XLIII

XLIII
I was so close to setting my phone on fire, for the third time this week Noah had sent me an unsolicited picture of his member. Even after I never responded to any of them, and ignoring him at the office, he still sent them. All with different angles, and different 'suggestive' captions. To my friends it was a very funny thing, and it made them laugh really hard. But to me? It was disgusting, and in my books, he could no longer even be hot.
"I'm telling him." I announce to my friends as we sat down over dinner.
"You have got to be more specific, you are telling who what?"
"Noah, I'm going to tell him that I find pictures of his penis being sent to me randomly, disgusting and annoying."
"You had to bring that up? At dinner?" James asked while giving me a flat look.
I rolled my eyes at them. They talk about worse things at dinner.
"I was wondering when you were finally going to say something actually, it is suspicious to stay mute when things like that happen and you find it offensive." Sara said calmly.
I bit my cheek to keep from responding, her words were offensive, she insinuated that I loved getting spammed with dick pictures. But you couldn't blame her for thinking that way. If you looked it objectively, I could have blocked him or something, but I said nothing and let it keep happening.
"Lisa is sentimental, she doesn't let go of people just like that, maybe she thought he was going to change or something." Mariana rushed to my rescue. I gave her a warm smile.
"It's okay, I could have blocked him since the first picture, but I didn't." I say evenly.
The room grew quiet at that, only the sounds of cutlery hitting plates were heard. Nobody spoke after that.
Not feeling like communicating, I take my coat after I finished my dinner, and walked outside. Usually I liked to take walks with my mom when we were younger. When she was no longer there, I only walked, I didn't take a walk. To anywhere.
As my feet hit the dirty road, I realized it was her anniversary soon. At the thought of that, my chest constructed. I couldn't breathe so I stood, trying to focus on my breathing instead. Swallowing the lump that formed in my throat, I felt ready to start walking again.
My phone beeped in my pockets, signifying a new message. I sighed, if I got one more text from Noah before I had the chance to say anything about it to him, I would explode.
When I bring my phone out of my pockets, I find it's a reminder notification, telling me to call my dad. Something I had set more than a year ago. The last time we saw other was more than five years ago, the last time we spoke to each other was much longer than five years ago. My palms got sweaty and my throat ran dry. I stood still while trying to gather my thoughts. I hadn't spoken to the man in ages, what would he be up to now? Should I call him? What if he hangs up immediately after hearing my voice? I find his contact in my phone as Sir. My heart hammered in my chest as my finger hovered above the call icon.
"Hey."
I heard a familiar voice say just as I was about to click it, the shock caused the phone to slip through my fingers and fall face down on the floor.
"Fuck." The person cursed as they bent to pick it up.
For some reason I felt relief, like a stream, it flooded my veins, and I was very thankful to him.
"I am so sorry about that, so so sorry."
I raised my eyes to see Adam holding my phone and looking extremely pitiful. I chuckle softly. In fact I almost laugh, it was like the universe didn't want me talking with the man at all.
"Every time we meet, one of us apologizes to the other." I comment before taking the phone from him.
Upon examination, I realized the phone was gone, already it had fallen so many times in the past. And I guess this was the last straw.
"I honestly didn't mean to scare you like that." His eyes were still apologetic.
"Really? How else did you mean to scare me then?"
His eyes bulged a bit, "not so much that your phone would get ruined."
I laugh a bit.
"This old thing? It was due for a new one. Sooner or later I would have gotten a new one." I say before I slowly start walking.
He followed me, I turned to look at him with a side eye, he looked like he didn't know what to say.
"What are you doing out here?" I ask to give him an opportunity to say something else.
"I actually followed you.."
This time I turned to face him fully.
"Stalker alert."
He laughed and started walking forward, this time he was leading me.
"Are we going somewhere or we're just talking a walk?" He asked.
"I'm taking a walk, I don't know where you're going."
He laughed. His laugh was not cute, but it was a just a laugh right?
"Did you really follow me? Since when?"
"Well I saw you leave the building, I wanted to call you but I felt you wanted to be alone."
"Yet here we are, you still followed."
"Guilty. I thought you might need someone to fight the bad guys if needed."
I snicker,
"I'm the safest here, I've around here long enough for these guys to know me, they won't hurt me. But you on there hand newbie. You'll be toast, I'll be the one doing the fighting."
He laughed again, "why didn't I think of that?"
"Why did you decide to show yourself then? Why didn't you keep to the shadows?"
He scratched the back of his head, I could tell he was nervous.
"I figured you'd need company. You looked torn.."
I took a sharp breath, he saw that.
"And you ruined my phone."
"Can I pay for a new one?"
I blink at him, he must have just left his parents place and doesn't know how to survive on his own. You don't go around offering to get someone a change of phone if you lived in this area.
"Sure, I'd like the latest iphone model sir." I mocked him.
"Copy that." He nodded seriously before bringing out his own phone, shocker, an iphone. He actually ordered it online in my presence.
"What the fuck?"
He chuckled nervously, "it'll come tomorrow. I know your apartment, I'll drop it off as soon as it comes."
"You just did that??"
He looked confused.
"You don't like it?"
"You don't understand the gravity of what you just did?"
He looked even more lost.
"You live in this apartment building, and buying a new model of iphone for someone is nothing to you?"
"Oh, that's really nothing. Please don't offer to pay for it, or you'll make things weird."
I slowly nod.
"Thank you. I've got school in the morning, any chance you'll be going back home now?"
I blink in confusion,
"Yeah sure."
The walk home was quiet, not awkward. We were both lost in our thoughts.
I was specifically thinking about getting a job at the coffee shop he worked. Or maybe stealing his credit card.
He placed a kiss on my forehead before I could stop him.
"Payback for the one you gave me first. Good night." Was all he said before dashing away.
I was still in shock by the time I climbed back into bed.