The moment the words left my mouth, I cringed, regretting them instantly. I knew it was hypocritical of me to ask after how I had avoided her the past month, but I just needed to know, that question having constantly been in the back of my mind. Especially during the past couple of weeks when I've wanted to contact her.
"How should I know? Why don't you go ask her yourself?" He responded with a smirk.
"You know damn well why. If I tried to call her, there's not a chance in hell she would pick up, and I wouldn't blame her." I sighed. I had wanted to change topics to not depress Sam, and all I had managed was to depress myself instead.
"For god's sake mate, stop getting all mopey. It's depressing to watch. How do you know she won't answer if you don't even give her a call and find out?" He asked, throwing down the bundle of papers he still had in his hands back onto the bed.
"Wait, are you being serious. I always thought you were smart, but maybe I should start reconsidering." At my joke, Sam looked unimpressed. That was until his lips suddenly turned upwards into an evil grin that immediately filled me with a sense of dread. Dread that only got worse as I watched him reach into his left pocket and pull out his phone.
"I've just come up with a great idea." He proclaimed, still with a glint in his eyes that promised nothing good.
"And what might that idea be exactly?" I asked warily, knowing I wasn't going to like the answer.
Sam just seemed to ignore my question, eyes glued to his phone as he continued to fiddle with it, before, after a certain amount of time, which I spent getting progressively more and more nervous, he finally looked back towards me. It was then that he flashed me one more smirk before pressing a button on his phone one last time. Instantly, a ringing sound started coming from his phone. Immediately, I knew what he had done as my face became that of one of horror as I scrambled rapidly off the floor before all but launching myself at Sam on the bed.
"Don't you fucking dare Sam!" I shouted, doing my best to grab the phone he was purposefully putting at an arm's length away. Unfortunately, I realised straight away how futile such an attempt was as he kept me at bay with ease before I exploded into a massive coughing fit, leaving me all but useless and unable to stop him.
"Damn it Sam hang up that fucking phone you prick." I said, my voice raspy from the coughing, as I started to panic as the call carried on.
"What's wrong? All I'm doing is calling a close personal friend of mine." He replied with an oblivious tone that wouldn't have fooled a five-year-old.
Just as I was about to start swearing at him with every horrendous word I could think of, the ringing noise from the phone suddenly cut off, replaced with the voice of a girl I hadn't heard in quite a long time. "Hey Sam, this is a surprise. What's up?"
"Oh, nothing much. It's just that my mate needed to talk with you, and he doesn't currently have a phone. I'll pass the phone to him now." And with that, Sam thrust the phone towards me, finally breaking me out of the stupor I had found myself in.
"What the hell are you doing!" I whispered angrily, failing to quieten my voice as much as I wished. "Hurry up and hang up that phone!"
"You've got two choices here, Adam. Either you man up and speak to her yourself, or I will speak for you on your behalf. And we both know that isn't going to go well." He replied with a smile, knowing I had no real choice at this point. And so, with no small amount of trepidation, I reached my arm out and angrily snatched the phone from Sam.
I slowly placed the phone to my ear. Yet just as I was about to say something, Helen's voice drifted through, leaving me tongue-tied and unable to think of anything to say. Something that lasted as Helen's voice continued to come through the phone, continuously asking whether Sam was still there. It was only as her voice started to sound annoyed, no doubt from the lack of speech on our end, and with the incessant remarks from Sam to hurry up, that I was finally able to speak.
"Uhh, Hey Helen. How are ya?" I was instantly met with silence, silence that lasted so long that I began to wonder whether she was even still on the line.
Eventually, however, just as I was about to ask whether she was still there, she finally spoke. Unfortunately, the tone was anything but happy. "What do you want, Adam?" The irritation leaked from her voice at such levels that it seemed almost physical in nature.
At her question, I thought about what I actually wanted to say to her. Was it to tell her how much I had missed talking to her? Was it to try and see if we could go back to how things were? No. It was none of that. The thing I had been wanting to say to her was something different.
"I'm sorry."
"...For what exactly?" she asked, still sounding just as dismissive and angry as before. However, I didn't know whether it was my delusions or if it was actually present, but I was sure I could hear a tinge of shock in her voice at my apology.
"For everything." I chuckled sadly. "You didn't deserve to get ghosted the way you had. Especially when you had done nothing wrong. This past month, I've just been a massive prick to everyone, to which Sam can testify."
"He's not wrong there, Helen!" Sam shouted from his bed, reminding me of his presence, which I had completely forgotten about, making me embarrassed and self-conscious with the apology I was giving.
"But anyway, I just wanted to say I'm sorry and I completely understand if you don't want to talk to me ever again." I waited a few seconds after finishing my apology, hearing nothing but a stony silence. It was then, just as I was getting ready to hang up the phone, believing she wasn't going to respond, her voice came through once again.
"Meet me at Cilton Dives Amusement Park at eleven o'clock tomorrow." Before I could even process what she had said, let alone respond, the connection went dead, her voice replaced by a string of mechanical beeps.
Still not able to fully process what was going on, I looked back towards Sam, who had during the call positioned himself with his legs dangling over the side of the bed, his arms along his lap as his body leaned forward towards me in eagerness. Yet while his body was eager, his face was that of confusion and bewilderment. Facial expressions, I was no doubt mirroring myself.
"Did she just tell me to meet her at an amusement park tomorrow?" I questioned, having awoken from my stupor, but still feeling no less confused.
Sam just nodded his head dumbly. "I think you just got a date."
The mention of a date seemed to reactivate my brain back to full capacity. "That can't be right! Did you not hear how pissed she was! I thought she was going to find a way to somehow beat the shit out of me through the phone."
"Maybe that's the plan." He smirked, clearly finding amusement in such an idea. "To meet up so she can finally get a chance to get some payback."
"Well, thanks for that Sam. I hadn't even considered that before you opened that big gob of yours. Fuck! Why would she want to meet up so suddenly?" I sighed, leaning against one of the walls of the room before sliding down and dropping back onto the floor.
"Mate, calm down. Alright." Sam laughed. "Do you really think she would want to meet up at an amusement park, of all places, if she was planning on getting into a fight with you?" He asked incredulously.
"I don't know man. Look I'm freaking out right here." I replied, ignoring the whispered 'clearly' from Sam. "She could be wanting to meet up to tell me she's actually my long-lost sister, and even that wouldn't shock me with where my mind is right now."
I looked towards the wall, taking a few moments to calm my nerves before I looked back at Sam. "What am I going to do?"
"I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to go home, get some sleep, shave that scruffy peach fuzz littering your face and get ready for your date with Helen." He smiled, punching me lightly in the shoulder after having sat down beside me.
"Shit!" I suddenly shouted, to the surprise of Sam. "I just realised I don't have anything to wear."
"Relax, man, you can borrow some of mine. I should still have some of my old clothes from a couple of years back that should fit you. No offence."
"None taken, if I tried any of your current clothes, I would probably end up looking like a kid wearing their dad's clothes." I joked, letting out a laugh along with Sam.
"Cheers mate, I really appreciate it." In response, Sam simply gave another smile as he patted me on the shoulder.
Smiling back, I took a deep breath, knowing I had no other choice but to wait for tomorrow to find out the real reason she wanted to meet. Yet even as I tried to calm my beating heart, I felt an ever-increasing sense of growing excitement build up within me at the thought of seeing Helen once again. A sense of excitement, I was forced to tamp down in order not to get my hopes high, just to have them later crushed when we met.
"Just one day of waiting. How bad can it be?"