Vibrate

"Jul I need your help"

The text message says. Jul squints his eyes to see the message a little more clearly. He has no idea what time of the day it is but knows exactly that it's still too early for someone to text him on a Saturday morning.

He would've been fine with it if the message was from his co-worker or someone just around the city he is currently living in, but sadly, the message is from Khel, an old classmate from the neighboring city. By neighboring city, Jul means from his home town since he started working someplace else for better income.

He has no idea what kind of help he's asking for so he starts typing,

"What kind of help?"

He drops his phone to the pillow next to him and closes his eyes to catch more sleep. His phone vibrates again not long later.

"Gift related, it's my sister's birthday soon."

He reads, he has no idea why Khel thought of him for advice. He has tons of friends during college and Jul wasn't one of those close friends of his. He puts his phone down and stares at the window. It was such a peaceful day outside, not that he's saying that Khel's text had ruined his day but he really deserves that good enough amount of sleep for all the hard work he had done for the week.

"Why ask me?"

He replies and regrets it later on. He sends another message.

"What does your sister like?"

He presses send and waits for the reply. He thinks of Khel's two younger sisters. One still in college and the other one in grade school. He has no idea which sister Khel could be referring to so he waits. His phone vibrates again and he looks at the screen.

The reply seems to be taking long this time, Khel must be thinking what his sister would like to get for her birthday. Jul stands up to wash his face and might as well take a bath than waste such little time he has for a break.

After showering, he checks his phone for any new text messages and sees the reply from Khel just five minutes ago.

"I think she likes reading"

He simply says. Jul couldn't even fathom why Khel thought of him as a person to ask for for such advice.

He was about to type `I can't help you with that`, when he suddenly remembers something. Or more like, someone.

"I can't help you with that, but I know someone who definitely can"

He closes their conversation and opens up the messaging app to text another friend.

____________________________________________________________________________

Jude has been playing her mobile phone for hours and she doesn't plan on stopping, or at least that was the plan just thirty minutes ago. She lies down and covers her eyes to let them rest from a game that just ended five minutes ago. She was planning on playing another match when her mom suddenly barged into her room and told her that they were going out for the day.

"Where to?" she asked

"Just get ready" her mom replied and closed the door.

Now, she's just giving her eyes a little break before heading to the shower for a quick bath. She stands up and was about to take her bath towel when her phone suddenly rang.

The text was from Jul, her old college friend who was now in the neighboring city, working.

"Her highness" the text read. She has no idea why he insisted on calling her "her highness" just because she was an only child in their family.

She replies, "What's up?" she puts the phone back down and proceeds to the shower before her mom sees her and starts yelling about her not taking a bath yet.

After a while, she emerges from the bathroom and sees her phone blinking meaning that a text had arrived.

"I need your help" it reads. She stares at the screen for a minute, confusion somewhat written on her face.

"Sure, what is it?" She replies and proceeds on changing into her clothes. Although she thinks she might regret this later if the request might be something that involves doing something really tiring or whatever, she can't do anything about it now.

Her phone rings again and immediately checks it for Jul's reply.

"I need to buy a book, as a gift for a friend's sister." It says.

She smiles to herself knowing that this is something that is worth to waste her energy on.

"Sure! When?" she replies almost immediately. She goes out of her room and sees her mom still in the middle of wearing her shoes so she heads to the living room to sit.

It takes Jul quite some time to reply now, Jude had already finished another match in her mobile game and he still hasn't responded yet. As she was about to put her phone in her bag just in time for them to leave, it rings meaning a text message has been received.

"Are you free tomorrow afternoon?" it says. Jude didn't even stop to think, she immediately types in her reply as fast as lightning.

"Definitely, 1 pm?" she replies.

Her mom and her goes out of the house and proceeds to the streets. Another text arrives a moment later.

"Okay."

____________________________________________________________________________

It was Sunday and Jude was already in the bookstore at the mall by 12 noon. She couldn't wait another minute to go to the bookstore and recommend good books to Jul. Though, she didn't bother asking the age of the sister he'll be giving a gift to, they'll just have to find a way through it later.

It was almost 1 and Jul hasn't arrived yet. Although, she knows Jul wasn't that early to arrive to an agreed meet up, she still texts him nonetheless.

"Where are you?"

She puts her phone back to her pocket and continues scanning the books on the shelves. It took around 10 minutes for Jul to text her back or so she thought it was Jul. It was from an unsaved number but then the text was obviously from Jul saying "almost there". She sighs and texts "Hurry up!" and puts it back to her pocket.

Another 10 minutes had passed and she'd already check almost all the young adult novel books she's planning to buy later and maybe even look for a book Jul will be giving as a gift. She turns to a corner when she sees a familiar face entering the store. Tall, black curly hair, and a face quite different from the people surrounding him but not ugly different, but good looking different.

It was Khel, Khel is here, what is Khel doing here? Is all she could think about. The Khel she had a crush on, and probably still has a crush on, ever since college. He's obviously looking for someone inside, she's been probably staring at him for another minute that by the time she got back to her senses and was about to hide behind the large book shelves, Khel had already spotted her and is heading to her direction.

