She Won't Stop Texting Me

Matty walks from the kitchen to the living room with a glass of cold water in his hand. 

Clouds make their way over the sun as he sits on the couch so he flips on a lamp on next to him. He picks up a torn edition of Fante short stories and opens to the bookmarked page. 

Before he reads a single word, his roommate Jules’s phone vibrates on the coffee table. It lights up, too. Matty ignores the phone and puts his eyes to the book, one word read, ‘The’ and the phone vibrates again. Matty grabs the phone and places is atop a pillow on the couch to hopefully muffle the distraction. Back to the book. One word and it vibrates again. The pillow doesn’t work.

A fourth vibration and Matty sets the book on his lap. He grabs his glass of water and gulps half of it down. Finally, Jules emerges from the bathroom, a white towel around his waist, his body soaking. 

“Hey your phone is going wild,” Matty says. 

“What’s that?” Jules asks with short breath.

“It won’t stop vibrating.” Matty tosses his book on the couch, it bounces and the bookmark almost falls out. Matty slides it back inside the pages.

Jules grabs the phone from the pillow and sits on a rocking chair across from Matty. He sighs with urgency. As if the sigh itself was just as much of a nuisance as the phone. He types rapidly, eyes on the phone. “Listen, I think you should come to Milwaukee with Emma and me.” 

Matty drops his head and taps the cover of his book. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“You, Emma, and me? I don’t want it to be a third wheel kind of thing.”

Jules puts his phone on the coffee table, it vibrates immediately. Matty watches a droplet of water travel down Jules’s leg.

“Did you dry off at all?” 

“No, I air dry. Listen, bring Jenny, the girl from the bank. She can fit in the car with all of us, we’ll all go up together, spend the weekend.”

Matty shrugs, “Really, that’s okay.”

“You don’t want to bring Jenny?” Jules’s phone buzzes once more, he snatches it.

“She’s not really my type of girl.” 

“What’s that?”

“She’s not my type. Jenny from the bank, she-” Matty can tell Jules isn’t listening, so stops. There’s a draft, and Matty looks for it. He realizes he can’t see a draft and turns back to Jules.

“Sorry,” Jules says, “She just won’t stop texting me.” 

“Who?” 

“Who do you think? Emma. Every five seconds.”

“What does she want?” Matty asks, he picks up his book and drops it, reaches over to a side table and grabs an e-cigarette as he listens to the tapping of Jules’s thumbs.

“Wants to know where I’m going tonight, like I haven’t told her or something. Like she doesn’t trust me.”

“Where are you going again?” Matty asks.

“I’m going to fuck this girl. First drinks, but it’s all worked out, we’re going to to get drinks then head back to her place. I’m telling Emma I’m visiting my family in the suburbs. Which I will, just early morning tomorrow. But she’s all ‘What time are you leaving? When will you be home tomorrow? What are you doing tomorrow before we leave for Milwaukee? When are we leaving for Milwaukee?’ I’m telling you, it’s like jumping through hoops of fire.” 

Matty blows smoke rings with the vapor, “Hoops to cheat on her.”

“They’re still hoops.” Jules phone buzzes, “I’m telling you, she won’t stop texting me.”

Matty checks his phone, but no one has messaged him. Jules jumps up, and with three long steps, he’s in his bedroom. He calls to Matty, “I’m telling you, come with us to Milwaukee, we’ll have a good time.”

“I just don’t think it’s a great idea,” Matty says again.

“It won’t be weird,” Jules pops his head out his bedroom door, “We’re all friends, and we’ll get separate hotel rooms or something.” He ducks back into the bedroom. 

Matty checks his phone again. Nothing. That draft, he thinks, is a nuisance. It’s fall, but once winter comes, the draft will destroy their home. 

Jules rushes out in jeans and a t-shirt. There are water marks spotted throughout the cotton of his shirt. “Think about it,” he says and grabs his phone from the table. “Just come to Milwaukee, we leave tomorrow night.”

Matty gives him a polite smile, “I’ll think about it.”

Jules makes his hand into a gun and pulls the trigger. Eyes on his phone, “Better put this on ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode.”

Just as Jules heads out the door, Matty’s phone finally buzzes. It’s a text from Emma, “Did he leave yet?”

Matty replies, “Yep, just left, come on over. He doesn’t suspect a thing.”