Nothing Personal

The phone seemed to ring for forever and Alex was wondering if the person was even going to pick up. What was the point of calling her when she had asked if she wasn’t actually going to pick up the stupid phone? Just when he thought that the call was going to go to voicemail, he heard the ringing stop and shuffling as she picked up.

“Hello?” A small voice asked and Alex couldn’t help but smile.

“Hi, is this Mr. Dorian Peters?” Alex asked as he heard a girl talking in the background.

Zo. It was her. He could hear her real voice in the background. This was almost as real as it ever had gotten before. An actual phone call so he could hear her real voice. Somehow, it made their whole ‘mind reading’ situation even more real than it had been before.

No. He can’t be thinking things like that right now. He had to talk to Do. He needed to give the little boy some sort of comfort before his treatment tomorrow. He promised Zo.

“Um y-yes? Wh-who is this?”

“This is Alex. I called because your sister told me that you wished you could talk to me. And so I decided to give you a call so we can talk properly.”

“Really!?!” The little boy shouted and Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “Zo! It’s Alex!”

“That’s awesome buddy!” Alex heard Zo say in the background and his heart did a little flip. Why was he acting like this? It was so strange. NO! Focus on Do!

“Wait!” The little boy suddenly said. “How do I know that it’s actually you and not some random person that my sister called?”

Crap. How was he going to explain this one? He could tell that Zo was just as stumped as he was. How do you prove to a little boy over the phone that you are actually the voice in his sisters head? He took a few moments to think of something and then it hit him.

“Well, how about this. I’m going to tell you a number out loud to you but you have to make sure not to say it out loud so your sister doesn’t hear. Then I’m going to tell her it and then she’s going to tell you? How about that?”

“Ok,” Do replied hesitantly as Alex laughed.

“Alright, tell your sister to turn her back.” He did as he was told and heard Zo complaining in the back ground. *Just go along with this please? At least he’s getting his mind off of things.*

“Tell Alex that he’s an ass,” Zo said in the background and Do giggled.

“I heard that,” Alex replied and Do repeated it to her.

“Good, because he is,”

“Ok, her back is turned. What’s next?” Alex was glad to hear that the boy was almost sounding eager about this. Which was better than he sounded when he first answered the phone.

“Ok, next. I’m going to pick a number. Hmm, and the number I choose is, 80,085. How about that?”

“Hmmm….”

*That spells boobs you dick. I can’t believe you would want my little brother to say that to me.*

*It’s better than 69 Zo,*

“No, that’s a weird number.”

*Thank God,* Zo muttered as Alex laughed.

“Alright, then should I go higher or lower?”

There was a long pause as if it was an important question, “lower.”

“Ok, how about ten?”

“Yeah!” Do cheered.

“Ok, now ask your sister what’s the number.”

Do did as he was told and when she gave the right answer Do started to freak out. He started chatting away about different things and Alex listened intently with a smile on his face. The little boy was so cute. He couldn’t help but smile as he sat in the front room of their bus listening to his chatter. But when Do yawned for the fifth time; he knew he should be wrapping up the phone call.

“Hey do I think you should go to sleep now. We’ll have plenty of more times to talk ok?” Do mumbled something about not being sleepy as he yawned again and Alex heard Zo back him up. “Ok Do, I’ll talk to you later ok?”

“Promise?” He asked quietly as if this was the only time Alex would ever talk to him.

“I pinky promise buddy, but you have to promise me you’ll be a good boy and go to bed.” The little boy agreed and said goodbye. “Ok buddy, sleep well. Can you give the phone to your sister?”

A mumbled ok came in reply as he said something to Zo that Alex couldn’t make out. There were a few words exchanged and some shuffling before he hear it all stop and then Zo’s voice came from the other end.

“Thank you so much,” she said quietly as he smiled to himself. He was still trying to get over the fact that he was actually talking to Zo and not just in his head.

“It’s not a problem, I’m glad I could help.” He replied as they left a pause before he decided to continue. “Am I the only one who is finding this really strange?”

“Haha, no you’re not. I’m finding this really weird. I can’t believe that I can hear your actual voice instead of your dorky voice in my head. It’s strange, but funny, at the same time.” She laughed and he couldn’t help but agree.

They continued talking as Zooey made her way back home after saying bye to Do for the night. They had gotten over the fact of how weird it was and continued to talk in their heads and over the phone at the same time mixing the conversation between the two. It was very strange but fun at the same time. Something that really only they could do, unless they randomly ran into some people who could do the same thing as they could. But c’mon, who likely was that?

Before he knew it, they had been talking for about two hours. It was late, and Zo needed to get to bed. She had been yawning for the last twenty minutes and every time he told her to go to bed, she would reply sarcastically and then ended up talking about something else.

“Zo, I’m serious. Go. To. Bed.” Alex said for the fifth time. *Seriously.*

*He’s such a pain in the ass,* she muttered.

*I heard that,*

“Good.” She snapped back.

“I’ll hang up,”

“Ooh so scary,” she replied sarcastically, which was something Alex was used to. Whenever she was tired she got sarcastic and snappy. “You know there is such a thing as redial? I have your number in my phone now. I can just call you back. Or I could just give your number out to all my friends and tell them to call you a billion times.”

Alex rolled his eyes, *you’re a pain.*

“Yup!”

“Zo?”

“Hmm?”

“Go to bed.”

“But moooooom, I don’t want to.” She whined adding a foot stop which he could hear through the phone and see through her mind’s eye.

“Very mature,”

“Why thank you!” She gave a sigh and he saw her look at the clock. “I should probably go to bed. I have to get up a six for that meeting for the newspaper.”

“That’s in like six and a half hours and you’re going to be crabby. Which means, if you don’t go to bed now, I’m going to have to deal with a even angrier Zo. And I really don’t want to do that so go to bed. I’m hanging up now.” Taking the phone from his ear, he pressed the end button without giving her a chance to talk.

*Fine, I’ll talk to you later.* She replied. Not really phased by the fact that he just hung up on her.

*Ok, sleep well.* He answered as they fell into silence.

A few moments later, she was asleep and beginning to dream. He lay in his bunk staring at the ceiling as he watched her dream and then pulled out his phone and looked at her number. Giving a small smile to the numbers, he pressed a button and began to type her name into the new contacts option.

Once it was added, he smiled to himself as he allowed his eyes to close.