Chapter 9

The Call

Zhan Shi De picks up the cordless phone and dials Lin Yu Jie's number.

"Hello?"

"Its me, Zhan Shi De, are you ok?"

Sniffing, Lin You Jie doesn't answer right away. "Hey..." Zhan Shi De waits quietly. "…can you talk for awhile?"

Looking at the clock, Zhan Shi De replies, "Sure."

Zhan Shi De fiddles with a bright yellow M&M container; popping the lid open and closed as he listens to Lin Yu Jie pour out her troubles to him over the phone. Half-listening and half-spacing out, he glances at the clock again. How much longer can she talk? It's been at least two hours.

"…I just can't seem to get my parents to understand how I feel about this…"

I wonder how many M&M's there are in this container? Zhan Shi De takes a clean piece of paper out of a drawer, spills the M&Ms onto it, and counts them.

"…It's as if I'm invisible to them, just because I have some EQ problems…"*

Thirty-eight…and…a half? That's odd…where's the other half?

"…I don't know why…but I'm comfortable around you. I can talk to you, but hardly anyone else…"

Zhan Shi De silently sighs and rubs his neck. I'm pretty sure awhile, for talking on the phone, is for a short amount of time, about an hour…not two and a half hours. He slides a thick dictionary, that's on his desk, towards him and opens it. Awhile—for a short time. He closes the dictionary and puts it back.

"…so…anyway…Thanks for listening to me."

Zhan Shi De snaps back from his thoughts. "Uh…sure…no problem."

"Sorry for standing you up after school…I wasn't feeling well."

"It's ok."

"Then…I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ok."

"Ok, Bye."

"Bye." Zhan Shi De hangs up the phone and looks at the clock. It's so late…and I still have homework to do. He sighs, opens his laptop, and begins to work.

*EQ stands for Emotional Intelligence. It measures one's mental ability to deal with environmental demands and pressures. It is NOT the same as IQ.

I know this chapter is ridiculously short, sorry about that… I just couldn't think of anything else to put in this chapter so…that's just how it worked out this time. I'm working on typing the next chapter…I should have it soon. Please review and enjoy!