Her direction, she repeats to herself. Was he looking for her? No, no, no, no, no. Of course he wasn't. She knows that Khel is quite familiar with her because she's friends with Jul and Peter but Khel would never, under any circumstances, approach her without both of them with her.

She proceeds on walking behind the book stall as if she hadn't seen him, as she always does. Maybe Khel saw someone else behind her, maybe she got the wrong idea. She keeps telling herself the same sentence over and over again just not to get her hopes up.

Not long after that, a tall figure is now standing beside her. Thinking and hoping that it was another person, she looks up almost immediately and surely, her eyes aren't playing tricks on her, Khel was standing there. Looking down at her, at her. What, what, what?! The questions keep repeating on her mind.

"Um- yes?" she asks, obviously confused. She has no idea what else to say next. She just continues to stare at him for a few more moments waiting for his reply.

"Oh shit- I almost forgot!" were his first words as he fishes his phone out of his pocket and turns the black screen to her direction.

"I was the one you texted. Probably an unsaved number on your contacts?" he points to Jude's pocket where her phone was sticking out. He unlocks his screen and was probably typing a text judging by the movement of his fingers.

Her phone rings and when she looks at the message displayed on the screen, it simply says "I'm here". Khel shows her his screen and the same message was reflected on it, as well as their exchange earlier about him being almost there.

"Seriously?" was all she could say. She seriously doesn't have the strength to mutter another word.

"Yes," he chuckles.

"Jul offered your help to me, so…" he cuts his sentence off, waiting for Jude to continue the conversation.

"Oh, uh, yeah! Wait- so a friend's sister. So is he referring to your sister?" Jude asks. Khel smiles and looks at the books in front of them. They are still standing in the YA books section, the fantasy section of it to be exact.

"Yep, but not Hannah though. It's for my youngest sister" he tells her.

"Oh!" Jude exclaims. The sister Hannah loves to dote on, Jude adds to herself.

"Yeah, it looks like she likes reading but I have no idea what to give her. She's not that young anymore so story books and whatnot are not her thing anymore." Khel explains as Jude starts to walk to a certain section of the bookstore.

"Then… maybe, middle grade books?" she says as she gets a book from the shelf. Khel, briefly sees the word "Rickdan" from the spine but he has no idea if it was the book's title or the author's name.

"Does she happen to like Greek Gods and Goddesses? This is actually a fan favorite" she says as she turns the cover to Khel. "Thee Olympians" it says.

"Isn't that the movie?" he asks as he scans the book's cover.

"This is the book that the movie was based on." she clarifies and silently curses herself when she thinks that she was showing off her booknerd-iness to Khel.

"Really? I'm not really sure what kind of book she likes. All I know that she likes reading." Khel puts his thumb and index finger on his chin as if thinking.

"Have you seen the books your sister is reading?" Jude asks not putting the book down. Khel regards her for a moment and takes his phone from his pocket again. He's been scrolling the screen for a while and when it seem that he found what he was looking for, turns the screen to Jude's direction for her to see what he was looking for.

"This are the books in her shelf." Jude looks at the screen and studies the shelf almost full of books. A complete set of the famous series such as the famous wizards, the runners and the other books that many people love adding to their collection. She can't help but feel jealous because these are all the books she wish she owns but doesn't.

"Okay wow, are you sure she wants to read middle grade books?" she says to Khel. Khel looks at her with a blank face but Jude knows that he's probably confused inside.

"These are actually YA novels and I think you already know that all of this has been already adapted into movies, right?" she asks.

"Yes, but I didn't know what the contents of the books were so, I just assumed." He explains. She chuckles and Khel looks at her.

"What?" he asks. She stops chuckling and stands right. She coughs and looks at him seriously.

"As I said, these are YA novels. YA as in young adult, it may stand for young adult but pre-teenagers already read some of them. Teenagers have already read Dark Room without parental consent or guidance, so yeah" she starts walking again. Heading to the shelf they were from earlier.

She stops in front of a row of black books with people decorated on their spines. The spines are both creepy and somehow, beautiful at the same time. Khel just looks at her as she gets one from the shelf.

"Since I haven't seen this in her collection so I'm most definitely recommending this." She hands the book to him and "The Bones" was written in the cover.

"It's also one of the famous YA fantasy novels existing. Although the movie wasn't actually exactly a big hit, but it was somehow good." Jude reaches for another book. This time The The Circle is written on the cover.

"This is the second book, and… the third, fourth, fifth and sixth." She points the next books of the series that are displayed on the shelf.

"Wait, that is a lot" he says which makes Jude giggle.

"You don't have to buy it all, you said it's a gift for her so just buy one" Jude says as she points the first book in his hands.

"I can probably manage two or three. Wait" he checks his wallet for money and Jude tries her best to hold her laughter. This is how much Khel and Hannah love their little sister. She can't help but smile to herself because of that fact.

"How much is it again?" he looks at her then back to his wallet.

"Around 550 each" Khel does mental math in front of her and probably came to a conclusion that he can afford it as he gets the rest of the first half of the set.

"Well, good for your sister then. I actually enjoyed this series. A lot." Jude says. Khel studies the covers for a while.

"I hope she does too." Jude adds with a smile.