Tʀᴜʟʏ? - ᴀ ᴛɪᴍᴏᴛʜᴇ̀ᴇ ᴄʜᴀʟᴀᴍᴇᴛ ғᴀɴғɪᴄᴛᴏɴ

21

The hours whiled away like the wax of a candle slowly cascading downwards. My mind wandered onto every possible topic. I'd reread my entire collection of picture books on my childhood bookshelf. The only noise was the unsettling ticking of a large clock above my dresser. I had started to believe in the idea of death by boredom when I heard a knock at the door. It felt as if the whole house was holding its breath. Slow footsteps made their way to the entryway, and I strained my ears to hear my mother greet my brother.

"Come in." Her stern voice said, monotone.

A shuffle of feet. A deep voice said something I couldn't hear. 

Then, the footsteps doubled. Two people were walking through the house, a suitcase being rolled behind. I knew I should've gotten up and been there to greet him, but my mind was still mentally preparing itself. The door next to mine opened, the suitcase being dragged inside as there was more conversation.

+++

His name was Benjamin. I learned that he goes by Ben now after a teary-eyed hug and a soft, "I miss you," when I first saw him. It was a shock, to say the least, but he was still the same person in my eyes. He had barely grown since 18. I could tell that even my mother was emotional. We had immediately fallen into the conversation, catching up on everything and anything we had missed in each other's lives. My mom sat on her rocking chair, watching and occasionally asking him questions.

"It's so good to see you again, Cleo," He said, as it was getting late and my mom had gone to bed. I gave a cheerful smile and stood up with him, pulling him into a hug.

"I missed you," I said over his shoulder.

"I didn't mean to leave you alone with mom for all those years, I'm sorry." He apologized quietly. I felt a tear slip down my cheek, just slightly. 

"It's alright, everything worked out alright," I assured him as we finally pulled away from the hug.

"Now you're a big shot," He said, finally smiling. I tilted my head.

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"The pictures with you and that celebrity guy. Actually, that's the reason I wanted to come back. I saw your face and I just knew I had to come back here, no matter how hard it is. The worst years of my life were in this house," He said, breaking eye contact and looking around at the bare walls and bleak decorations. I frowned. I remembered it all too well.  

"But I had to come back. For you," He said, meeting my eyes again. I gave a small smile.

"I'm glad you did. It's really nice to see you again." I said. 

After a while, everyone went their separate ways and I climbed into bed. As I turned off my petite bedside lamp, I picked up my phone. I was surprised to see not one text message from Timothee but three. I quickly opened up the conversation, annoyed at how slow this house's wifi was.

T: okay as i can be going to sleep at like 4am  

T: but it was worth it

Today 5:21 pm

T: also, are we still on for dinner sometime?

I quickly responded, checking my clock and seeing it was now 9pm. 

Me: yeah of course

Me: where though...🤔

I turned off my phone after I clicked send and took a deep breath. Sometimes I questioned my own texting skills, but I didn't really care. My mind was too preoccupied. I plugged my phone back into the wall outlet and rolled over in bed, pulling the blankets up and trying to expel the thoughts that swarmed my mind. I knew it would be a while before I could fall asleep. I groaned and covered my face with the pillow. Suddenly, a loud buzzing broke me from my annoyed spell. I furrowed my eyebrows and took the pillow off of my face, reaching for my phone on my nightstand. It was an incoming call. I practically gasped as I saw the caller ID.

It was Timothee. I swallowed, and picked up.

"Hello?" I asked softly. 

"Hey," I heard his voice say from the other line. I looked at my ceiling and mouthed words of exasperation. 

"What's up?" I asked after a moment. He chuckled.

"Nothing really, just wanted to say hi," He said. I eased into the conversation, trying to avoid any awkward silences.

"Well, hi. How was your day?" I asked, confused as to what to start with. Another laugh.

"It was great, how was yours?" He asked. I told him about my brother and soon we fell into deep conversation. I laid back on my bed and let my phone rest on my chest as we talked deeper into the night about all things. His new movies, his old movies. My life at college. Our lives in New York. Weirdest people we've seen on the street. 

We started talking about our dinner, and he told me he wanted to surprise me. Nerves started in my stomach, as knowing him it would probably be something insanely expensive and famous. I was surprised to hear him say, 

"Dress casual. Sweats."

I furrowed my eyebrows. Sweats? Where was he taking me?

"Sweats." I repeated, unsure.

"Yes." He confirmed, and I could hear his smile without even seeing his face. Out of impulse, I smiled too. 

Soon our call came to a close, but not without him softly saying goodnight, repeating my name with such a graceful and warm tone it made the butterflies in my stomach erupt all over again. With my head spinning, I quietly said goodnight and hung up. 

As the call ended, I was left with complete silence. It hung in the air like all things in the world had gone quiet. I expelled a deep breath and rolled over again, this time ready for sleep to overcome me. As my mind faded to darkness, there was only one face drifting through my mind.