Ghost in the Shell

chapter 2

She had never called him until now, never tried to, never even thought of it, but today…today she did, should she call him? Wouldn’t he see her as being too forward or daring? She was waiting for him to be the first to call, but now she was obviously going for the kill. After the drama today and the baseless excuse which still made her feel like dealing herself a series of slaps and now again, she was about beating herself up for her indecision “come on make this call, it won’t kill you” her inner stubborn self kept telling her, she just wanted to confirm if it was really him earlier. A sudden scream from her phone, signifying an incoming call…it wasn’t a scream, a song by Natasha Cobbs but to her, it sounded like a scream invading her thought, taking a nonchalant glance at the screen, she couldn’t help but cover her mouth in surprise, speak of the devil…”Fred stranger” glared at her as if accusing her ‘why is stranger included in my name?’ Julia there and then decided to change his contact name after this call.
“Hi” sounded a slightly masculine voice melting the insides of Julia, she could have sworn butterflies fluttered in her stomach, “hello” she replied, it felt like she was outside herself and stared as she replied as if controlled by something. ‘What is this feeling?’ she thought.
“The guy earlier was just a friend…w...well not really a friend, j...just an acquaintance, look, I didn’t even accept those flowers” an angry voice from somewhere in her consciousness screamed at her ‘shut the fuck up! Kilo’nshele now’ but she couldn’t bring herself to stop, she continued her self defense “he’s just a friend, a...an acquaintance, nothing more”. ‘You don talk am finish, you don satisfy?’
             She wasn’t.
She felt he wasn’t going to believe her, going to tell her “the guy at the park seemed like a nice guy” she hoped to God he wasn’t going to say that.
His reply came and it was a shocker “who, that guy? No…nah” Julia waited nervously as what sounded a throat being cleared sounded “hun hun, didn’t even take note of him” a slight pause and Julia felt like he ended the call already, but his voice came through again “just called to apologize for tailing you, didn’t mean to”.
       How many shocks was she going to receive today, that’s all he was going to say? He wasn’t jealous, where was the assertive nature in guys, couldn’t he even be a little assertive? What the hell is this guy’s problem?
“I was hoping we could see sometime” crash! That was her train of thought, ‘did he just ask that?’ “took you long enough mister good guy”, she thought as her fantasies took her on a jolly good ride, sitting together with him, close to him, enough to feel his breath…”hello, you’re there?”
“Oh, err” she chuckled, she knew she was acting like an imbecile but she didn’t care, “y...yea...yeah, sure, when do you want to meet?” where did acting tough go? She asked herself “I’m busy, will probably stay busy all this year” couldn’t she have said that? O God, life is so unfair. “Will you be free tomorrow?, if you don’t think it’s too early to meet of course” ‘early your head, you dumb goat’ was the reply in her head, “of course, no problem, uhm where?” please please not somewhere below my expectations, please “your favorite spot at the park” came the soft reply ‘you tailed me well, good job’ she thought, did he really want to meet her where she had met with Noah? What if someone saw her today and happens to see her tomorrow again with some other guy also bearing a bouquet of flowers, it was a terrible idea but she agreed to it anyways.
“It’s a date”…’oh he called it a date’ she loved dates, should she invite friends over? “Nah its personal, this is my time” or should I really invite friends who in turn will invite friends?
               “Where’s the way to my wardrobe”
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     Fred couldn’t believe he actually wore flip-flops to the park, was he as eager as that? He had to take note not to do that again, hell...he looked like someone who escaped isolation centre.
It was surprising how she agreed to his request of a date…just like that, does that mean she really doesn’t have any feelings for the guy from before?, he was really just an acquaintance?
  “What was with those flowers anyways?”
  It was past his dinner time and he wasn’t even hungry, not one bit. He had to send feedback to base. He switched on his laptop and while waiting for it to boot up, he picked at his sparkly clean finger nails, not like there was anything to pick from it, hearing the familiar sound signifying that the laptop successfully booted, he input the password ‘Judas’, he hated his code name, perhaps this was the reason he was chosen for this “stealth” mission. He proceeded to Skype and put a video call through.
Taking a few seconds to go through, an image popped up on the screen
“Judas reporting here sir”
“Report” sounded the stern voice from the screen
“Phase one ongoing sir, less than a week to be accomplished” Fred said with a face that screamed “attention” a direct contrast to his usual playful and mischievous look.
“Phase one?” the stern looking man on screen seemed to be in shock and his facial expression seemed to alter between shock and anger. Fred wished the ground would swallow him whole, he knew a barrage of words would follow…he wasn’t wrong.
“Last born! At attention!”
Fred immediately and suddenly stood ramrod straight with a stern face which accentuated his jaw curve, therefore giving him a dangerous look. He looked like a proper soldier…a proper disciple.
“You know how important this mission is?” the man obviously looked displeased
“Err...sir!”
“Quiet!” came the reply with a stern voice of the devil, his commander was an Igbo man, a no-nonsense and straightforward person, perhaps the word laughter wasn’t included in his dictionary, he had seen him smile once…and that was when he was asked to supervise his punishment for disobeying superior orders, he had been asked to cut down fifty trees…with nothing but a combat knife, he had seen hell that week, although he still doubts he was asked to cut down that much.
“Let me refresh your memory, last born” can you stop calling me last born, I mean will it kill you to call me something that’s capable of sparking the flint of fear in others? Take for example, Peter the first disciple…his nickname was “blood”, James’ nick was “skull”…why was his different?  He dare not voice out his complaints though…not that he couldn’t, just if he was prepared for another round of cutting.
“…Military secrets are leaked, and then we are wide open to attacks, completely done for! You hear me?!”
“Clear sir!” Fred said with exaggerated gusto, he obviously didn’t hear what the commander said before “military”, his gusto was to cover up.
        Fred was the last of the “twelve disciples”, a secret team in the DSS filled with young and battle ready individuals, all numbering not above twelve. They were called “the disciples”.
Fred was the last, with the code name “Judas”, but right now, he was Fred…and this Fred had a date the following day.