It was a Friday evening. Anne had spent the day indoors, going through some of her books, since it was a lecture-free day. From time to time, she tried switching on her phone which had stopped working a few weeks ago. She was not ready to accept the fact that her phone had gone bad, just yet. She kept trying to revive the phone on her own. It still beats her imagination, how the phone had gone completely bad on its own.
She had brought out her phone from her bag only to find out that it was switched off. She convinced herself that it was low on battery even though she was very sure the phone was fully charged minutes ago. After charging it for hours without seeing any sign of life, she reported to her mom and brother.
Felix, who examined the phone for some time, confirmed that the person who had repaired it after the robbery attack had inexpertly tampered with some vital parts of the phone, leading to its complete damage. He further advised her to not waste her time and money, trying to get it fixed but should rather prepare to get another one. With an eye roll, Anne asked him how she was to do that, since she had no money.
Anne had been gloomy ever since and sometimes cried in the privacy of her room.
******************
Reluctantly, she climbed down from her bed and headed towards the kitchen. She couldn't believe she had slept off. She vaguely recalled hearing her mom's voice, before she slept off, calling her to come prepare dinner.
Now as she moved towards the kitchen, the aroma she perceived made her feel guilty, seeing that her mom had prepared dinner herself.
Quickly she did the dishes, not wanting to provoke her mom further, and was taken aback when her mom engaged her in little chitchats, which proved that she wasn't angry at all.
After dinner, Anne headed back to her room as it's her daily routine since her phone got bad but she was stopped by her mom who insisted she stay for some time.
She participated in the conversations going on, in a laconic manner, not missing the glances her mother and Felix exchanged from time to time.
When Felix stood up and headed towards his room, Anne stood up also and attempted to follow suit but was stopped yet again. She sat back this time and made a face, refusing to provide any answers to the questions she was asked.
"Surprise, surprise!" Came Felix's voice as he made his way into the sitting room with a parcel in his left hand, while his right hand held his phone.
Disinterestedly, Anne turned towards the direction of Felix's voice.
Her lack of interest gave way to a bright smile as she was handed the parcel. Hurriedly, she unwrapped the parcel with her heartbeat which had since accelerated thumping on her chest.
By the time she realized it was a brand-new phone, she was already up on her feet with joy. She screamed her many thanks and dashed to her room. Without wasting time, she set the phone and allowed it to charge, as is the rule for new phones.
She headed back to the sitting-room afterward and the once-disinterested Anne suddenly became chatty. Many thanks to her mom and brother.
After some time, they all went back to their various rooms. Anne went back to the kitchen to dish some more food since her state of mind from earlier on had not permitted her to eat to her full.
After eating, she went back to her room to see her phone fully charged. Carefully, she unplugged it and focused on catching up with all she missed these past few weeks.
She logged into Facebook and the message that stared at her left her heart throbbing. She was staring at tons of messages from a person who had left her months ago, without any form of warning.
She wasn't sure if she should respond to the message. She had played this scene in her head countless times and in her imagination, she always felt happy. Right now, in reality, she felt... indifferent, and a little flattered. The oldest message dates back to the day her phone had got spoilt and the newest was sent only a few hours ago.
Carefully she read through the numerous messages and then she marked it as unread. She wasn't going to respond to his message just yet, like some desperate sort of girl.
She messaged Farida on the latest development and when she didn't get a reply quickly enough, she called her instead. She started her conversation with the news of her new phone and after squealing for long minutes, they settled on the main reason for the call.
Farida, who, just like Anne, has always been a reserved person, advised Anne to hear him out, after stalling for a long time of course.
After the call, Anne reopened Collins' messages and left it to indicate that she had seen the messages. It pleased her to know that Collins was currently active.
When more messages came from Collins a few minutes later, she knew he was growing impatient. She scoffed at the thought while she kept opening the messages without sp
offering a reply. For about ten minutes, the messages kept coming while she opened them without responding.
Anne was sure to have a good time and was beside herself with laughter when Collins stopped sending more messages. Are you tired? she asked within herself.
To keep herself busy, she counted the messages he had sent that evening and stopped when her phone began to ring. Collins was boldly written on the sparkling screen of her newly acquired phone.
Since she was feeling sleepy already, she switched her phone to silent mode, while she prepared to sleep.
It was funny how the table has turned. Some months back, it was her calling Collins to no avail and today, the reverse was the case.
She just got a new phone and Collins reached out to her, all in one night. She couldn't have asked for more.
With a grin so wide, she drifted off to sleep.
**************
When she woke up the next morning, it was a lot of missed calls and messages, all from Collins. Even though she was determined, she wasn't sure how long she could keep being angry with him. From what she gathered from his messages, there was a lot of explanation Collins had to render and she was dying to hear every bit of it, but then Farida would skin her alive should she go against their plan. With that in mind, she opened the new messages and as usual, she offered no reply.
Instead, she typed away on her phone, replying to other messages, and at intervals, scoffed whenever she received a new message from Collins.