I awoke to a bright light trying to shine its way through my eye lids. As I opened my eyes, I noticed it was...a completely new day?
The first thing that came to my mind were two things, the bright light I awoke to, and Mah. They were similar.
Why are you like this, he's gone now. Get over it and resume your same life cycle as you did before you two met. My mind was right.
The ring of my phone, which interrupted my thinking, startled me, and I foolishly winced. I checked to see who could be calling so early.
"Hello?"
"Zilah! We need you at the bookstore. Please don't tell me you quit because I didn't let you work overtime five days ago! I'll let you work over time as much as you want, I'll even give you a raise but please come!!"
"Z—Zach? Is everything okay?"
"No, I'm worried because you didn't show up for your shift today, Zilah. Well not only today, but the past five days. I thought you decided to quit on me and find a far better paying job."
I unintentionally let out a laugh. "Zach, it's only morning. And what do you mean five days? I was just there yesterda— "
Several messages came through my phone at once, interrupting the sentence I was intending to finish. I checked to see who else could have possibly had my number due to my boring social life. My contacts consisted of no more than 10 people.
I lifted my eyebrows as I observed the time instead of the text messages I was intending to look at. "3:00pm? What!?" I noticed how I accidentally disregarded Zach's voice on the phone.
Why am I up so late? How'd I even miss work? And why did the time span feel so different?
After I consistently blinked for a minute, I started remembering. I took off a few days from work to stay home. But I never told Zach I was taking off. I just did it. I was so sick after that night with Mah.
As in sick, I mean puking my fucking guts out. Having no energy. Not remembering a damn thing after every nap I'd taken. So basically, just a minor cold...
"Zilah? Zilah? Are you there? So you're really leaving us!? Zilah!" My mangers voice tuned back into my ears.
"No Zach, no! I-I'll be there in 30 minutes, goodbye." I hung up before he could say any more. I checked the time on my phone once more to make sure I was not mistaken. It was true, it was 3:00pm. And five fucking days later.
Come to think of it, this is the best I'd ever rested in what, years? Why was that? I pushed that thought aside, got out of bed, and carried on with my routine as I always did before work.
As I was in the shower I couldn't help but think about him. Why was he even still on my mind.? After all of these days. I thought I'd made it clear to myself that after that night we wouldn't be associated with one another anymore.
~
I entered the bookstore as a cool breeze hit my face. Everyone turned their attention towards me, which was overly awkward.
"Zilah? Zilah! You're here!" Could he calm the fuck down just a bit? It was Zach who ran to me first. Then came two more of the employees who seemed quite annoyed at Zach's euphoric attitude. "If only you were here two hours ago and saw how crowded it was in here." Zach laughed. "Of all days, they decide to come around when you aren't here. But it's fine, you needed a good break anyways, but don't normalize this." Zach tried to say this in a serious tone, although I knew he wasn't serious. Zach was never serious.
"I apologize for being behind time due to my misfortunes with over the last few days. It won't happen again, I promise."
"Zilah, we've known one another for three years, the proper talk is irrelevant."
"Well...I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
Zach accepted my apology with a nod of his head and a laugh. I then got to work like this whole incident never occurred. Customers came and went as normal, no troubles, no new experiences. Just normal. The way my life was meant to be.
My lunch break came and I actually took a break for once. Having the time I did, I decided to check my phone. Scrolling over to my messages there were 20 of them unread.
"What the hell?" I sat at the back of the bookstore on the staircase looking through my phone. I clicked on the unknown number the messages came from. The first word that caught my eyes immediately told me who it was.
Lah, it's me.
The message said. And a sudden pain uncontrollably rushed to my heart. Literally, I could feel it. Was it relief, or actually a bad feeling? I couldn't tell because right now so many emotions and questions were soaring throughout my body.
I didn't know what to do. Whether to text back. Or call. Maybe a text was best? I was at work right now. But if it was really Mah I shouldn't be texting back in the first place. I was supposed to be helping him right now by staying away from him, not getting closer.
My fingers tapped on the phone. Time was passing by and I was pretty sure my lunch break had been over a good 15 minutes ago. But I was still sitting here on the staircase thinking hard. Too hard.
The door to the back of the bookstore swung open and it startled the hell out of me. Making my fingers move across my phone and loose control of it. It dropped out of my hands and onto the ground.
"Zilah? What are you doing? It's getting out of hand now. You were supposed to have been back at the counter. Customers are mad because no one is there to assist them. Inside. Now." Zach scolded me and gestured pointing his thumb back into the bookstore. Where I was supposed to have been.
"I'm sorry."
"Just get back to work." He sounded angry at me. Zach could be an asshole when it came to work even though he was a nice person. But him being a huge dick sometimes showed me how he could truly be as a person. Which is sort of why I intended to keep my distance from him even though we had an okay relationship.
I picked up my phone that buzzed at the same time. Making my way in I looked down at what the disturbance was from.
B? Are you calling me a bitch? Look a few days ago when I said bitches, I didn't mean you. I'm sorry, chill. :).
A message came from that same unknown number.
"What?" I said breathlessly to myself. No, I thought. Did I accidentally send him a message when my phone fell or something?
I quickly looked at the open conversation now and I was correct. There it was. A blue message bubble with a "B" that was sent to this unknown number. Well, now the number was pretty much known.
It was Mah.
My fingers tapped across the screen before I could control them.
Mah, how the fuck did you get my number? I'm at work right now.
Call me when you get off, bye bye.