Robbie proceeded to call Sebastian after he hung up the call with Stephanie. He sat on the couch and waited patiently for Roberto to answer the phone. It began to ring for seconds, but there was no response. He heaved a sigh and looked at the screen of his phone. “Sebastian, are you serious? You really won’t answer the damn phone?” He mumbled, angrily. Deep down, he didn’t want to believe Sebastian dumped Stephanie after sleeping with her. ‘There must be an explanation to this.’
He checked the previous message he sent and when he saw that Sebastian had responded, his eyes widened. “When did he respond?” He muttered to himself and checked the time Sebastian’s message came in. It read 5 am. “5 am? Bruh! Who would be awake at 5 am?” Sebastian’s message said, “So, did you figure out if Jennifer likes you or not?” Robbie scoffed after reading his message. ‘Seriously? Just this? He didn’t say anything about Stephanie.’
“Hey you, where the f**k are you?! Stephanie just called me, she said you dumped her. She is in tears, Bruh! Call her and explain things to her. She must have misunderstood you.” Robbie texted back. He stared at his phone screen to check if the message was going to be delivered. Jennifer stood at the door, staring at Robbie as he looked fixedly at his phone. “Why do you look so tense early in the morning, hun?” She said, and Robbie raised his head and looked in the direction where her voice came from.
“Hey, you are awake.” He quickly wore a smile and looked at her as she approached him. She sat next to him and smiled faintly. “What’s wrong?” She asked, and Robbie shook his head. ‘It is nothing important, Jennifer. Just some minor stuff.” He grinned widely, and she sighed. “If you say so. But, I don’t believe you. It’s very obvious something is going on.” She stood up and headed to the kitchen. “Do you want to make me breakfast?” He teased, staring at her. Her white nightgown was short and transparent, Robbie could slightly see her body as he stared at her.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I want to drink water, okay? Just a night together doesn’t mean I’d make you breakfast,” She uttered, and he pouted. “One night can change a lot, and you know this.” He mumbled, and she smiled. “Focus on your phone. I have things to do too,” She said, entering the kitchen. Robbie smiled and looked at his phone again. His smile faded off when he saw that Sebastian had replied to his message. His message stated that “I can’t talk to her right now, Robbie. I know she hates me now, but I think it’s best that way. I can’t face her anymore.”
Robbie furrowed his eyebrows as he read the message. He had never been so confused in his whole life. He texted him back saying, “I don’t understand you. Why did you leave in the first place? Why did you have to make her hate you? What’s going on? At least you will talk to me, your friend! Plus, where the actual f**k are you?!“ Robbie’s finger rapidly ran through his keyboard as he typed. He heard Jennifer walk out of the kitchen, and he quickly looked up and smiled at her. “You don’t know how to pretend, Robbie. Something is going on, but I won’t bother you to tell me. I have to get to work this morning. I’ll go and prepare,” She said with a feeble smile.
“Work? It is the first day of the new year, Jennifer, who goes to work on such a day?” “Me.” She responded. “I go to work almost every day, Robbie. I need to make money. The work at the racing center brings little or no money at all. That isn’t the only work I do. You cannot know this because you are yet to know me well.” Robbie exhaled and bounced his head. “I would love to know you well then,” He uttered with a large beam of smile. “Tell me, where are you going to work today?” He added. “I work at an ice-cream store. Children would want to come and buy ice cream today because there are always discounts today, being the first day of the new year,” She explained.
“Wow, that is nice. I will drop you at the shop then. I would love to buy ice-cream too.” He chuckled, and she scoffed. “I’ll freshen up now. You should do the same too.” She walked away, and he let out another sigh. He looked at his phone, and he saw another message from Sebastian pop in. “I’m in Los Angeles, Robbie. No one can know this, okay?! I need to get my sh*t together first.” As Robbie read this message, Sebastian started typing again and another message popped in. “I can’t say more than this for now. We will talk later. I am going to get busy now.” Sebastian went offline immediately after he sent the last message.
