Long-Distance Calls

30

December 31st, 2011.

The excitement for the new year to come was covered, as always, by the nausea of forward thinking.

The first day of the year had been, many years ago, chosen by my parents as the day of big family lunch. And you know how I feel about my family.

We'd spend the day with grandparents and other members of the family on roughly every big festivity, so I had time to recover between one special day and the other, but Christmas and New Year's Day happened to be so uncomfortably close.

So, even though there was no family plan for it, I could never fully enjoy New Year's Eve. Instead, I had to think about what a travesty the next day was going to be.

Guys my age would celebrate New Year's Eve by meeting with their friends, maybe going to Times Square, and doing cool stuff like that.

My mom actually encouraged me to spend the night with friends... as long as I stayed in Queens.

And if I forget for a moment the fact that I didn't have any friends, I'd point out that literally nobody stayed in Queens on New Year's Eve. But, unfortunately, to my parents New York looked like another planet.

So, in the end, New Year's Eve was to me just another day spent at home alone.

But this year was different. Because, this time, there was someone I could hang out with without ever leaving my house.

"So what are you doing tonight?" I texted Evelyn.

– Oh, the usual. Hang out by the sea with friends. Wbu?

– LOL I'll just stay at home. Usual.

– Hey don't worry. I'll be here with you.

– Wish you could be here for real, though :/

– I wish you could be here. It's so cool, looking at fireworks over the sea. You almost forget it's a freezing cold day of December.

– I don't really like the beach.

– Yeah, you told me that. But you just have to stand there, you don't have to go into the water or whatever.

– Hmm if you say so. Wanna watch a movie?

– Yeah! There's this new movie that just came out, it's called 'New Year's Eve'.

– The one with Zac Efron?

– Yeah!

– Heard it sucks.

– Who cares what others say, c'mon. I'm sure we can already find it online.

– Ooookay.

I sighed because if there's one thing I hate is watching a bad movie.

Every time, I feel like I wasted hours of my life that I'd never get back.

And looking at the reviews of this movie, I already knew how I was going to feel in the end.

But, strangely, this time I didn't care much. As long as I was doing something with her, everything was fine.