My Mistake, So Predictable

“Call him.” Tabitha insists, tossing my cell phone across the room to where I am curled up in the corner of the couch. I fumble with it as it comes hurtling dangerously close to my face and glare at her. Jerk. Then I think about what she had said and my nerves flare up. “I don’t think I can.” I whine pathetically as I bury my face in the couch cushions.

“Hailey Allison Grey! Don’t you dare not call that boy just because you don’t have the guts to. Weren’t you the one who flashed our middle school bus driver just because Tyler Anderson said you wouldn’t?” I nod against unwillingly, which is hard since my cheeks are still pressed tightly against the sofa. “Well then you need to balls up, girl!” She lectures, walking over to me and placing my phone against my ear.

While Tabby supervises to make sure I don’t throw my balls out the window and hide like a coward in my room until Alex forgets all about me, I press the buttons for his number. The worst feeling in the world is waiting for someone to pick up their phone. My hands shake, my feet tap, and my eyes roam the walls of the apartment nervously. I absolutely hate this feeling. If you gave me the choice between swimming in a tank full of spiders and calling someone, I would take the plunge into the arachnids; no hesitation. I always make Max call everyone for me. If I pay him extra, he even uses a girl voice just to amuse me.

"Hello?" The male voice says on the other end as he picks up, stopping my nervous habits immediately.

"Alex?" I ask shyly. I'm still anxious to find out what he had wanted to talk to me about. Since Tabitha had first told me to call him earlier this morning, it had been eating away at my very last nerves. I had never been like this; not in high school anyway. Like Tabby had said earlier, I was very gutsy in school; but that’s a story for another time.

"Hails?" He questions, and I hear low murmuring on the other end, followed by footsteps and then the thud of a door closing. "Sorry,” He apologizes. “Zack likes his cartoons turned all the way up.”

I laugh at the vision of the extremely buff guy spread out on a couch, laughing along with animated creatures. Stereotypes my ass.

"It's okay." I say still slightly chuckling and moving so I'm sitting now upside down on the couch, my feet swinging over the back of the headrest. Tabby kicks my head gently with her socked feet to remind me she hates when I sit like this and I swat at her thigh irritably. "So, you wanted to ask me something?" My foot starts tapping as I ask this. He's probably wondering how I could have gotten so wasted last night. Then he's going to insist that I never see him again, followed by him sending a very descriptive restraining order insisting that I move to Paraguay so the distance will be far enough away for him.

"I was wondering- AhhhHHH!" I hear him shriek on the other end and then I think the sound of the phone hitting the floor. "Jack, you bastard!" He yells suddenly sounding very far away.
I wait a few moments and then he picks up the phone and apologizes again. "I don't know why I gave those assholes a key to my apartment. Jack just tried to curl my hair with an electric mixer." I hear the sound of maniacal laughter and the low hum of a small kitchen utensil in the background and Alex curses profusely at Jack which causes him to laugh louder.

Someone on the phone slams a door, “Okay, they’re gone.” A sigh of relief follows from him. “I kicked them out.” I laugh. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you’d want to come to a concert with me?”

Before I can answer he continues, “You don’t have to, of course. It’s tomorrow night, but if you don’t want to go then-“

“ALEX!” I laugh, flipping over so my feet are on solid ground once more. The blood rushing to my head had given me a throbbing headache, “I’d love to go, seriously. Any particular band playing?”

“You might know them.” He says secretively and I huff in frustration. We talk for a few more minutes and then hang up, him promising to pick me up at three tomorrow. I try to hide my enthusiasm from Tabitha by escaping to our bedroom immediately after we hang up, but secretly I’m happy. I haven’t spent much time away from my tiny apartment and the store in awhile and the chance to get out excites me.