… I can barely even imagine spending a night alone in my old home.What would I even do there? And poor Crash would be so confused. Not to mention I’d feel like a monster taking him away from Tori. Although I’m fairly sure my old job is long gone after I’ve not shown up for a month. So even if I do go home, I’ll probably need to keep working here for at least a while, right? That thought is oddly comforting.
I turn to give Torin a huge smile, but he doesn’t react, actually I don’t think he notices at all. His brow is furrowed and he looks deep in thought.
“Tori?” I try to get his attention and he jerks in surprise.
“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking…” He trails off, a little nervous. I raise an eyebrow.
“About what?” I prompt. He hesitates a moment.
“Well… You don’t have to answer, but as you said before I’ve never really asked much about your family. You said your father is gone, what about your mother?” He questions and I smile sadly.
“Mum passed away when I was a kid. I don’t really remember much about her, although I think I take after her. There are some old photos of her that my brother showed me and I look a lot like her.” I say with a smile. I’m glad I don’t look like my dad. My brother looks a lot more like him and he’s always hated it. Not because he’s unattractive or anything. Objectively, my dad and my brother are both reasonably handsome. But my dad was never good to us and treated us terribly as children. It didn’t matter so much when we were kids, but now that he’s older, Damien looks more and more like dad and he HATES it. I don’t think he wants to be associated with him at all. To be honest, it occasionally makes me uncomfortable. He will do or say something and it will remind me of dad. But I would never point that out to him. Besides, Damien is as different to dad as he could possibly be.
“Oh, I’m sorry. What about your brother? I know you’re fairly close to him, right?” Torin prompts and I nod enthusiastically.
“Definitely. He’s about four years older than me and to be honest he practically raised me. He’s the only family I’ve got.” I say fondly.
“Well it’s good that you have him then.” Torin answers. He sounds almost… Jealous.
“What’s wrong?” I question and Torin shrugs.
“It’s nothing. I was just thinking that it might have been nice to have a sibling. Someone who would understand what things are like for me.” He explains.
“It is nice, but I don’t think a sibling is the only person who could understand you. Not to mention, Damien and I grew up in the same place with the same people and we’re both fairly different, we had different experiences. I do think we’re closer than most siblings. He might be only a few years older than me but he’s almost like a parent figure to me.” I try to explain. I’m not sure if I actually managed to make my point, which was that having a sibling doesn’t always mean having an automatic best friend, at least it isn’t for a lot of people. I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
Laura knocks on my door and I call her in.
“Hey, is Torin in here? Oh, there you are. Uh, it’s about time to open, if you’re ready?” She asks nervously. Torin blinks in surprise. I don’t think he realised the time. He was too distracted by his apology, then my phone call and asking more about my family. He jumps to his feet.
“I’ll open up now.” He gives me a small smile, glances at the phone in my hand then leaves the room. Laura goes to follow him, but then freezes.
“Woah, hold up. Is that your phone? He gave you back your phone?” Her tone is a combination of shock and excitement. I nod happily and hold it up to show her.
“Yep. Isn’t it great? I used to be one of those people who said they would be fine going a few days without a phone. Now I know that it is totally not true. I’ve missed it SO much!” I clutch it to my chest and sigh while Laura laughs.
“Well now that you’ve rejoined the world of technology, I should give you my phone number.” She says excitedly. I beam a smile and hand her my phone to add her number.
“Does this mean I get to finally be part of your work group chat thing?” I say hopefully. To my surprise, Laura hesitates then nods a little reluctantly.
“Sure.” She doesn’t seem keen on the idea. Does she not want me to be part of the group? She must notice my concerned expression because she lets out a small laugh.
“It’s fine, seriously. You should be part of the group, just… be prepared for a lot of gossip.” She says vaguely. Hmm… The only reason she would be worried about me hearing gossip is if it was about me. Or maybe if they were saying a lot of negative things about Torin. I’m pretty sure most people have noticed by now that I don’t put up with people slandering him. Maybe she’s worried I’m going to force them to stop complaining about their boss or something.
Laura finishes entering her number and adds me to the group chat, then she heads out to work. I’m going to join her in an hour or so when it gets busier out there. Right now, I’m too excited to have my phone. I need to spend at least an hour pointlessly scrolling through social media and going down random internet rabbit holes about weirdly specific topics that aren’t actually relevant to me or my life. I’m randomly browsing through apps when I come across my banking app. It’s actually been a really long time since I’ve looked at my bank account. I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t remember my actual password to sign on and check it from my tablet. I’ve just been buying things online and hoping the money would be in the account. Happily, all of the information is saved in my phone, it just needs my pin. I enter my six digit pin and the app loads. I stare in shock. Why the hell is there so much money in my account? Where the hell did it all come from?
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