“I reviewed the book… But are you sure about the appointment?” Talia groaned, remembering her father and stepmother's reaction about her disappearing to the school excursion. Fearing their bad response for her taking the permit test, she sighed and frowned. “Since my parents work the second shift, I wouldn’t be able to hitch a ride after I got home from school at 2 PM. I think this would be such a hassle.”
Laughing through the phone, JD explained his reasoning without her misunderstanding his action. “Don’t worry. You still have me. I’ll take you to go take your test. How about meeting up this Friday? I only have one class that runs from 9 AM to 10 AM. We can meet up. Okay?”
Talia hesitated the moment she heard his response. Was he asking her out on a date? She hadn't known him that long, but she could sense that he wasn't someone bad. Although, she had no clue how to ride the city bus and had no money for a taxi. She had been saving her allowance for tuition.
“Are you sure though? You live way too far from Fresno,” Talia retorted with excuses. Remembering that she had made no long-lasting friends, she feared that this friendship wouldn’t last long. In the end, she muttered in an exasperated tone. “The ride from Los Angeles to my home would take almost four hours. I don’t want you to waste your time. Am I really worth the trouble for you?”
JD huffed from the other side as his voice restrained a frustrated tone. “Are you mad that I didn’t call you right on time? I already apologize that I didn’t mean to stand you up.” JD changed his stance and asked with a firm tone. “If I’m not interested in you, then I wouldn’t go through all this hassle to get to know you. Tell me! Do you have a boyfriend already? If you do, then I guess we should stop talking with each other.”
Huh? Interested? Boyfriend? Does he mean he wants to know me more than a friend?
Talia blushed as her body turned warm. She waved her hand to stop the heat on her body, but she still didn’t calm down the exciting feeling in her heart. Where was the fan? She really needed to blow off the steam. Could this relationship become better for her?
“I… I have no… no one…” Talia stuttered as the bubbling emotion tickled in her body. “I’m just afraid… that we could… not meet at all…”
JD’s tone became lighter from his aggressive voice. “You’re talking like I live all the way in Europe or Australia. My hometown is San Jose. I don’t really care about the distance between us. We could still communicate and get to know each other. So, how about meeting up on Friday night?”
“Okay! I agree…” Talia answered as she decided to accept his words. “You’ll have to call me and let me know if you can meet up though.”
JD sighed. “Alright! It’s almost 11 PM. You should head to bed. I’ll call you again tomorrow. Same time. If I can come on Friday evening, then I’ll let you know around 2:30 PM. Okay?”
“Kay! Good night!” Talia smiled, hung up the phone, and strode back to her room to sleep for the night.
The next morning, she woke up early to reach the bus on time. She went to school like usual. Nothing had changed much in school besides getting more homework. Talia didn’t focus much on her assignment as her mind wandered to somewhere else. She couldn’t wait until she came home.
At the end of the day, she came home and paid no attention to her stepmother and stepsister insults at her. She just hurried up and finished her chores and homework to wait for JD’s phone call. She tried her best to not let her family know of her odd behavior as she sneaked out of bed to sit next to the phone call.
The first ring tone in the house, Talia picked up the receiver instantly. “Hello? Is this JD?”
“Wow! You are fast picking up the phone this time.” JD chuckled from the other side. “I’m surprised that you didn’t even wait for the second or third ring.”
Talia glanced around her area. “I just don’t want the ringing to disturb my parents' sleep, so I hope you don’t mind this odd behavior.”
Jayden paused for a bit before he spoke again. “Will your parents scold you if I keep you up late? Probably, I should have called earlier than now. How about we change the time to 6 or 7 PM?”
“Oh no! Please always call at this time,” Talia mumbled as she shivered in fear. “My parents still use the phone at that time, so I don’t want to disturb them.”
She would never want her family to know about her new friend. Even though she wanted to let her grandma know about JT, she wasn’t sure if their friendship would last long like her previous friends. So, she decided to keep the whereabouts of him a secret for now.
“Hello, are you still there?” JD asked when he heard no more response from her. “Please answer me if you are still there. Talia?”
Snapping back to reality, she stammered a slow reply, “Yes, I’m still here. What have you been doing all day?”
“Nothing much. Just going to class and doing homework,” Jayden sighed in relief and asked her, “How about you? Oh yeah, I saw you at our university a few days ago. Have you decided what career fields yet?”
Talia laid back on the sofa. “I’m doing fine. Well, I’m still not sure on what career fields. Right now, I’m thinking of choosing either a Communication or Education degree. I must wait and see if I will change my mind in the future. What about you?”
“I’m almost done achieving my associate degree in science. I wanted to achieve a bachelor’s degree in computer technology, so I still have two more years to accomplish my education,” JD answered Talia in a firm tone. “I really hope that I can meet you at our university. That way, my days would go sooner without me having to wait until the evening came around this time.”
Talia blushed. She had never heard this time of phrases from a guy. Was he flirting with her? She fanned herself as her body heated up. She didn’t know what to say next, so she stood quiet for a few minutes before she mumbled in a heated breath.
“Um… I really want to speak with you every day too. But I just don’t want to bother you. I heard that classes are more difficult in university than high school. I just hope that I didn’t bother you though.”
Jayden chuckled. “Don’t worry. Besides I have class in the morning and my part time office job at my university, I can spend thirty minutes to talk to you every weekday. Feel free to ask me anything.”
“Okay then.” Talia giggled. “I hope you won’t mind if I ask something out of line.”
Jayden laughed. “I won’t mind. No worries.
As they talked for the next half hour, Talia already knew about his favorite color, life goal, family, and foods. She didn’t realize that
Jayden was this talkative as he did most of the asking questions. She just replied and mentioned the same topics again. As 11 o’clock came, they said goodnight to each other as they hung up the phone. Talia stood up and headed to her bedroom.
I was so happy that Jayden promised to talk with me for the next several days. I will sleep peacefully tonight.
7
As the days went by, Friday finally approached that Talia couldn’t even wait until school ended on that day. Getting off the school bus, she dashed inside her house and crashed onto the sofa. She checked the clock and noticed the time was already 2:15 PM. She decided to go use the restroom before she came back to wait for the phone call.