Page 16 of Running from Drac
Maybe Eddie called me while I was sleeping?
Checking my cell phone, I pathetically go through my call log, only to find I have a single missed call from a 702 area code left around one in the morning. It’s almost three now.
Shit, I had my phone on silent this whole time? No wonder I couldn’t hear it ring.
Luckily, the mysterious late-night caller left a voice mail, because I have no clue who would even try to call me this fucking late.
The voice on the other line is so faint I can barely hear it. There are loud noises going on in the background, and it’s almost impossible to hear whoever it is without straining my ears to listen really hard. The first few seconds of the call sound like a name, but it’s completely drowned out by the chaos going on in the background.
A loud voice shouts something, and a bunch of females start screaming like crazy while whistling and shouting obscene things I can’t quite make out.
All I hear is a “FUCK YEAH, BABY! TAKE THAT SHIT OFF!”
Whoever the caller is, moves into a less noisy room, and I can finally hear some of the conversation.
“Look, I’m not sure if you gave me the right number last night…”Fuck, it’s that sultry, thick, accent.
Shit! That means this is the guy. This is Mr. Australia. The man who fucked up my relationship without even knowing that’s what he did.
My heart starts to race, and panic seeps in.I gave him my number? Why the hell would I give him my number?
More noise blocks out whatever says next, and then it cuts through clearly mid-sentence. “I’m not sure why you left without saying goodbye, but I really was serious when I said I wanted to get to know you better. Could you please call me back as soon as you can? We have some things I think we need to discuss. Call me back at this number, Amber, please. I haven’t stopped thinking about you all day, and that’s not like me at all.”
The call ends there, and a part of me feels a bit of euphoria over it. Mr. Australia called me, and he wants me to call him back! But what the fuck is his name? I couldn’t hear shit over all the screaming women in the background.
I shouldn’t get this excited over a phone call, but Eddie never talks to me like this, at least not lately. Maybe in the beginning he used to charm the pants off me, but those days stopped the second he admitted to cheating.
Like an idiot, I listen to the call at least three more times, straining to hear more, hoping to catch what his name is when he says it, but I can’t hear shit.
I must’ve made some sort of impression on him, otherwise he wouldn’t be calling me, but I thought by leaving his hotel room he would have gotten the hint that our night of fun was over and never wanted to see him again.
Even though it’s super late, I make my way over to Poppy’s room. I need advice. I’m feeling shit I shouldn’t be feeling when I should be focused on trying to get Eddie back.
But do I really want him back when he’s spent the last few months ignoring me and treating me like his fuck toy instead of a girlfriend? Is our relationship even worth saving?
Having mystery man’s number sitting in my phone scares me shitless. The desperate part of me that wants to forgeteverything that happened tonight, wishes she had enough courage to pick up the phone, call back mystery man, and hop on the first flight to Vegas to rendezvous again. Then there’s the loyal part of me who wants to work things out with Eddie, the girl whose finger is resting over the delete button, ready to forget about him, Vegas, and is ready to piece back the life he ripped away from me. Eddie’s face right before he slammed his fist through my wall is still vivid in my mind. I need to make things right again.
I just want us to go back to before, to the days in the beginning of our relationship where Eddie treated me like I was a precious gem stone, and did everything in his power to make me happy. That’s the Eddie I miss. Not the monster who punched a hole in my wall.
I can hear Poppy snoring on the other side of the door.
Damn, I was hoping she’d be up studying or something.
When she doesn’t answer, I crack open her door and poke my head inside, loudly whispering, “Poppy, can I talk to you?”
Her body shifts under her blanket and she loudly grumbles something incoherently in her sleep. “Poppy, wake up!” I yell a little louder.
Poppy and I have lived together for months, it was only recently that Pippa moved in with us too, saying she didn’t want to be away from her sister any longer. When they got to college, Pippa wanted to be on her own, refusing to be known as one of “the twins” like she was in high school. Even though we all go to the same school, Pippa picked a dorm on campus, while Poppy and I chose to live in a duplex close to school. After a few semesters of Pippa not really making any new friends, she ended up taking our third bedroom, bringing us all together again.
Poppy moves slightly in her sleep, and then does a weird sleeping whistle, followed by a strange clicking thing with her tongue, before going silent.
This time, I move across the room and grab her arm, gently shaking her, “Poppy, I need to talk to you. Please wake up.”
She shoots up, clutching her chest like I just woke her up from a nightmare. “Damn, Amber! Are you trying to kill me? What if I had punched you or something? Don’t you know that it’s not good to wake people up by shaking them? If there’s one person in the world, you don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night, it’s a crazy Latina like me!”
I laugh because Pippa and Poppy are only partially Hispanic. Their mother was originally from Mexico but came here when she was like three years old and doesn’t even speak Spanish fluently anymore. Their father is as white as he can be, but he’s also very rich and well known in the state of Nevada for owning a few successful businesses. He’s also the reason both girls have a hint of red in their hair and freckles lining their noses. They got their mom’s exotic looks with their olive skin, long trim figures, and long black hair to their waists, and the most adorable red-headed features from their dad.
“First off, you’re not the crazy twin, Poppy. That’s all Pippa, and two, there’s something I have to tell you that’s worth waking you up for. Besides, you are the last person I could ever be afraid of, I know you better than that.”
