Goodbye Moon »

Waiting and Occupied Thoughts

I stared down my phone, debating the idea of trying to call her now or waiting to avoid seeming desperate. I felt that way when I thought about calling her and just talking to her in general, but that didn't mean that was how I wanted to come off while actually in her presence. 

A part of me wanted to ask Jenna, but I knew she would only make fun of me like she did with any girl I thought I was in love with. I wouldn't have called this love though, but instead desperation to be able to repay her for all the trouble she went through.

Finally, I just decided I had to call her back again. She wouldn't recognize the number to call me back and if I didn't call her, I was going to end up losing her like I had the night she walked out of the apartment complex in her underwear. 

The phone began to ring twice before someone finally answered it. "Hello?" 

I could feel my heart beat pick up at even just the smallest word, so happy to hear it somehow. Her voice, even confused, just made me happy to be hearing it, like hearing from a long lost friend again somehow. 

"Alexa-" She cut my own sentence short by interrupting it. 

"I hate talking on the phone, let's meet somewhere." 

I looked down at the Ninja Turtles printed shorts I was wearing along with the totally-not-matching Neon Pink tank top I had thrown on over it. Regardless of how long I knew it was going to take me to get ready and feel like it would be suitable for me to actually feel good looking enough to see her, I nodded anyways and agreed. 

She told me to meet her inside this little shop next to where she worked. I was curious to see what she actually did for a living and going to a place next to it would hopefully somewhat satisfy that curiosity. 

When she hung the phone up, I pulled myself from the bed and quickly changed into a more suitable outfit which really only consisted of jeans and a different shirt. I had wanted to try and at least look somewhat decent, but when you haven't done laundry in forever, it can be kind of hard to actually manage that. Even most of the things I wore to work probably needed a trip downstairs to the laundromat. 

I grabbed my wallet and keys before walking from the apartment and down the street. I had always been horrible with directions, but the ones she had told me and I had written down on the back of a receipt, thankfully didn't seem like they were going to be too complicated. By the time I reached the restaurant, it had only taken one person to help me find my way. It felt like a new record considering for the first week of living at the apartment, I had to ask someone every time I needed to get there where it was. 

Walking through the door, I heard a little bell and began to look around to see if I could find Alexa anywhere. I had almost begun to consider I had accidentally ended up in the wrong building by mistake when I finally saw her sitting in a corner alone, looking down at what I could only assume was a menu for the place. 

I smiled and began to walk over, keeping a confident stride in my step so that I would have the same mentality when I walked over even if she hadn't actually bothered to look up yet. 

When I sat down, the chair squeaked underneath me, making Alexa look up and smile. She quickly kind of pushed the menu towards me so that I was able to look at the food items offered and the pictures they had available next to some of the more questionable or special pizzas they had. 

I had gotten so sucked into the variety, it took Alexa clearing her throat at me for me to acknowledge that I was finally with her again.

"Oh, right. Look, I really want to repay you for what you did the other day. I can't even express how grateful I am to you." I moved the colorful menu to the side and just looked at Alexa, her hair pulled back into what was better defined as a man bun and a different grey shirt than the one she had been wearing earlier when I bumped into her, a pair of sunglasses hanging down the middle of the collar. 

"Look, I already told you that you don't owe me anything, I would have done it for anyone that guy was touching." 

A waitress walked over before I could say something, a pad in her hand so that she would be able to take our orders. Alexa politely ordered a water along with one of the more normal pizzas, while I asked for a soda and one of the more crazy ones. 

"Saucy Stripper?" She asked, both of us trying not to laugh at the name of the pizza. 

"The name is what really drew me into it." I smiled and both of us irrupted into laughter, a few other patrons looking over with interest before seeing it was just two girls laughing over the name of a pizza and turned back to their own food.

It took a minute before we were able to actually calm down again and try to continue to have a conversation without remembering the name of the pizza I had just ordered. I half-expected an actual stripper to come out covered in pizza sauce, but that seemed like it would be hard to keep in the back for when someone actually ordered it, so I would have to just settle for an actual pizza. 

"I know you told me I didn't owe you anything, but I still feel like I need to." I kind of put my hands on the edge of the table, leaning back a little bit in hopes she would tell me just anything that I would be able to do for her so I could feel less horrible about owing her and more grateful I wasn't raped that night. 

She looked like she was thinking for a minute before looking at me as our food was placed in front of us. "Give me a slice and we'll call it even." 

I shook my head, but let her take one regardless. "That's not what I meant about making us even." Meaning I had wanted her to say something more meaningful or at least hard to do like clean her house or something. 

"I know but I just wanted a piece of your pizza. Have some of mine." With a mouth full of food, she nudged her own pizza in front of me so I could take a piece. 

I sighed and took one, looking at her as I took a bite from it, almost burning the roof of my mouth with it in the process. "This conversation isn't over."