Randomness

Much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness. - Sidney Poitier

Aerith sighed. She was eyeing her phone for a good ten minutes, tapping her fingers on the table. She wanted to call her mother but was too shy to do so.

Pulling her hair, she kicked her legs under the table with too much force, it sent her sliding away from the desk. She squinted when the backrest of her seat hit the wall in a thud.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Everything's okay, Kevin," she reassured the man who barged into her private studio, holding up a gun and was ready to shoot an intruder, except there was none.

"Stop giving me a heart attack, princess." Kevin raised a single brow to her direction, holding the sides of her neon pink chair.

She held on tight on the armrest as Kevin slid her back closer to her desk, and protested, "I'm not a princess."

"News Flash! My job description says '24/7 security detail to 'Her Royal Highness, Princess Aerith of Notios'. So technically, you are, even when you insist that you are adopted."

"Che!" Aerith huffed, dramatically rolling her eyes at the beefy man. She knew it was fruitless to argue with a stoneface Kevin who always had a ready come back to her every word.

Flicking her wrists, she shooed the guy away as she speed-dialed her mother's number.

Kevin took it as his cue to step out and leave the princess alone, joining five more members of the security team in the kitchen who was just done doing their nightly perimeter-check.

Aerith smiled. As usual, her mom picked up her call on the first ring. "Are you crying?" Aerith greeted. She could hear her mom sniffle on the other end of the line.

"Me? No. Why would I?" Olivia Lin, Queen of Notios, laughed. She was thousands of miles away from her daughter but the random phone call made her heart swell with ease as if her little one was right there beside her.

Olivia may not be the one who gave birth to Aerith, but she loved the little one with all her heart as if she was her own.

"Mom… you were listening to my show again." Aerith licked her bottom lip. Her mother was the one who got caught but she was the one who felt mousy between the two. "Stop crying coz it's bad for the baby," she whispered.

"Yeah. Or I should stop getting angry at your dad for impregnating me… again! Seven kids and he won't stop. Now my hormones are acting up, making me cry during noontime. Are you eating well, Aerith?"

Aerith smiled at the sudden shift in her mom's line of question. "Mooom, that was a random question. It's almost midnight so no more snacks for me but I think I gained 10 pounds. Let's gain pounds together, alrighty?"

"Oooof. Not a bad idea. I need to get fatter so your dad would stop frisking me at night."

"Oh my gosh. Mom… please stop. I don't want to hear anything about that please." Aerith pulled the phone away from her ears, and she knew her mom had an idea of what she just did because she could hear her mom laugh on the other end of the line.

Aerith chuckled. She loved hearing her mom laugh. It was pleasant to her ears like wind chimes on a summer day—soft and random yet it had the magic to paint a smile on your face when you hear it.

"I miss you, Mom." Aerith sighed. She felt lighter after uttering those three words. How possible was that? "And thank you for taking me in… it must not be easy on your part. Dad said you hated Papa and I looked exactly like him."

"Hahahaha! I do hate your Papa, but just a tad bit. Nah. I still don't like him."

"Heh," Aerith let out a chuckle. Her index finger played circles on the watermark her ice-coffee left on the table earlier.

While it was no secret how much Olivia hated Aerith's papa, the little one, however, took a big space in her heart. It was a space Olivia reserved especially for her little one named Aerith.

"Just so you know, the feeling was mutual. He told me, he didn't like you too. You were too loud and opinionated, he said."

Mother and daughter laughed in unison until it faded into a comfortable silence.

There were days when they would talk like friends, and there were days when they would talk like mother and child, with Olivia giving her an hour-length work of lecture over the phone ranging from scholarly to boy matters. But it didn't matter because to them, every conversation they had was a special way for them to bond.

"Aerith…" Olivia trailed off and smiled. "Mom misses you too."

Hearing her mother's feathery soft voice, Aerith choked on the lump in her throat, swallowing it down with force. Her voice cracked and her hand trembled as she said, "Okay, I have to go, it's getting late. Goodnight." She didn't wait for her mom to speak and just ended the call.

After a few bets, her phone buzzed and a message from her mother popped in her screen.

[Mom: You didn't say 'I love you, Mom!']

Smiling, Aerith's finger danced on the screen as she fired a reply.

[Little One: With all my heart.]

Aerith's phone rang, surprising her. She raised it to her eye level and raised a single brow upon seeing her mother's name registered on the screen.

"He—"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that I scheduled a doctor's appointment for your ears. Don't skip it like last time. You don't want me flying out to personally drag you to the clinic, do you??"

"Moooom, okay okay. I was busy with exams last time. I won't skip it, I promise."

"Good. I forwarded the schedule to Kevin. He'll drag you there in my stead." Olivia chuckled. She was thankful for hiring a competent man like Kevin, but the smile on her face quickly faded when she remembered the poor guy's devastation when the love of his life died during the war.

Snapping her out from her trance, Olivia heard Aerith spoke, "Mom? Are you still there?"

"Yes, I'm here. Okay. Mom will hang up now. Call me often, little one."

Aerith nodded her answer, and even when Olivia couldn't see it, she knew her little one wouldn't disappoint because Aerith never did. And she knew in her heart that her little one Aertih would give her a call her as often as she could after her request.

After the all ended, Aerith walked like a zombie back to her bedroom, clutching the pendant on her necklace out of habit.

She was thinking of staying up all night to finish a term paper that was due in weeks' time just so she would not cram in the future. Add to that the fact that she wasn't sleepy yet because she took a nap in the middle of the night.

Earlier that day, she was so exhausted from uni, that when she arrived in her apartment at six in the evening, it didn't take a second for her to tap out, skipping dinner in the process.

Pushing her door open, she slumped on her bed, talking to the plants inside her boho-chic inspired bedroom.

Her hands were weaved together, sitting on top of her chest. She was in deep thought of her dilemma. Tomorrow, she had an eight in the morning class with a professor the whole campus abhorred that was why she had to go back and sleep lest she snoozes in class. Seeking an audience, she glanced at the snake plant on the bedside table and said, "I have to sleep, guys. I don't want to doze off in class tomorrow."

Sighing, she shot up from the bed and walked over the window. "Sorry, precious, I have to trim a bit right here," she uttered, humming to her lavender plant as she plucked leaves off it. She walked back to her bed and stuffed the leaves inside the pillowcase. Burying her face on it, she smiled as she smelled the calming and soothing aroma of lavender leaves.

Aerith let her mind wander off, turning back the pages of time when she first met her papa, mom, and dad. She smiled ruefully, clutching on her papa's dog tag which she turned into a ring. It was then that Aerith finally drifted back to sleep.