Chapter 23
Max
My jerking session didn’t help much. I didn’t feel any better afterward. I closed the tap and stepped outside, grabbing a towel before drying myself.
“Okay, Max, if she doesn’t call back after dinner, you are allowed to call her again,” I told myself, looking at the mirror’s reflection, not caring if Danny would find me an obsessive lunatic or not. I just wanted to talk to Ziya.
Being in love makes a person crazy for real. I’d never known this because apparently all these times before, I wasn’t really in love, but now I was.
I love her.
~
I pressed the green phone icon and held my phone against my ear, praying my call wouldn’t get straight to voicemail again. And that luckily didn’t happen, cause the woman finally picked up!
“Zi?”
“...”
“Zi?!”
Hiccup “Who is this?"
“...?”
What the fuck! That was a guy’s voice. Who was this guy?
“Hello?” he asked. “Hellooooooo?”
“I’m looking for Ziya. Can you please get her to the phone?” I asked, annoyed.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Max. Could you please get her for me?” I asked again.
“Ohhhh, t-the little boy! I’m Henry, her boyfriend. And let me tell you--”
WHAT THE FUCK was this asshole talking about?! “Get her for me, you dipshit!” I shouted through the phone. Ziya had told me that Henry was her ex’s name. Was the man drunk? Was he troubling her?
“Will not!” Hiccup. “Cause... Well, MAX, Ziya can’t talk to you now, cause she’s with me--”
“Henry, you fucking ass--NO!” Ziya's voice shrieked in the background.
The line went dead. “Zi? ziya? ZIYA?!” I cried out, screaming through my phone.
“What-what’s going on?” Danny asked with wide eyes, walking into the room after he’d taken out the trash. “Why are you yelling?”
“I just talked to Henry, that asshole ex of hers, and he’s with her and she sounded furious, and he said she was his, and--FUCK!” I rambled on. “I don’t fucking know what just happened!” I wanted to pull my hair out of frustration. I could cry out of anger. “I’ll try again,” I said, calling her again. “Straight to voicemail!”
Fuck!
“I presume you’re talking about Ziya--”
“Of course, I’m talking about Ziya!”
“Yeah, but... I-I don’t know, man. This all sounds really suspicious. She didn’t pick up your calls, didn’t respond, and now there’s an ex over there... Maybe she’s been playing you or something.”
“Ziya wouldn’t do that to me, Danny!” I glared at him. “I know her and I know she would never do such a thing. Besides that, she hates cheaters because this asshole cheated on her before. I trust her and I just know, okay? Fuck, something’s not good. I gotta go to her.”
“What? It’s a five-hour trip!” Danny replied. “And it’s already evening.
“I don’t fucking care!”
~
I hadn’t even bothered to pack any belongings. I’d just grabbed my wallet, passport, and phone charger and took off. The entire trip to the airport, I’d tried to call Ziya, but it was to no avail. It went straight to voicemail, every time. I quickly texted my parents to say I was taking a small trip because I knew my mom. She would visit me again tomorrow and I didn’t want her to get worried if I wasn’t at home.
The flight had been horrible. It lasted and lasted. And it seemed like these few hours had turned into twenty hours or something. Of course they hadn’t, but it felt that way.
“How long?” I asked the cab driver. It was around five o’clock in the morning.
“About three minutes to go.”
“Thanks.”
The man must be tired of my questions. I asked him the same one every few minutes.
ZIYA had luckily texted me her address a few days ago, otherwise, there was no way to contact her. I wondered what I would find at her place. I truly believed she wouldn’t cheat on me. But if Henry was there for some other reason, I was going to choke him to death. And if he’d hurt Ziya, I’ll torture him first.
“It’s that place. The small white house ahead over there.” He pointed to the left and not long after that, he stopped right in front of said house.
I’d finally made it. That was Ziya's home. It was a small kinda cute house and it suited her. Knowing she’d once lived there with another man made the hairs on my neck stand up straight.
He better haven’t done anything to her!
The cab driver said it was forty-five bucks. I paid him fifty. “Keep the change,” I shouted, sprinting out of the car and rushing towards the place I desperately wanted to be.
Please let her be okay.
Ziya
I couldn’t believe that fool! The thought alone that I’d ever been voluntarily together with Henry in the past (particularly the part of me lying in bed with him and shedding tears over losing him!) made me want to slap myself so hard right now.
“You’re an idiot, Henry!” I yelled at his face before I pushed him away from me. “And if you don’t get the hell out of my house right now, I’m going to call the police! Do you hear me?”
“Jesus, what happened to you, b-babe? Did you become a bitch on that island, or what? I thought you’d be all sad and happy to see me, but you’re acting like you’re on-on s-steroids or something. Why are you so aggressive?”
“What?” Was this guy for real? “So you only came here to comfort poor little weak Ziya? Wanted to take advantage of my sad, traumatic state while you were here, anyway? Hm?”
“Whaaaat? No-no! I didn’t say that! No,” he answered, hands disappearing behind his neck.
“You’re scratching the back of your neck, Henry,” I replied, looking at the familiar movements he always made when he was lying. Henry apparently forgot he used to live with me and I knew all his ways like the back of my hand.
“Okay, okay. But... I want you back, Zi. All t-those other women are not like you. I miss you,” he replied in a drunken, whiny voice. It only irritated me more.
I walked around him and stopped behind his back, where I pushed him against his shoulder blades. Together, we walked to the door. “Goodbye, Henry.”
“But, baby—”
“I was a fucking fool. You just haven’t found another poor victim yet. I’m sure you will someday.”
“Zi—” I opened the door and tossed him out before I slammed the door in his face. With tears in my eyes from anger and frustration, I turned around and looked at my phone, which was still laying on the floor, broken beyond repair.
~~~~~~~~~~