Through the Dark

If Josie hadn’t caught flu, Mom wouldn’t have to be dealing with my perpetual indifference towards the agenda for today. In preparation for the rather superficial wedding, we had started searching for the wedding dress. My sister should have been the one sitting through all of this instead of me, but then she called in sick this morning and it felt like getting shot right at the cranium. Of course, there was no telling Mom that I wasn’t interested in helping out on her third (it’s supposed to be fourth but the last groom got cold feet on the last minute) wedding. Sometimes, having youthful Moms has its cons.

Three particularly over-decorated dresses later, and she still hasn’t found the right one. I was on the brink, undoubtedly, and also fighting the urge to run out of the store to get some fresh air. The saleslady was trying too hard to sell their merchandise off, and the voice that was coming out of her mouth was just plain irking. Surprisingly, Mom must have noticed, since she stepped out of the platform and told me to go and buy myself something to eat. “Be back before 3, we still have to taste the cakes.” She said, before I went off and disappeared out of the place.

On days like today, Valerie would be off from all her duties. I knew this because 1) we were originally supposed to hang out and buy new materials for our holy research thesis, and 2) she’s standing 20 steps away from me, gulping on a cup of coke. So I call her and she turns to me, nonchalantly and definitely not surprised.

“I knew you’d be here.” Val stated, before finishing off her drink. “Did you ditch your mom?!” she then asked, and slapped my arm. This girl was one who values family matters, so she didn’t mind at all when I cancelled on her.

“Nope, she actually asked me to go. Must’ve sensed my discomfort.” I reply, which made her smile goofily.

We then wandered off to the bookstore so we can get the stuff we needed of the oncoming week of hell, but instead Val ended up stuck at this old record store we used to hang out at months ago. She actually sulked when we found out that the owner was getting it renovated so they’d be “in with the new”. I had to listen to her rant about how stupid the whole thing was, because everything doesn’t have to follow the trend to be cool.

This was and is Valerie Bridges, the girl who almost ripped my throat out when I tapped her shoulder on our first day in Neuropsychology class in the University. After that, she apologised and explained to me her pet-peeve. She also seems to lack hope and compassion towards human kind, which was the reason why we just both clicked. It wasn’t that we were both misogynists, because we aren’t—although now, we’re starting to think so. The whole friendship thing was an unspoken agreement. She and I just both knew that we weren’t going to find anyone less annoying than one another. With that, we made through the first term alive. Soon enough, we were joined by two other people, Madeline and Marco Herring, who were able to make more sense out of the universe and people who wear crocs and socks. Anyway, life seemed more bearable the moment I met them.

After a while of looking around for new old vinyl on stock, the two of us finally decided to get our shit done before squandering off again. I only had about an hour before going back to meet Mom, and she’d already called twice to check whether I’d ditched her. But as we weaved through the isles towards the exit, we got blocked by a scarily huge amount of girls, crowding all over the entire place. So Val grabbed my arm and we went around to the other side of the store in order to vamoose. However, as soon as we got out and turned at a corner, I managed to impinge myself against a stranger. This causes the both of us to drop the phones that were once clasped within our hands.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” I exclaimed, sounding exasperated. Val had let go of my arm then and was already walking ahead, completely oblivious to my recent clumsiness.

The person, whom I’ve ascertained is a dude, straightened out himself and turned to me. “It’s alright, don’t worry ‘bout it. Are you okay though?” he asked, meeting his eyes with mine. And I caught my breath, because his orbs looked undeniably beautiful while mine were just dull and brown. I couldn’t help but feel both envious and smitten by such a bewitching living soul.

“Y-yeah, I-I’m fine.” I reply, forcing out at least a small smile before bending down to reclaim my probably shattered phone. The problem was, there were two of it on the floor and both looked identical. So the reckless idiot that I was just took the one that had slid closer to me and walked away as fast as I could.

Val stood waiting for me a few moments later, a look of worry and amusement was plastered across her face. “Man, that was a pretty hard blow.” She said with a chuckle.

“I hate you.” I stated, walking pass by her. “You could’ve lent me a hand though.”

“But the moment was too beautiful to interrupt.” She joked. “Besides, you just met the Niall Horan.”
We neared the store entrance where Mom was standing, with a bag in hand. I assumed she’d already found the right one. “Niall who?” I queried.

“Horan! You know? That guy from the Direction boy-band?” Val answered. And as much as I didn’t want to put so much thought into it, there was a carking feeling inside my head because of how I acted in front of the guy earlier. It almost seemed like I was trying to vamp him.

I cringe at the thought and just shrugged it off. “Right, anyway do you wanna come with us? We’re heading to the cake-tasting.”

Of course, Val didn’t refuse the invitation. And now I’m stuck between Mom and her as they exchange their thoughts with the pastries. All I was able to contribute was the idea of having Nutella cupcakes, they loved it anyway. We’d agreed to make them ourselves.

When we reached the place, Val and I were back to discussing the incident that happened a while ago. She kept bugging me about what I thought about that guy—Niall? “He’s alright, I guess. His eyes look nice.” Was my reply, and she called me lame. I didn’t want to tell her that I almost forgot how to breathe when his eyes met mine, because that would be just plain dumb and cliché.

“Julia, honey can you call Josie for a while and ask her what flavour she wanted for the cake?” Mom called from the kitchen.

So I took my phone out, and thought something wasn’t right. The lock screen wallpaper was completely unfamiliar to me. There wasn’t a passcode either. And I’m reminded about the fact that the Niall guy and I both dropped our phone earlier today.

And the realisation hit me right at the face, so hard that I felt the thing in my hand getting heavier.

“Jules, did you call her alrea—hey, you alright? You're looking pale.” Val inquired.

I turned to her and felt my eyes getting wider. “Val, I took the wrong phone.”

“What?”

“This phone, this isn’t mine. It’s that Niall guy’s.”