"Hey, what's up?" that familiar enticing voice in the phone riled me up.
"Eh I need something, so come to my house" I blushed.
"Hold on a second, you made it sound as if we're gonna do something nau-".
"What!? No, I'm not you idiot!" I growled. "Listen, you're a goddamn hacker, so I need your help with something. I'll pay you".
The guy laughed, I could felt his slyness just from listening to his tone and in the line.
"Sheesh, what you said earlier almost rile me up, it's bad", he grinned
* * *
Not long after the call, the charming man on the phone arrived at my house. He greeted me as if there's nothing ever happened between us which is a lie. Ender Warren, this nerdy jock guy is my silver bullet and trash.
Ender himself admitted that he's trash but somehow his remark made me uncomfortable like he forced himself to be trash you know. I knew him since middle school, he's not exactly popular among his peers. He's a trickster and a well-known hacker who hack things for fun, which made him an antagonist.
Slowly people's image of him changed during high school which was a good thing but he's still rotten in the core, and I'm the only one who knows how rotten his character is.
"So what is it Aria? You want me to lay on the bed or something? I mean calling a guy at nighttime is something else you know", Ender smirked.
"Sheesh cut that out, I only want you to dissect my avatar ID in Wishmaker", I sighed.
"So you bought a Wishmaker? That's uncalled for", he looked shocked.
"Huh yeah, I was just goofing around", I replied. "Anyway back to the topic, I want the Wishmaker AI to be completely cut off from the Wishmaker and made it my own AI".
Ender looked flabbergasted he couldn't believe what I just said, he furrowed his eyebrows and scratched his forehead.
"Are you that lonely? I mean I could do that, dissecting the AI from the host means I need to reprogram the whole AI stuff in the Wishmaker, but to where I connect the AI?", he asked.
"My cell phone and ID", I answered.
Ender didn't seem to like the idea, he thought that I'm crazy or something. I mean that's how I look like from his dissatisfied expression, he later masked his annoyance with a smile though. He asks me where the Wishmaker CPU which I pointed to the Wishmaker machine connected under my TV.
He borrows my cell phone and ID, he tinkered the machine and typed something on his mini laptop. I once asked about where he bought that laptop, but it turns out he made the laptop from scratch with new spare parts he bought from the store.
I laid on my bed with tired eyes, humming a song from my favorite classical music. I rolled around on my bed, waiting for the process to be done.
"It's Nocturne Chopin op 9 no 2", he said out of nowhere.
"Uh?", I looked at him dazed with drowsiness.
"What you hummed earlier", he spoke with his usual stern voice.
"Yeah", I yawned.
The room filled in complete silence and the only sound that filled the silent room are the sounds of his typing and tinkering. I rolled my body only to find myself enticed by his broad shoulder and the sound he made when he's serious with his job. There's this part of me longed for his interaction, his touch, his teasing. It was a weird feeling that I should toss a long ago but here I am still. His scent and his voice, I always remembered and never forgets even if wanted to.
I closed my eyes to the darkness, I just wanted to shut the voice that went on a rampage inside my head, the sound of screeching scream, agony, cries that engulfed my mind. I closed both my ears with my hands, the voices that I wanted to avoid were still inside me after all, it's annoying and inefficient but I couldn't control them.
After a while, Ender shook my shoulder gently which woke me up from my agony. He stood up with a proud smile. He turned around to me and said that my command has been granted. He said that I could activate it tomorrow since it took a while for the AI to synchronize the specs to new devices that foreign from its host.
"Well I think I'm done, so I'm gonna go home", he said tiredly.
"How much?" I asked.
"It's free," he told me.
"Are you kidding me?", I sighed.
"Hey, it's not a scam! It's free alright! Besides this will be the last time I"ll do this cause Final Examination is coming up" he scratched his head annoyed.
"Huh, so it's already that time for you".
"Yeah, architecture is a pain in the ass seriously" Ender boo. "Oh yeah, don't wander around the city. I don't know why but the security drones in the city acting weird it's not cool".
"For real?", I asked, amused.
"Sheesh don't be amused, I mean one of them self destruct and injured people on the streets", Ender said worriedly to me.
"You gotta be careful Aria, I feel a storm coming".
I could felt there's something stuck inside my throat. I wanted to say something to Ender but I lost my voice and my courage to say anything to him. Ender gazed at my eyes, his fiery red eyes in sync with mine. His well built brown-skinned arm touched the surface of my pale skin, I felt the spark of excitement that I once lost.
He leaned closer to my face as he circled his arm around my neck, while I trailed my hand on his spiky raven hair. I was too busy in his scarlet eyes to care where his hand went. I could felt his breath on my face, so close yet so far. He slowly descends his thick lips on mine, but then I pushed him on instinct.
"Stop", I whispered.
"No way", he looked deep into my ruby eyes with a lustful look.
"Stop it, or I'll get mad" I glared at him like a dagger.
Ender pulled away as he scratched his head awkwardly.
"Right sorry" Ender frowned.
Ender said his goodbye and parted his ways with a meaningful smile. Just when I thought he's already gone, he reminded me in a text message to watch more news. He's as worrywart as always, he's still as annoying as usual and yet I couldn't resist his advance which is a bad thing. I need to be more level headed than him.
"Listen Aria" Ender looked back at me before he departed in a pained expression. "Whatever I did to you in the past, I hope you can forgive me".
I frowned as I looked toward Ender's sorrowful expression. My first thought that popped into my mind was that the self-centered Ender could feel guilt, after all these years he wronged me.
I stood there silently, as Ender waited for my response. My lips turn dry, and my throat feels stuck. I wanted to answer him and embraced him once more. However, something stopped me from doing it.
I have longed for his affection, touch, and love. We always ended up in a tight spot, none of us want to says 'sorry' to begin with. Maybe it's due to our pride and dignity, we just couldn't meet each other eyes. Whether as a friend or lovers, we just couldn't blend in anymore.
However, we just know that deep down we're hungry for each other affection.