Chapter 10
The way she sees it's me on her caller ID
She won't pick up the phone She'd rather be alone
But I can't give up just yet Cause every word she's ever said
Is still ringin' in my head Still ringin' in my head
The minute Moze slammed his bedroom door; Ned regretted everything that he had said to her. He shouldn't have told her to leave. Maybe she was right. Actually, he knew she was right. He shouldn't have been so insensitive. At this point he wished he would never fall for another girl in his entire life. It was all just too confusing. Falling for a girl who happened to be your best friend was even worse.
Ned pulled himself up from off the floor and flopped down onto his bed. He seemed to have been spending a lot of time in his room lately. He hadn't had a very good sleep last night for obvious reasons. His eyelids seemed to want to keep drooping shut. It was no use trying to stay a wake any longer. Possibly the best thing for him was to get some rest, and to think this all over later.
Just as he was about to drift off, there was a knock on his bedroom door. He heard his Mother's familiar voice on the other side of the door, calling to him. "Can I come in sweetie?" She asked in her usual motherly fashion.
"Sure," He said as he propped himself up onto his elbows, figuring she wanted to talk to him about something or other.
She entered slowly and made a spot for herself on his bed.
"I heard a lot a yelling in here." She explained. "And a door slamming and I just wanted to make sure everything was alright."
Ned grunted a little.
"Yea, Moze was here." He said quietly.
"Oh, you say that like it's a bad thing. I assume things still aren't resolved between the two of you then?" She asked.
"Not exactly. I think I actually made it worse, if that's even possible."
"You two have been friends for a long time. I'm sure whatever it is you're fighting about will blow over eventually."
"It would have all blown over, if I hadn't opened my big mouth."
"Honey, I don't see what you could of said that would have made her angrier with you then she already was." She explained.
"Gee, thanks mom." He told her sarcastically.
"Just trying to help," She said genuinely.
Ned let out an anticipated breath. "This is going to be really awkward telling you this, since you're my mom, but I really feel like I need to tell someone. And you asked, so here goes nothing." He began.
His mom listened intently as he launched into the whole speal about what had happened earlier, leaving out of course the part about Moze being drunk. So he had to refrain from telling her all the details. She didn't need to know everything.
"So we got into a pretty heated argument, and then somehow it just slipped." Ned told her.
"What exactly 'just slipped'?" Mrs. Bigby asked speaking for the first time since he had began his story.
"I told her that I loved her." He said in a voice hardly above a whisper.
She picked up on what he had said right away. "I always suspected that you had more than friendly feelings for her." She said smiling.
"Great, apparently the whole world knew before I did."
"Love is blind." She said quoting a poem that Ned was unable to identify.
Ned just shrugged. "I guess."
"So, don't leave me wondering what happened. Finish your story." Mrs. Bigby said, prodding him on.
"Well obviously it doesn't have a happy ending seeing as to how she slammed the door in my face. She told me I broke her heart too many times and that it would never work out. So apparently she doesn't feel the same way. At least not anymore." He elaborated.
"Sweetie, you really are clueless."
"I am not!" He protested.
Mrs. Bigby just shook her head in that way that mothers always do, when they know something you don't.
"Are you not telling me something?" He asked annoyed.
"There's nothing to tell. You need to figure the rest out for yourself." She told him, kissing him on the forehead. "I'll be downstairs if you need me for anything."
Mrs. Bigby got up off the bed and made her way to the door. "I'm glad we had this talk." She said smiling as she closed the door behind her.
"Maybe you're glad, but it didn't help me any." He muttered to himself, after she had closed the door.
What was he supposed to do now? This hadn't solved anything. Moze still hated his guts. Things sure seemed to be a lot more complicated then they needed to be. He stood up and went over to his big picture window. His gaze went to Moze's bedroom, and there she was sitting on her bed. Alone in her room as well. The difference was she was reading, and Ned, well, Ned wasn't really doing anything.
