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It is way past midnight and Kat lies awake in her bed staring at her bedroom’s ceiling. The glowing stars are gone, they have been gone ever since her childhood friends told her that phosphor-laced plastics are lame and childish. Now though, she kinda missed them and wishes they are still presents. At least their faint glow would distract her from her wayward thoughts towards another form of glow that spreads on her chest from what happened earlier in the evening.
They had kissed and she didn’t regret it even the slightest bit. Their kiss(es) weren’t like her other previous kisses. And no, it wasn’t because Adena is a girl. Sure, her lips were way softer and she smelt like midnight summer, but this burning feeling that left her warm and wanting and tingling was completely new. She should’ve known that they would ended up in this exact situation the moment Adena asked her sexual orientation and she firmly stated that she was an out and proud hetero – way too firmly. It was like she unconsciously trying to convince no one but herself.
Doesn’t matter now, you learn something new everyday anyway, sexuality included. One thing that keeps gnawing at the back at her mind tho, whether her tittle now is the official home-wrecker or just a bypassing stranger temporarily filling the void in somebody’s long distant relationship.
Earlier, they didn’t talk about that, hell, she didn’t even remember about that. The only things that exist are the breathy sighs between their kisses and the constant instinct to just become closer. When finally they pulled apart and its time for her to ask some basic question about their exact ground, Jacqueline, ever the kind of woman with perfect timing, called her and asked her about her upcoming article. She had no choice but to left and talk about it, albeit with cloudy mind and weak knees and an entire army of butterflies threatened to burst out from her chest.
So, with a smile and soft touch on Adena’s cheek, she bid the blushing and shy-smiling artist good night.
She glanced at her nightstand clock, 04.15 am. Still way too early to call your crush despite how mind-blowing your kisses had been the previous evening. So, she opt to do something less nerve-wracking for millennials like her and grab her newly returned phone to shoot a simple “You up?” instead.
Surprisingly, the answer comes immediately. With shaking hands and pounding heart, she considers the perfect answer for Adena’s simple “Yes. What’s up?”
After three full minutes of typing and erasing her text, she decides to just get on with it and call Adena. For she cant find any correct string of letters and emojis to explain the avalanche of feelings she feels right now. She gets up from her bed to go to her balcony, the night is chilly but the cold helps her shape her words.
Adena picks up after only two rings, Kat is happy but decided that two rings aren’t enough to prepare her about what to say next, so she blurts out the first thought that surfaced on her mind the exact time Adena replied her text ten minutes ago.
“Why are you still up? Its not good for your health.”
“Says the one who text me in the wee hours of the morning,” Adena chuckles, her voice was soft and blends really well with Kat’s surrounding. She likes it.
“Shit. I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I was up for my Tahajjud Prayer and I like to stay awake until its time for my Fajr Prayer, these quiet hours are part of the night that I love the most,” Adena answered and Kat feels her nervousness mostly gone, she thinks that they don’t have to talk about the complicated stuffs right away, she’d like to use this moment as an opportunity to know more about Adena – and her religion too, because that part is an important one that made Adena who she is now.
“I have an idea of what Fajr Prayer is but I’d like to know more about the one that you said before that,” Kat said. Her sights roam the city lights beyond her, trying to find the certain one that belongs to the magnificent girl on the other side of the phone.
“It’s Tahajjud Prayer, basically means Night Prayer. It can be done between midnight and before dawn. However, Tahajjud is not our obligatory five-prayers.” Adena explained, her voice still soft and Kat notices that its now laced with certain tranquility that she thinks come from Adena’s talk about her religion’s rituals.
“But for these past years I found myself doing that more often after I decided to embrace myself for who I really am, Tahajjud really helps me comes to my terms with myself and other things surrounding it. It helps me find answers…” Adena trails off, and despite the new knowledge and the possible outcome from this topic, Kat find herself intrigued.
“And what answer did you seek tonight?” Kat asks carefully.
Kat hears Adena exhales a little laugh, “Is not that obvious?” her tone is playful and borderline flirty.
“What?” twirling her hair while being on the phone is too damn cliché and normally Kat hates it, but today isn’t a normal day and damn it, it feels so good doing it.
“My Visa Extension.” Adena says, dead serious but somehow Kat could sense that she’s trying her hardest not to laugh. She fails miserably and burst out on full laughing, ignoring Kat’s “I hate you”s.
“Of course it’s you.” Adena says softly after her last laughter died out.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m looking for an answer to what should I do about you. You, who come out of nowhere with your persistent self and cute smile. Do you think you’re the only one who’d been thrown out off your game?”
Kat is at lost of words, her earlier embarrassment is completely replaced by that warm feelings she feels since the evening before.
“I…”
“I really like you too, Kat. I’ve found what I’m looking for, I’ve found the clue about what to do. And I would like to show you my good intention from now on.” Adena paused, and from her end Kat could hear a soft call for prayer, probably from Adena’s computer or something. The dawn is already breaking.
“Are you saying what I think you are saying?” uncertainty is a new catalog in Kat Edison’s dictionary, but looking at her current state of life, being in a constant doubt about this whole situation is kinda an understatement.
“If what you think is about me making overseas call to France and tell Coco that she’s right about long-distance never works, then you are right too. Because that’s exactly the second thing I’m gonna do after the sun completely appears above us later.”
Kat can’t stop herself from smiling, so she isn’t really a home-wrecker after all, Adena’s separations with Coco is bound to happen anytime because apparently both of them only keep being together for the sake of proving a point that long distance could work. But wait…
“Why is doing that the second thing you’d do today? What’s the first?” Kat asked after she finds her voice again.
“Hearing your voice and talking to you about feelings and… stuff of course.” Adena answers easily and Kat feels her bloodstream fills with tiny microscopic electric currents that makes her tingles all over again.
The first rays of sunshine peek from the cloud and she sighed happily, she can’t wait to experience more of this wee hours calls, she got the feeling that these are gonna be a recurring thing between them. A recurring, wonderful thing.