Catfish

With his head against his soft pillow, Liam held the phone to his ear with his left hand, while his right pulled against his sheets until they were just below his chin. His yawns signaled to her how tired he was, but she knew he still wouldn’t hang up, at least not until she’d finished brushing her teeth.

“Done yet?” Liam asked, his voice passing through the speaker of his phone and landing on the ear piece of hers.

With her mouth full of minty foam, Penelope let out her best attempt at a wordy ‘no’ that she could manage, and though it was almost undecipherable, he knew what she meant.

She spit the foam from her mouth, giving it a quick rinse of water, before turning her attention back to the phone.

“Done.”

Her voice was cheerful and it brought a smile to his face. That sweet voice was the only lullaby he would ever need. Her soft goodnights were the only thing that could put him to sleep anymore, and he was okay with that.

Hearing her wish him sweet dreams was his favorite part of the day. It was the only thing that remained consistent throughout their tour.

Even though her goodnights sometimes came to him in the afternoon, it was better than not hearing them at all. He could never tell her about all his time zone switches, because then she would ask why he traveled so often, so he continuously pretended he was in London, even when he was traveling all over the world.

But now he was back in London and was only a few hours away from her. It didn’t matter how close they were, because he would never see her, but he still felt better when they were only a few hundred miles apart. It made him feel as close to her as he possibly could.

“You under the covers?” he asked, his voice just barely above a whisper.

She shook her head, before responding, “yes.”

Neither of them spoke for a moment, listening only to the sound of the other breathing. He wanted so badly to tell her how much he wanted to see her, but he couldn’t. If he told her that, he ran the risk of her saying it back, and that could only lead to them meeting for the first time.

As much as he wanted that to happen, he knew that it couldn’t. He had lied to her, from the very beginning, about who he really was, so there was no way he could meet her without her finding out. He didn’t want to see the look on her face when she learned that all the stories he’d told about university weren’t true.

“Penny?”

His voice nearly squeaked when he spoke, causing him to take a deep breath afterwards. He wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her so badly.

“Liam?”

Her voice was that same sweet tone it always was. The one that made his heart melt and all his doubts go away. Penny did crazy things to him, and she could make his mood flip at the drop of a dime. She was his cocoa on a snowy day.

“Do you think we’ll meet one day?”

He didn’t mean to let it slip, but it did, and he couldn’t take it back, even if he wanted to.
For so long, he had wanted to be able to match a face to the girl who made him feel a thousand different thing all at once, and he was sure she wanted to do the same with him.

Every time they said their goodnights, he imagined what she looked like bundled underneath the covers. She had blonde hair and freckles. Her blankets were pink with white polka dots. She slept in old pajamas that didn’t match. He knew all those things about her, but he didn’t know her face.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Penelope said, her voice growing louder as she spoke. “My phone cut off and I didn’t catch the end.”

“I just asked if you had class tomorrow.”

He lied again. He was so good at lying to Penelope that the words fell from his lips before he had a chance to speak them.

“Li, I have class every Monday. You know that.”

Her voice was littered with her laughter, and it only made his heart ache even more. He imagined that she had the beautiful smile to match her perfect laugh.

“Pen,” he said, taking his voice to its lowest tone. “I’m about to doze off, but I’ll talk to you in the morning, yeah?”

“Of course.” A yawn followed her words, signaling she would be asleep just moments after him. “Goodnight, Li. Sweet dreams.”

“Goodnight, love. Sweet dreams to you, too.”

To him, there was nothing more magical than that moment. Even though they were miles apart and their days didn’t connect in any way, at night they were together.

When she was on the other end of the line, drifting off to sleep just as he was, it was as if she was right next to him, and one day, he would make sure that she really was.