Unknown Number

As soon as my phone charged 10%, I finally got to turn it on. So, leaving the boys and Elle with their last half an hour of shopping, I stayed in my car, in the garage, letting my phone loading as everything and all the millions of notifications from these last three days began to pour in non-stop. There were thousands of calls from my entire family, repetitively, 300 alone were from mom, 268 were from aunt Monika, and 769 were from an unknown number.

The amount of texts were already in six digits. Almost in seven.

277,769 texts were from the unknown number alone. My phone buzzed non-stop as more 18 messages popped up, going to 277,777.

[769-777-967-7].

I didn't look at any of them, I instantly knew exactly who it was.

My entire body reacted to it before my mind could register. And when his 770th call appeared in the screen of phone, I let out a squeak. I fucking froze and before I could accept it, it stopped.

"Fuck, I'm anxious," I cried to myself. "What if he wants to end it with me? He definitely knows the truth if he's calling me."

But he didn't stop. He called my 6 times, and in the 777th, I took a really deep breath and picked the call, connected it to my car, my heart running a fucking marathon.

"Love," Rafał cried desperately in English, "please, please, please, tell me you are alive. Tell me it's you, love. Talk to me, please."

The despair in his voice took my breath away, "I'm… I'm alive."

A broken cry came from the other side of the line, "You're alive."

I swallowed a lump in my throat, "I'm alive. I'm alive."

"Bloody boiling hell. Fucking shite. I… I thought I had lost you," he cried. "I thought… I… I thought you were in the plane that fucking fell in fucking France, love," his voice broke. "I…"

"I was in the plane that fell," I chuckled anxiously.

"What?" He screamed.

"I… I was in the plane that fell. The plane that wracked in the plains of France, Rafał. I was in it!"

Another rain of curses came from him, "You high-jacked? You were one of the people who high-jacked from the fucking plane? What the hell? Why? Why? That was not your fucking flight, love, so why? Why did you move planes? You… you could have… I… I could have lost you."

"Hey, hey, I'm alive," I cried exasperated. "I'm alive. I'm also quite shocked with that myself, but I'm alive. I'm breathing and alive. I knew how to use a parachute because I had jumped from one before for fun. So, it helped on it."

"Why? Why did you move planes?" His voice broke again. "Do you understand that you could have fucking died? Tell me why. Tell me!"

Feeling my heartbreak hearing him like that, I sighed, "RWEE798 was with a problem of overweight, and they asked 150 passengers to move to flight LEHL666. They told us there was a risk of our plane going through an accident, and I internally began freaking out, I got overwhelmed with shivers and I was scared. My body moved alone and I was the first one to decide to go to LEHL666 instead, leaving my luggage on RWEE798. But… but I kept feeling the shivers non-stop, even after we got into LEHL666, and it began to really freak me out."

"How could you get in a plane called HELL666, love?" He cried.

"I… I only realized that when it fell. I kept feeling the shivers and I couldn't relax for even a second. Then, two hours in, it all went to hell, and the pilot told us to grab our air masks and high-jacking parachutes, and I began to genuinely freak out, thinking that death was hunting me. Then, I did my best to put my shit together and began helping the people who were around me snapping out of it and grabbing their stuff."

He gasped, "How could you think of anyone else at that moment?"

"I don't know," I cried. "There was a depressed stupid boy who began saying shit about how he was thankful that it was falling, so everyone would die together, and I got so fucking mad, I began fighting him vocally in English, and then it all got really bad and they began to tell to high-jack. I… I wanted to beat the boy up, so, I couldn't let him die, and he had just realized he didn't want to die in a plane crash but he was panicking, so, I helped him with it.

"Then I grabbed the little son of a friend I made, and he grabbed onto me like a baby monkey, and I told the depressed boy to come right behind me, and then we all jumped. Me with the kid, and the dude behind me, freaking out. I guided the guy through the high-jacking the whole time, and held the boy tight on me. When we landed, I put the boy down and back to his mom, and I jumped on the depressed boy, then I beat him up, and,"

He gasped, "You beat the depressed kid up, after helping him high-jack and survived from the crash, while holding a little kid with you?"

I clenched my jaw, face burning, "Yeah. He's all bruised up, but… now I'm too. We didn't know anyone had died, we thought we had gotten everyone, we only learned about that when they came to rescue us. All of our phones were dead, and my charger was in my luggage, that was back on flight RWEE798, so I was totally out. But before they came to rescue us, when we had gathered after the plane exploded, there was an Arabic piece of shit who were cursing the pilot for being a woman, and,"

Rafał cursed, "Don't tell you got into a fight with him."

"No. I one-sidedly beat him up," I chuckled anxiously. "Just a bit, some punches and kicks on the dick. Then they brought us to Paris, and to the hotel, and around 1 am, the fucker came after me for revenge."

