Anonymous J || ONC2024

4.

It’s been about a week since I last spoke to Nadia.

I’ll admit, it’s been nice to hear nothing and I mean absolutely nothing, no loud phone conversations from her room at 3 am in the morning, no after parties in the living room with a bunch of strangers, no hearing nightly activities with Matthew; nothing from her for a whole week. I haven’t even see her face because she hasn’t come back to the house since.

However, once I woke up on the third day to see that she still hadn’t shown up, I’ve gotten pretty worried.

Moyo drops her phone on the table with a sigh. “So, all it took for Malik to leave was to call her a skank? Is that what you’re telling me?”

It takes far too much strength for me to not slam my fist on the table. Mainly because I don’t want to get any attention from the customers seated close by and I don’t want to ruin the pretty latte art in my cup if it were to spill over. “That’s not what I’m telling you at all. And I didn’t call her that.”

She raises a brow. “You basically called her one and made it sound like you were better than her. I’ll be honest, I’m kinda proud.”

“Whatever. I just, I’m worried. Like, where is she? She hasn’t answered any of my calls. Has she been sleeping somewhere else? Is she even eating? She forgets to eat a lot.” I can’t help but sink back into an old habit of nibbling on my bottom lip. “Matthew hasn’t heard from her either.”

Moyo rolls her eyes.

I drag a hand down my face. “Come on, Moyo. You could at least try to act worried. For my sake.”

She just blinks, earning a tired sigh from me. I rest my forehead on the counter, closing my eyes once I feel the cool surface.

“So when’s your interview?” she asks.

I turn my head, cheek smooshed. “Five.” I sigh again. “God, why can’t the time pass faster so I can get it over with?”

“That’s just an hour away, you’ll be fine.”

“Whatever.”

Being in the midst of all the trouble with Nadia and Matthew, and that terrible encounter with the creep, my concerns have been completely absent from the interview I have with the manger of this café today. To think I was so anxious about it last week, now it’s been the last thing on my mind.

Still kind of irked by Moyo’s indifference to my concerns, I face somewhere else. I look about the café absently, focus bouncing from one customer to another until they land on a familiar face.

Despite the exhaustion and thoughts crowding my mind, everything in my body shifts into high alert the moment my eyes find him. In an instant, I sit upright in my chair, nearly giving myself whiplash from the movement.

Moyo jumps, confused by my abrupt shift. She follows my gaze to the entrance where Julian stands, once again adorned in that dark blazer, dark turtleneck and dress pants combo. His focus stays on his phone in his hand.

She looks back to me, “isn’t that…”

I avert my gaze to the pattern on my latte. “Yeah, it is,” I mutter.

Moyo hums thoughtfully. I look up at her to see that she’s openly viewing him.

“Moyo,” I hiss to grab her attention. “Could you not? He’s gonna see us.”

“Is that a bad thing?” She turns back to continue staring, “those pictures really don’t do him any justice in the flesh. No wonder Malik’s always around him.”