Delay

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I'm in a serious trouble.

Seriously, I hate it when things don't go the way I planned.

I tried calling everybody I knew for help and for some coincidental, annoying reason. All of them aren't available at the moment.

Mom wasn't picking up after so many calls. My three close friends from the club at school, Khy, Bea, and Mari, had all their lines conveniently busy at the same moment and Liam was unreachable. My best guess is either his phone died or it went scuba diving to a pool, river, or fountain, who knows.

I updated him thirty minutes ago, saying that I have already arrived in Illinois, but since then up to now, he hasn't replied yet.

Which brings me to my current situation that also started thirty minutes ago because I don't have any sense of direction.

And right now my last two retorts on finding a chance for help lie across my phone, their contacts hovering behind my fingers, debating on which one to call.

I got into an argument with the airhead earlier, before driving my way to Evanston.

The argument wasn't that serious, just the usual weird bickering we always had. But the only difference is that I vowed on my words and told him not to call me again today, and also told him not to expect anything from me.

'𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘥.'

I groaned and slumped my back to my seat, arms resting on my forehead while still holding the phone in my palms.

'𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘪𝘵. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘵, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵.'

After three consecutive rings from the device resonating within my ears, unison with the sound of nails being bitten between my teeth, a click cut the ringing off followed by the familiar voice I swore not to talk to for the rest of the day three hours ago.

"Leigh? What's up?"

His amused and smug voice was clear and dripping. He didn't even bother to hide it. Just from that brief statement, I could already tell he was celebrating his triumph.

Swallowing a lump in my throat that's probably my pride, I came up with the plainest yet faintest voice I could muster up and spoke.

"I need help."

"Oh? You need my help? Now that's not something you hear every day."

"Will you please just stop being cocky and just help me?"

A muffled snort, followed by a clearing of throat.

"I'm not being cocky. I just can't remove the precious words you uttered earlier out of my head."

After that statement, I heard a fit of laughter from the other line, together with a sound of thuds, guessing that the airhead must have been toppling over in laughter on the floor or something.

I groaned and plopped my forehead down on my steering wheel.

But as I did so, a wail of a very loud horn resonated my surroundings, startling me and causing me to instinctively remove my forehead from the steering wheel.

And upon doing so, the loud horn abruptly halted, realizing that it was me who caused that, and the people near my car were throwing confused and annoyed looks at my general direction.

I slumped further down my sit in embarrassment, almost forgetting that I had a call with someone.

"What was that? Was that a horn?"

"It was me Reyes, now tell me if you're going to help me or not. At this point I'm going to miss the registration completely."

I groaned again, grabbing my hair and pulling it out in frustration.

"Okay, okay fine. I'll do what I can. What kind of help do you need?"

Based on his tone, I could tell he was still amused by our current predicament, but I just shrugged it off and continued.

'𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦. 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦. 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦.' 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out with a sigh, I stated my horrific situation. "I'm lost."

Silenced loomed briefly from the other side before he replied.

"There are a lot of definitions that could mean that sentence Leigh, what do you mean 'you're lost'?"

"I already arrived at Evanston 30 minutes ago, and I lost track of where I was going, when I was on my way to the university."

An amused chuckle rang within my ear buds, hitting all the right places that could snap my senses any minute now.

'𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮. 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮. 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮.'

"You mean to say, you're wandering out in Evanston for some straight thirty minutes, not knowing where in the world you're even going?"

"Shut up."

"Should I?"

I closed my eyes and urged myself to suppress my boiling anger, and replied in the most composed tone I could muster up.

"Yes Reyes, I'm lost for a straight thirty damn minutes. I tried using applications but my google maps are acting up and I can't use it properly. The map that the application kept showing me is in Chicago. I keep searching 'Northwestern University, Evanston' and then it'll pop up in Chicago every single damn time."

A strum of obviously seems to be a stringed instrument echoed from the other line, mixing with his faint chuckle. My eyebrows subconsciously unfurrowing from dismay earlier.

I was suddenly caught up to the fact that he was… into music?

'𝘏𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰? 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦--'

"Maybe you didn't update it?" Upon hearing his voice interrupting me out of my thoughts, I was dazed for a moment and blinked away my entranced state, fixed my composure, and cleared my throat.

