author's note

this is a long awaited fic from the 'story ideas' page i published years ago wow
this is going to be a short story so probably 6-10 chapters? we'll see!

Her eyes fluttered open and she yawned as she turned her head towards her nightstand. She had expected to see the bright red numbers on her silver alarm clock to tell her the time but the clock had gone missing. She peaked over the bed and saw it on the floor with the lights off. She trailed the connection cord to the base and noticed it'd been unplugged; in fact, most of the items in her nightstand littered the floor.

Arturia moaned after she rolled over on her back, stared at the ceiling and heaved. She pulled her body up to a sitting position and immediately felt the loud and bloody thumping in her head.

It'd been a rough night—a very rough night, but she still couldn't pinpoint why it was so. She was trying her best to slip out of her bed, the frown on her lips cutting deeper with every movement. She finally stood, pulling a blanket around herself, and once she did, she was faced with what seemed to be the biggest problem at hand; a tornado had hit her room, or at least that's what it looked like.

The closet had clothes bleeding from it, the window was wide open (the cool autumn breeze nipping at her), objects had lost their position from stands or tables and thrown across the room; some even broken. She was amazed that something so important happened but she couldn't remember what it was. She rubbed her eyes.

It was the lack of engagement ring that rushed the memories of the night before back into her mind. She groaned, the realization so clear in her mind that the anger bubbled up inside her once again. "Why would he—How could he? And tell me after so long? I just—ugh!"

Arturia gasped.

She searched for her phone through the mess that was her room. She could still hear the ringing of the phone in her ears, how she poured out her anger, her pain, her frustration to her fiancé. She could still feel the phone clutched tightly in her hands as she remembered she gripped it with force as she she dialed the phone number. She could still feel the burn of the hard liquor down her throat, the smell of burnt cookies, the dryness of her throat from all the screaming and crying.

She rubbed her head, trying to massage the pain away from her hangover but it was clearly not working. She remembered having taken too many wine glasses after her fiancé broke things off for the claim that he was bisexual and had been with a man for about five months. She laughed about it, believing herself to be the stupidest person on earth as she downed half a bottle of whisky.

She recalled the craziest parts of the night. She pulled out his outfits from their closet, garment by garment and threw them out the open window. She watched as they flew down to the lawn, scattering all over the fresh green grass as if they were rose petals. Arturia couldn't get it out of her mind, the way she yelled at him, the way she pushed him away when he tried to explain herself.

Arturia let out another groan, recalling as she threw the alarm clock towards him, screaming profanities his way. What hurt her the most was that he'd cheated on her! That he'd proposed and cheated on her immediately after as if it were nothing. As if it meant nothing to him. As if she wouldn't be hurt.

She could still hear his arguments as he followed her around the house, trying to stop her from wrecking the whole place. Arturia remembered that she deleted his number as they argued. She could still hear what he'd said to her as he left the house.

"This is why I can't marry you, Arturia! Because you're insane!"

"Insane?" She scoffed from the front door as he picked up his clothes from the yard. Their neighbours had gathered by their porches and windows to see what all the commotion was about. "You bloody cheated on me, wanker! And on top of that you proposed to me when you're sleeping with a man! A man!"

"The whole block doesn't need to know, idiot!" He yelled back at her. "They don't need to know about my bloody sex life!"

"Oh god!" She groaned upon snapping back to the present, "I'm so fucking stupid!" Then she remembered that later she called him, apologizing profusely, the drink talking as she begged him to come back, then calling and swearing at him, calling over and over with mixed emotions and so many words on her lips. She had trouble remembering his number, she remembered that clearly, but she managed somehow. He barely said a word to her on the phone but always answered every call, she expected him to let her run to voicemail, but he never did, not even once.

She found her phone in the bathtub, questioning herself, she picked it up and noticed it was out of battery and so she begrudgingly placed it to charge on her night stand. Arturia thought it best to clean up while it charged, she managed to get her bedroom halfway in order before she rushed to her phone.

53%, it read.

Good enough, she thought and rubbed her face, preparing herself for how desperate she'd sounded. She picked up the phone and immediately checked how many calls she'd made.

xxx-562-6384 (27)

She gasped. Twenty-seven calls? She called him twenty-seven times? And he picked up every single one?

She saw the time she made the last call.

5:52 a.m.

Then she checked the time on her phone, it was past midday.

Her phone vibrated in her hands and she jumped, seeing a notification that she'd received a text.

xxx-562-6384
hey, um, hope you're doing better today

Her eyes scanned the text and she frowned. "Oh so now he cares, that jerk!" Her phone buzzed again.

xxx-562-6384
I was a little worried with how you sounded last night...

Rolling her eyes, she scoffed.

xxx-562-6384
you deserve better than that Gil jerk
and please take care of yourself, you shouldn't drink so much

"Wait," she gasped, "wait, wait, wait!" She read the phone number over and over. "Shit, oh god, no!" She practically screamed as she noted that it wasn't her ex's number. She made a mistake! It wasn't supposed to be 562, it was 652! She just about sank to the hardwood floor and screamed. Oh god, what'd she said to the poor soul who answered the phone?

She scrolled up the texts and saw hers, gasping as she kept reading them, every single one of them. She started from the beginning of the conversation.

You bloody wanker!
How could you? How?
Cheat on me? On me?

Sorry, I think you have the wrong number

She should've actually listened! She proceeded reading every text they exchanged. There were probably nearly a hundred texts from her, mixed emotions spread across them.

" to think that I actually believed you loved me

that we almost had a future together

that i loved you "

That text hurt her the most and made her embarrassed and horrified. Arturia dug her nails into her knee as she gathered the courage to call the stranger again. This time she hoped she could apologize profusely and make it up to them somehow.

Taking a deep breath, she called.

Riiiing, riii—

"Hello?"