‘Seriously? What the f**k is wrong with him? Why did he return home in such haste?’ Robbie reminisced, staring at his phone. He refused to reply to Sebastian's message again, and he put a call across to Danielle this time. Her phone began to ring, and he stood up and began to pace in the living room. She answered the phone, and he stopped walking. “Danielle. Good morning.” His face lit up with a large smile. “Robbie?…” Danielle mumbled. “Wait… are you still sleeping?” Robbie asked. “Uhmm. Your call woke me,” She mumbled again, and Robbie gritted his teeth. “I’m so sorry about that. I should call you back later then.” “No… no. I’m awake already. Tell me what it is.” She sniffed and cleared her throat after speaking.
“Errrmmm, I think you need to see Stephanie as soon as you can. She needs someone with her right now. She is in a pretty bad mood” He said, and Danielle sprang up from her bed all of a sudden. “Bad mood? Why is she in a bad mood?” Danielle yanked her bedspread off her body and got out of bed. “It’s about Sebastian. Can you please just go to her? I can’t say much right now,” He said, and Danielle hung up immediately. She searched for Stephanie’s number and dialed it. Her phone began to ring and ring but she didn’t answer. “This should not be what I’m thinking.” She ran into the bathroom to freshen up.
***
Stephanie sat on the floor in the living room, her head buried in the sofa. Her phone rang and rang but she was too weak and broken to talk to anyone. “I regret the day I met you. I regret the day I fell in love with you. I regret the day I gave you a chance to ruin me again! Sebastian, what did I do to deserve this? All you did was just to use and dump me?” She cried, hitting the sofa very hard. She heard messages pop into her phone, and she lifted her head and looked at her screen. She saw the messages were from Danielle. She picked up her phone and scanned through the messages.
“Hey! Answer the goddamn phone!” “Stephanie, please don’t do something stupid.” “Hey, can you at least pick up my calls? Is it that bad?” “I’m two minutes away from your house. You better not act funny.” Danielle had bombarded her with so many messages in less than twenty minutes. She heaved a sigh and dropped her phone on the sofa. She placed her head on the sofa and before she could go back to crying, she heard a knock on her door.
“Stephanie! Open the door.” Danielle said. Stephanie raised her head and looked at the door with tears in her eyes. “Stephanie, please open the door. I don’t have the strength to kick open this strong door. Please, open the door.” Danielle’s voice was loud but calm. “Danielle,” Stephanie mumbled and stood up. She shuffled to the door and opened it. Danielle saw her looking so sad and unkempt. She quickly entered the house and embraced her tightly. “Hey… I’m here now.” Danielle caressed her hair as Stephanie wept on her shoulder.
*
After some minutes of consoling Stephanie, Danielle walked out of the kitchen, holding two cups of coffee in her hands. “This would help you calm down,” She said, approaching Stephanie who sat at her dining table. “Did I get it wrong at some point? Why did he dump me?” She muttered, lowering her head. “Can you stop talking about it for a few minutes, please? I know it hurts, but please, stop for a few minutes.” Danielle stretched the cup of coffee to her, and Stephanie lifted her head.
“I don’t want it,” She said, and Danielle sighed. She sat next to her and placed the cups of coffee on the table. “Listen to me, Stephanie. I know you are hurt, broken, and devastated. You are so mad at him that you want to kill him. I understand how you feel, girl, trust me I do. But this isn’t going to help, okay? Crying all day won’t change anything. All you know about what is going on is the note he left behind. He must have his reasons, you just have to find out why he did it. Crying is never the solution. You have cried it out, that is enough.” Danielle took Stephanie’s hand in hers and caressed it slowly.
“It’s not as easy as you think, Danielle. I know how hard it was to get over Owen, because once I love you, I give you all, not holding anything back! I didn’t want to give love another chance and you know it, Danielle. Everyone wanted me to give him a chance, even my heart kept pestering me. But this is what I get in return. Pain and suffering! I hate him, Danielle. For breaking me again, I hate him!” She broke into tears again.