Hotline Fling

11: My Turn

Juneau's POV

My desk phone lit up, so I slipped on my headset and adjusted the mic level. "Hello?"

"Uhh...yeah, hi," a shy, higher-pitched male voice greeted me.

"Hi yourself." I pushed my profile form aside and propped my elbows on my desk. "How are you?"

"Good?" he squeaked out. "I mean, how does–I'm not–"

"How does this work?" I asked.

After a loud exhale, I practically heard his head bobbing. "Yeah."

"However you'd like it to. I'm here to talk to you about anything you have in mind." My eyes flicked down to my time clock that clicked away. "For as long as you'd like. What's your name?"

"M-Matt," he stammered in a shy voice.

Aww, he was adorable. I pushed my smile into my voice. "Nice to meet you, Matt. What are you thinking about right now?"

"I'm just, kinda - not sure. This was–" His heavy breaths, not the good kind, interrupted his jumbled words. For a moment, I feared the guy headed for a panic attack.

"Hang on, Matt." I softened my voice. For his sake, Matt needed some breathing help. "Just take a deep breath and let me know you're alright, okay?"

Adam's head snapped in my direction. He wrote a note and held up an 'OK????' message. I wasn't sure for Matt's sake but assumed he was fine and held up a finger in a 'hang on' gesture at Adam.

Occasionally, we got callers who suffered from extreme loneliness, depression, or worse, suicidal thoughts. If we suspected anything, we were to keep the callers on the line as long as possible until we were convinced they were okay or asked if we could forward them to a more proper set of listening ears. In six weeks, I hadn't yet had such a caller. Hopefully, Matt wasn't my first. "Breathe. Deep breath in, then out."

At my second urging, Matt exhaled deeply, which cracked static over both of my ears. After a few rounds of breathing, my heart thumped in my chest in concern until his voice returned. "Sorry, I'm just nervous."

"Matt, please don't be sorry." I covered my hand over my mic and exhaled. "Everyone gets nervous sometimes. You did nothing wrong, but I need you to tell me what you need because I'm here for you."

"Can we talk about...anything sexy?"

Not the direction I thought he'd go. A small laugh escaped through my lips, which I clamped my hand over. "Of course, we can, Matt. Let's talk about you."

Matt sounded genuinely surprised when he squeaked out, "Me? What about me?"

"What do you find sexy? Do you have a type?"

"N-no, I guess not." His voice was quiet, almost dejected.

"What do you like, Matt? What turns you on? Any movies, books?" My eyes slid closed for a silent prayer. Please, not Avengers, please, not Avengers.

"I'm a huge Harry Potter fan."

"Ohh, great stories." I dropped my voice tone, thankful for that choice. "Who's your favorite character?"

"Severus Snape," he replied right away.

What the hell? "Hmmm." I tapped my fingers on the desk at the unusual suggestion. "What do you like about him?"

"I like how he punishes some students and talks down to them to keep them in line."

I nearly fell out of my chair at Matt's words. Whelp, this sure escalated. "So, how would you feel if you were in his shoes?" How could I set this up? The school scenario might work. "Maybe during one of your Potions classes, I'm a new student who just transferred schools and hand you a slip with my name on it. Read my name–"