"I'm not sure on what specifically is wrong with it and I can't fix that now. Can you search for the maps for me? And send it?"

"Yea, sure, give me sec,"

Sound of wood coming into contact with something mixing with an uneven string of strings was heard from the other line. His breath became unusually clear. As if the speaker was being held directly into his mouth.

'𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦?'

"Where exactly are you?"

I glanced outside from the window and saw a street sign. I squinted my eyes and read it.

"I think I'm in the Central Street."

A pause pondered from the other line.

"Um, any landmarks? That street's pretty big, there's also a neighborhood there."

"Nope, I think I'm not in a neighborhood, but there's—" I scanned my surroundings, eyes landing on a hot dog place just across the road from where I parked, "—a hot dog place? It says 'Mustard's Last Stand'."

"Um, wait. Give me a sec."

Shuffling of paper and momentary effects of what seems to be wood were heard from the other line before he spoke again.

"You're actually pretty far away from the university,"

𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵

"You can drive straight from that hot dog place, pass three intersections before entering a neighborhood. After that, drive straight again until you reach the end of the central street to an open road. Turn left and drive straight again. From there you'll eventually reach the university."

I looked at the map and just stared at it, confused as heck on where in the world was he even talking about. And where was I in this?

"That's pretty fast on analyzing directions you just saw. I don't even know where the hell I am."

A snort.

"What can I say? I'm just good at everything I do."

"Oh shut up, don't get too overconfident."

"And you even asked for my help. What a wonderful day it is."

"Oh my god, I hate you."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Screw off. I'm registering the directions"

A chuckle was heard from the phone, which I just rolled my eyes on, and just focused on pinpointing the instructions he just uttered earlier, following it. I don't want to ask further questions of him anymore, my pride is already quenched up to its last bit.

"Sure, sure. And also I think it's a minimum of a twenty-minute drive."

"Mhm."

"You're still reading it?"

"Just shut up, I'm concentrating."

He finally shut his mouth up. For a good few peaceful minutes before, I got disturbed again. But this time, it caught me off guard once again.

"If happy ever after did exist."

A strum.

"I would be still be holding you liked this."

It was from a damn phone, and the voice was supposed to sound distorted in a way because of that, right? But it didn't. It was melancholic, soft, and relaxing. Something I oddly wanted to look forward to hearing without the barrier of a phone. Something I was curious to hear about how beautiful could that voice can get if it were to be heard in person.

I snapped out of that entranced state when a knock coming from my left window distracted me.

It was a police officer, and at the sight of him, I immediately fixed my composure and brought my window down.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry but you can't park here on the sidewalk."

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just a little lost, but I'm good now. I'll be on my way."

"Oh okay ma'am sure, please don't park here again."

"Yes, thank you, officer."

I rolled the window up and let in and out with deep breaths.

"Uh Leigh? What was that?"

I jumped, startled at the proximity of his voice, forgetting that I was stalking to him through an earbud.

"Nothing, just an officer. I'll be on way, I — I think I know my way now. Thank you again for the help."

"O-kay? You're welcome, just ask me if you need help on anything."

I stifled up a deep breath and released it, unable to compromise a simple sentence, let alone find some words to say. My heart was pounding out of my chest, like it would burst any minute now.

"Leigh, are you sure you're okay?"

I swallowed dry and did my best to find my words and form a decent reply.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I need to go."

"Are you really su—?"

I ended the call with a click and just let the device fall out of my palms, landing on my thighs.

Why does it feel like I've been caught red-handed doing something I wasn't supposed to do? My heart was still beating frantically, as if I had just run a marathon.

I took another deep breath before reaching for my tumbler and drinking large portions of water in one go I almost finished the entire bottle.

'𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘹, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝘓𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘰, 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺? 𝘓𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘰.'

After fixing my composure and putting in some relaxing music to calm my nerves a bit, I drove forward to the direction that Reyes instructed me in earlier, a picture of the map he had sent already placed in front of me as a guide.

I tried to think of anything else, to focus on the task at hand at the moment, but all I could hear was his voice, his supposed to be annoying voice that came out to be decent in singing.

'𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯?'

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