Hope | ✔

Chapter 11: Phone Call

"If you need me, call me. I don't care if i'm sleeping, if i have my own problems or if i'm even angry at you. If you need me and you need to talk to me, i'll always be there for you."

Jaimie-mae sat embarressed in the backseat of the Sharp's car. 

The whole car ride was silent. No one dared ask questions. Jaimie-mae was thankful for it, but she hated the thick tension in the air. 

The silence would have given her the perfect time to overthink. But she couldn't, not with Fabian playing mindlessly with her thin fingers.

Fabian hadn't even noticed he was doing it, and he didn't realize he was helping her.

When Justin pulled into Spring Boulevard, Jaimie-mae told them the number and color of her apartment with a strained voice. As soon as he had stopped in front of her driveway, she opened the door, grabbed her backpack and thanked them.

"Thanks so much for the ride."

"No problem sweetie. I hope you feel better," Madison said with a sad smile.

"Thank you. Drive safely," she said as she shut the door.

"Bye Jaimie-mae!" Mason shouted through the window.

Jaimie-mae chuckled and waved shyly to him.

She was about to walk away when Fabian's door swung open. "Wait!"

"Here's my number. Um, call me. Please. If you need me. Or even if you don't need me. Just call me. I also need to tell you the date of the dinner and what time," he rambled.

Jaimie-mae giggled. "Okay, i will." She took the slip of paper out of his hand.

Fabian looked relieved. "Okay. See you later then." He closed the door and they drove off shortly after.

***

Jaimie-mae hung upside down off the side of her bed with her phone clutched tightly in one hand and the slip of paper in the other.

She had just ended the call with her mom after telling her about the Sharp's and how they checked her out of the hospital.

Her mom had freaked out and got slightly upset that she didn't know her own daughter was even admitted into the hospital. Jaimie-mae just told her it was no big deal and that she only fell asleep there because she panicked a little.

She failed to tell her mom about the part where Fabian had slept beside her all night and kept her safe from her own memories. She didn't want her mom overexciting herself.

Eventually, Jaimie-mae had started sobbing to her mother about how much she hated her flashbacks and how scared she really was. She hated feeling scared and on edge all the time. She felt pathetic. But then she remembered Fabian telling her she was brave so she calmed down and smiled to herself. 

Her mom cooed to her until she felt her daughter was stable enough for her to hang up and continue working. She promised she'd be home one day earlier so she could be there with her daughter and they could watch harmless disney movies or maybe an old film like the 'Little Rascal's'.

Jaimie-mae knew that her mom would end up finding a way home early. She always did. So that's what she focused on.

However, eventually her focus was put on something else entirely. And that was Fabian's phone number.

To her, it felt surreal to even be holding something like Fabian's number in her hand. It was more than a number. It was her source of communication with him. A way to hear his silky voice and his charming laugh.

If she dared, she'd even call it a lifeline; of sorts.

So here she was, overthinking things; as usual. She tried to call all her theories ridiculous, but really all of them could be highly possible.

One theory being; him thinking she was desperate for calling so soon.

She had to remind herself that he said himself that she should call him. So that's what she did.

Six hours later, at 7:47 at night, she was calling him.

The dial tone of the phone made her nervous but all the nervousness faded away as soon as she heard his voice come through the phone.

"Hello?"

Jaimie-mae lay there for a few seconds absorbing the fact that it was Fabian's voice coming through the phone. It was probably scaring Fabian that he was getting a call from an unknown number and no one was talking.

"Hellooo," Fabian called out.

Jaimie-mae cringed to herself. "Sorry, hey."

"Jaimie-mae?"

"Yeah, hi. It's me."

"Hey! I was beginning to think you weren't going to call."

"Were you waiting for my call?"

"Yeah." Jaimie-mae was a little surprised at how easily he said that. She would have been stuttering like crazy.

"Sorry, is that creepy? Waiting for a call?" Fabian asked sheepishly.

"No. Um." She smiled. "It's nice."

"Cool. Are you doing okay now? You kinda scared me in the car."

"Ugh, sorry. I don't mean to. Oh my g- i am so embarrassed. Your little brother is so gonna have nightmares tonight. I'm such an ugly crier."

"No. He's not going to have nightmares. And I think the tears make you look really... gorgeous and real. They kind of make your eyes sparkle and your eyelashes look really long afterwards."

Jaimie-mae was stunned into silence. No one had ever called her gorgeous. Especially when she was crying. She was always labelled as the cute, shy girl at school. Her friend, Kacey, even said she was cute. But Kacey thought everything was cute.

"Am i making you blush?" She could hear his smirk through the phone.

"No." She was just blushing.

"It's not good to lie you know."

She laughed into the phone and sat up in her bed. "Sorry. You did make me blush."

"Haha. I knew it," he teased. "I don't know if i should have done this, but i um... did a little research on PTSD so that i could understand it a little better."

Jaimie-mae felt her chest warm up with an unknown heat. She couldn't help the smile that slipped onto her face. "That's really sweet. Thanks."

It was sweet. And caring. And considerate. He'd done research out of free will so he could understand something that was apart of Jaimie-mae. He cared enough to find out what she had to work with on a daily. 

"Yeah. If you need someone, you can call me."

"Okay." Jaimie-mae didn't really want to talk much more about it and Fabian must have noticed by her lack of speech. 

"So, dinner. My parents said to ask you when you're free. When are you free?"

Jaimie-mae chuckled. "I'm free Friday night and Sunday."

"Okay. I'll tell my parents. What do you like to eat."

"I'm not picky. Anythings good."

"Okay great. I can't pick you up because im not allowed to drive, so i'll get my mom to pick you up."

"Alright." 

Jaimie-mae heard a random distant shout and a few seconds later Fabian was shouting back.

"Sorry, i gotta go see what my brother broke. I can't wait to see you again. I'll text you the date alright."

"Okay."

"Have a good nights sleep Jaimie."

Jaimie-mae hung up and hung onto those words. 

And that's what she did, she had a good nights sleep.

For the first time in a long time.