And Then She Was Gone

So Awkward

Halfway through the drive back to her cabin, Elizabeth's phone buzzed alive in vibration following the melody of the wispy ring tone associated to Alex. His face popping up on the screen in a photo she took of him back in freshman year where he was mid laugh with whipped cream slathered across his lower jaw. It was one of her favorite pictures of him, and despite his protests, remained his profile ID photo in her phone.

A warm smile erupted on her face, as she momentarily diverted her attention to the phone in excitement, a vision popping into her head amusedly of Uncle Dominick somewhere out there sensing the irresponsibility of it all and dramatically falling to his knees with fists shaking towards the sky.

A quick poke of her index finger on the circular green icon, prompted the new screen to unfold, with the bulk of it being Alex's sleepy looking face. "Hey you!" she said with a huge grin, her eyes now back on the road but her face not free from reacting to the much welcomed face time.

"Heeeeyy you yourself." He said sluggishly as if he had just woken up with a sheepish grin she could only catch in her peripheral. "Are you driving? Do you want me to call you back?" his voice perked up a little bit as he saw the interior of her car, seatbelt tucked neatly against her shoulder and her features reflecting different shades of light constantly as the trees being passed dimmed the sunshine and then released the area from shadows in the matter of seconds as the SUV pushed forward through the landscape.

"No, no, no." she said hurriedly, not even allowing him to contemplate that notion for a second. "It feels like I haven't talked to you in forever, I'll be fine, I'm keeping my eyes on the road."

"Are you sure? I don't want to be a distraction." he said, with a hint of uncertainty, his protective nature of her slowly slithering out in his words and treating her with an almost fatherly manner.

"Okay Dominick." she huffed along with an eyeroll, finding the two main men in her life to be insultingly cautious.

A gasp emanated from deep within him as if all oxygen had been removed from his body, and he simultaneously gripped at his chest in mock agony. "How could you?!" feigned tears now on full display.

"Oh, shut up." a small laugh quipped out before she quickly moved the conversation along, "What have you been doing? It feels like its been forever since I talked to you!" she whined, glancing at the screen and then back to the road immediately, not giving him any reason to end their call early.

"Liz, it's been like three days." he said with a laugh.

"Yeah, but you normally call every two days!" she quickly retorted.

"Oh so you're keeping track of the frequency of my calls now?" he said, an eyebrow arched half in amusement and half in interest, clearly this feature being missed as she focused on the road.

"Well.." her cheeks growing pink and a small delay in response eluding to just how much she looked forward to his phone calls more than words would translate. "Sometimes, it gets lonely out here on my own... and I look forward to getting updates... you know about people, and you know... you." Liz was never one who knew how to be direct, or to be able to properly explain the way that she felt especially if there was any room for a situation to go sideways and turn uncomfortable.

"Oh I see, I see..." he said, the air filled with silence for a moment, before he loudly belted out in a melodic manner, "You looooooove me." wrapping it all up with exaggerated fish kisses.

Her teeth clenched and a scowl formed on her face as she grew annoyed with his perpetual need to mock and tease her. "Shut up. You're an idiot."

"It's true. You love me. I know, I'm awesome. You miss me so much you can't bear going more than a few days without hearing my voice. I'm like chamomile tea to your rapidly beating uneasy heart." he said with a exaggerated longing sigh at the end, his voice taking a feminine note as he blinked his eyes rapidly in a cooing manner.