Early Bird | ✓

33 | ibis

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Quick note: The POV has switched from Lizzy's to JJ's.

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           "ARE you sure you haven't seen my cell phone anywhere?" Jordan asked his mother worriedly, scouring through the living room couch's pillows once more even though he'd looked there a million times already.

           "JJ, honey, I've told you for weeks now, it's not here. We've searched our entire house multiple times over, we've checked every store and combed through every nook and cranny we could think of, and we haven't found it," his mother reiterated again, her drooping shoulders revealing the exhaustion she currently felt. "I feel bad enough, baby, for losing it. Can I just buy you a new one already?"

           JJ had stopped listening, his attention consumed by a set of drawers in the kitchen that stored a variety of silverware. He was bouncing around their house in a frenzy and his mother was having a hard time keeping up with him. "No, Mom. I need this phone." JJ slammed the drawer shut and peeked underneath the dining room table. Panic was beginning to set itself into JJ's bones and he attempted to take deep breaths to calm himself.

           His mother's eyebrows furrowed together, her arms crossed as she watched her terrified son sift through everything they owned, verifying that his eyes didn't fail him and skip over his phone when he was searching for it before. "What's so important about that cell phone anyway?"

           JJ paused in the middle of his examination of the pots and pans, his gaze becoming distant and nostalgic. A girl with frizzy brown hair, beautiful chocolate eyes, and blinding smile flickered through his mind, but he quickly tucked her away in a chest with a lock and key. He needed to focus if he was ever going to text her again. She was a delightful distraction, one that he wouldn't mind consuming all of his daydreams. In fact, ever since they'd begun to text one another, she slowly had.

           He blushed at the thought and rapidly returned to work. His friendship with Lizzy teetered haphazardly off a cliff and he desperately needed his phone to save it. "It's nothing, Mom. I just—I have a lot of memories with that phone."

           His mother laughed and shook her head, her coffee-colored hair swaying with the movement. JJ looked up at his mother, a perplexed expression gracing his features, his eyes narrowing. "Like that one day you dropped it in the toilet?" his mother elaborated after she regained her breath.

           JJ's face darkened into a deep crimson hue. "That was one time," he protested. He moved to examine a bookcase that stood in their house, an array of miscellaneous objects dawdling on each shelf. Unfortunately, his phone was nowhere to be found—it had disappeared like coins do when magicians perform their shows.

           "And your phone was never the same because of it," his mom continued, trailing behind him as he prolonged his searching. "Honey, I already looked there. And there. And there. We've already combed through this entire house for it and it's just not here. I feel so, so terribly awful for losing it. Baby, please, just let me buy you a new one, for God's sake."

           Panic bubbled in Jordan's throat and his shaking fingers combed through his knotty hair, his breathing short and shallow. "Mom. No. I've told you a thousand times. I need this phone. I need it."

           "Why don't you go shoot some hoops with Asher? I think he's outside right now and he's always looking for a basketball buddy," his mother prompted, trying to distract him from the lost phone. JJ sighed and stood from his previous crouched position.