"He did WHAT?"

"He… hm, beat me a bit. But don't worry, I destroyed him. I didn't get any broken bones, but I broke more than a few of his."

He seemed to be struggling to breathe, "A man beat you? This… this shit of a human touched you? He assaulted you? He came to you out of nowhere and beat you for a little revenge? He…"

"Rafał, love, calm down. I'm fine. My uncle, my friends, and the guards got to us before he could try anything again. I'm fine, I'm fine, okay? I'm fine, love. I'm alive, and I'm fine."

"How old was he? Who is he? What's his name?" He yelled. "Tell me who he is. I'll teach him what happens to someone who dares to even touch what's mine. I can't fucking believe he had the audacity to beat you. I swear to God, I'll mutilate his hands for that, then I'll give it to you as a late birthday present."

I felt my cheeks blushing, "Romantic."

"I'm fucking serious, love."

I blushed harder, "Me too."

For about a minute, he stayed silent, but I could tell how he was struggling to breathe, "You are alive."

"I am alive."

Another long silence, "We have some serious thing to talk about, Zofya Magdalena Fiaich Turovska!"

Sigh, "I know, but can it wait?"

"Wait?" There was a dangerous note in his voice.

"Can we talk in person after the holidays? You are the first person I talk to since my phone charged, love. I know you're mad, and I know I lied about my name and age, but I think the reason I lied is obvious. The age. I didn't know how to tell you, and I was scared of how you would react, then my uncle and my best friend came up with the Switzerland trip as my birthday present, and everything happened."

I felt my eyes burning, tears blooming.

"I'll deal with your anger, but right now, I can't, love. I miss you, Rafał, I missed you every day. I waited for you to call me and scream at me every day. I want you to know that you made me want to live, you are my reason to keep living, I want to live to have a future with you. Before we met, I kept thinking about dying, and though I regret it, I even made jokes about dying on a plane crash, that's why I got so scared. I… I… I didn't want to die right when I found my reason to keep living."

"Where are you right now?" His voice was deep and raspy.

"I'm heading to my family's villa in Zakopane. You're not familiar with Poland yet, but it a 5 hour and a half drive away from Warsaw. My uncle and my best friend went ahead of me," sigh. "I don't really want to go, at all. You are probably in your insufferable sister's place now, right? Well, I am already scared of how I'll deal with my family. I told you my relationship with them is… complicated, and now there are some people from mom's side that I don't even want to fucking meet, and they must all be freaking out, thinking I'm dead like you did. I'm so… tired. Almost 23 hours on train, after everything, and now more 5 hours of driving… but I need to be there."

He made another long silence, "We really need to talk, love."

"I know, I know," sighing, I stared at my window and found them coming back. "I need to go right now, I'm sorry. I love you, Rafał. I know that I'm a lot more younger than you, than you thought, but that's all I lied about, my age and name. Everything else was me, I don't want you to think I was playing you and lying, because I wasn't. I never had anyone, feelings for anyone before you, and I want you to be my last. So, please, I know you hate lies, but consider me."

"Love," his voice broke.

"I'll call you tomorrow. I'll just get on the road now and then deal with my family when I get to Zakopane around 8 to 9 pm. Remember, I love you, Rafał. I need you in my life. Stay safe, good luck with your family. Be calm now, I'm alive, and I'm still your girlfriend. Do not let anyone get any funny ideas near you. You're mine!"

Before he could say anything, I hang up, and quickly brushed the tears in my eyes away. Taking a deep breath, I got out of my car and went to Elena and the boys, helping them putting what they shopped on the Lexus and on the Cadillac.

"What happened? You look like you cried!" Elle asked worried.

"Did you talk to your mom?" Keith canes closer, also worried.

"Nope, with my boyfriend. He thought I died and despairing."

"Shit," Dragan gasped. "Imagine your family."

Sigh, "There was hundreds of calls and thousands of texts from all do them, so, I guess they thought the same. I talked to Rafał because I am not going to see him now, since he's spending the holidays in his annoying sister Noralina's place. But I'll be with my family by night, and by the, Lia and uncle Krys will already have told them that I'm alive."

"You don't know your boyfriend's family yet?" Elle asked.

"No. I don't know his, he doesn't know mine. Mom doesn't even know his name, only that I'm dating a tall British guy who's older than me. Our relationship is between ourselves, we both have complicated families and he isn't close to his family that lives in Poland. Only Lia and uncle know everything about him," I kissed Yury's cheek and Dragan's forehead. "So, don't tell anyone in there, not even his name or they will go stalker mode and go after him. I like privacy away from them."

"We won't!" They all reassured me together.

Sigh, " Okay, now, let's go. Follow me. We'll get there at night."

Thank Lord, I have enough snacks to last more than 5 hours.