Page 14 of Unmasked Anarchy

4

My phone buzzes, wakingme from a restless sleep.

I am always shocked when it vibrates because there is nobody to check on me.No parents.No friends.Gage doesn’t text.It’s sad, really.That I don’t have a single person in my life to check in on me.It’s a bitter, empty feeling, like standing in a crowded room and realizing you’re utterly alone.The silence is deafening, a constant reminder of the void that surrounds me.

Each day blends into the next, marked only by the absence of connection, the lack of a familiar voice to break the monotony.I watch others with their vibrant lives, their laughter and shared moments, and I feel like an outsider looking in, yearning for something I can’t quite grasp.The loneliness is a weight on my chest, a dull ache that never truly goes away.

It’s in the quiet moments, when the world slows down, that it hits the hardest.The realization that there’s no one to share my thoughts with, no one to ask how my day was or to simply be there.It’s a hollow existence, one that leaves me questioning my place in the world, wondering if things will ever change, if I’ll ever find the connection I so desperately crave.

Curious, I reach for it, bringing it up to my blurred vision.I see the name on the screen.Kael.

How in the hell?

How are you, sunshine?

My heart skips a beat.

How did he get my number?

I debate for way too long, knowing I should delete his number, and yet I find myself pressing my fingers to the keypad to reply.

How did you get my number?

His answer comes before I can even put the phone down.Borrowed it in the hospital.Sent myself a text.Sue me.

A laugh punches out of my chest, ragged but real.

Ok, stalker.

I watch the screen, a stupid smile on my face, waiting for his reply.

Not every day you find a girl in a ditch, you know?You good?

My heart skips again.

I’m okay.Alive.

Your old man find out who did it to you?

I hesitate before responding.No.

I know what he’ll think, but it’s the truth all the same.

I want to see you.

Shit.That’s not what I expected.Or maybe it is, maybe I hoped for it.My heart flips then knots tight.I think about Gage, about how last night he made certain I knew what he would do if I spoke to Kael again.

I’m not supposed to talk to you.Gage’ll lose his mind.

He responds quickly.Too late for that.

That stupid smile again.

I pause, not sure how to respond.

Meet me.