His gaze flickered to his desk, and an idea popped into his head. There on his desk sat his phone. He picked it up knowing what he needed to do. He pressed the number one on his speed dial and the phone began to ring. He watched Moze through the window, as she got up off of her bed and picked up her own phone from its cradle on her desk. A flicker of hope sparked from somewhere inside of him, for just a moment.
She glanced at the caller id and set the phone back down. She was oblivious to the fact that Ned was watching her through the window. The flicker of hope that was there only minutes ago dwindled away. He knew it wasn't going to be easy, but he was persistent nonetheless.
He waited a few seconds before hitting the number one again. Ned watched her as she got up off her bed again, set her book down, and glanced at the caller id yet again. With the phone in her hand she angrily slammed it down into the cradle. This time before going back to reading her book, she glanced out her window. Meeting Ned's gaze almost immediately. It was as if she had known he had been there the whole time.
He grinned sheepishly, and waved slightly. His smile was met by an icy cold glare and an angry scowl. Once again, he waited a couple of seconds before trying again. He hit the number one and the phone began to ring. This time she didn't even bother to get up.
Ned waited just a couple of seconds longer hoping she would change her mind. Just as he was about to hang up, he heard a voice on the other line.
"I'm sorry about my daughter's rude behavior." Mrs. Mosely said. "Let me go get her for you."
Ned smiled victoriously. He had her know. He watched as Mrs. Mosely came into Moze's room and handed her the phone. She tossed it onto her bed and Ned heard a dial tone signaling that she had hung up.
Why did she have to be so stubborn? He wondered.
Mrs. Mosely shrugged, as if saying 'I tried,' as she watched Ned's sad reaction from across the way.
She left the room and Ned knew he needed another plan. He went over to his desk and opened his middle drawer. It was jam packed with all kinds of clutter but he soon found what he was looking for. He smoothed out the piece of construction paper that he had found, and grabbed one of the black sharpies that happened to be lying on his desk.
In big bold capitalized letters, he wrote:
PLEASE PICK UP YOUR PHONE! WE NEED TO TALK!
He opened the same drawer that he had found the paper in and dug through it some more, in search of tape. It took a few minutes, but he eventually found it. Ned ripped a small piece off and stuck it to the top of the paper. He then ripped off another piece, and stuck it to the bottom of paper.
He walked back over to his window and began taping the sign he had made to it. His timing was inevitable. Just as he was finished putting it up, Moze glanced in his direction.
He was smiling widely as he pointed to the sign. But, unfortunately, his efforts were yet again ignored.
What did it possibly take to get her to talk to him?
She wouldn't even crack a smile, her stare was intense and her eyes hard. She was ruthless. Moze was never one to admit defeat.
As he watched her staring back at him, the only thoughts that came to mind were what she had said to him earlier.
"Ned, It's not that I don't love you, I really do, it's just that I don't think it'll work out between us. You've already hurt me before and I don't want to set myself up to get my heart broken again."
It all came together as he heard her voice ringing in his head.
"Pin this on you? I'm not pinning anything on you. I'm explaining how I feel, how things look in my perspective. If you'd just actually listen to me, then maybe you'd understand."
He probably should try seeing things in her perspective. Maybe that was part of the problem. All of a sudden it seemed to click, what his mom had said earlier suddenly making sense now. All he had to do now was explain to Moze that he understood and maybe things would work in his favor. Maybe just, maybe…
The way she sees it's me on her caller ID
She won't pick up the phone She'd rather be alone
But I can't give up just yet Cause every word she's ever said
Is still ringin' in my head Still ringin' in my head
A: N Sorry about the long wait! I was a little bit disappointed in the amount of reviews I received for this last chapter. Don't get me wrong. 9 is a great number, a lot more than a lot of people get for one chapter, but when I've been getting anywhere from 14 to 20 reviews for a single chapter it's a bit of a downer. Is the story not as good anymore? I'm doing everything in my power to keep it interesting. There are only about 2 more chapters left, so please bare with me. Thank you to all those that did review, I appreciate it immensely.
MUCH LOVE AND PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW!!!
Countrygurl212