Leisurely stepping out of the car, Ensen stretched his arms wide and let out a slight yawn before heading towards the elevator. While walking towards he saw the old lady that had previously stared at him intently for carrying all of his grocery bags in at once. Turning his gaze away, Ensen soon passed her and rode the elevator up towards his floor.
Walking towards the apartment, he quickly arrived without any interruptions and unlocked the door, Entering it and taking off his jacket and shoes before slowly walking towards his bedroom. It had been a long few days for Ensen, all the driving and picking up resources was not exactly exhilarating.
To be blunt, he was beyond bored the past few days. The only thing that saved some of his sanity was the fact that the rental van had a surprisingly good audio system for listening to music.
Although he also tried listening to podcasts, he noticed that he couldn’t focus well on driving if he did that. So to be safe, he resorted to just listening to music.
Arriving in front of the bed, Ensen threw himself on top of the blankets. Not bothering to change clothes, he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, resting it on his nearby end table.
Realizing that his throat was getting rather dry, Ensen laid there for a few moments before he forced himself up and walked to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water. Quickly chugging the glass, Ensen refilled the same glass and returned to bed, eager to have some rest.
Quickly closing his eyes, Ensen could not wait to fall asleep. After a few minutes of trying to relax, he had begun to drift away when he heard a sound.
Opening his eyes, he moved his gaze towards his vibrating phone. Ensen rolled over and tried to lay back down to ignore it, but it made such a loud noise that he simply could not ignore it anymore.
Turning around again, he grabbed his phone and looked at the caller ID. Noticing it was an unknown number, Ensen did not think much of it, assuming it to be a telemarketer and quickly declined the call before laying back in bed satisfied with himself.
But the caller didn’t give up that easily. A few moments later the phone began to vibrate again. Ensen swore that it vibrated even more aggressively the second time around. With an irritated expression, Ensen quickly raised his finger to decline the call again before having a quick change of heart and deciding to answer.
Although he thought that this call was nothing important, he needed to get into the habit of answering calls. After all, he was soon to be a principal.
Trying to calm himself down, Ensen slowly answered the phone and raised it towards his ear.
“Hello, who’s this?’ Ensen said bluntly. Although he was doing his best to be nice, he was tired and annoyed by both the system and the caller.
“Oh, I’m sorry Ensen did I disturb you?” A mature and delicate woman’s voice answered back.
Looking at this phone with an expression mixed with shock and hesitation, he correctly assumed that she had changed phones over the last time she called. Ensen slowly responded while trying to calm himself down.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“It’s been a long time since we talked sis. Why are you calling me?” Ensen said in a passive-aggressive tone. Although the two of them used to be very close as kids, they had gradually grown apart due to an incident a few years prior.
Although it affected their relationship, they both agreed to put aside their differences if her daughter Ada was involved. After all, he didn’t want to make her child suffer from the relationship between them, it was only fair.
While he was a teacher at SilverLeaf Academy, he had done his best to assist Ada to the point where she had become increasingly confident in her studies. Although a side effect of this was that she had become attached to Ensen which left him in an awkward position since she was curious as to why her mother and Ensen didn’t talk anymore.
“I know I shouldn’t be calling… but Ada told me you were fired a few weeks ago. I want to invite you over for dinner tomorrow. Please, just think about it okay?” She said with a sad tone of voice.
Ensen stayed silent for the next few moments in deep thought. He was truly conflicted about seeing her. However from what he could tell she was worried about him.
“Okay Julia, I will think about it. But no promises, I may be busy.” Ensen said, making himself an excuse just in case he didn’t want to go tomorrow.
Instantly a small mutter of excitement was heard on the other side of the phone that matched Julia’s voice.
A few moments later with a noticeably brighter tone of voice, Julia said softly “Thank you, I have moved since the last time you came over, I’ll send you the address.”
Feeling a little more comfortable with the idea of having dinner with her after her display of excitement, Ensen quickly said “I need to run now, I’m a little but. I’ll text you tomorrow if I have time to come over, okay?”
“Okay sounds great. Thank you Ensen, have a good night.” Julia said in a delighted tone.
Slowly hanging up the phone, Ensen lowered the phone in front of his eyes, staring at it with mixed feelings in his eyes. He wanted to go back to the way things were before with Julia, but he didn’t know if he was ready yet.
With a heavy sigh, Ensen rested the phone back on the end table intending to try to sleep again. But he knew in his heart that he wouldn’t be able to rest after that. They hadn’t talked in a long time, although he knew that he was the reason they hadn’t talked.
Ensen spent the next little while simply staring at the ceiling of his bedroom in deep thought. Finally, with a small tear running down his cheek, Ensen fell asleep unsure what he was going to decide tomorrow.
After a long but restless sleep, Ensen woke up and proceeded to stare at the ceiling once again while thinking about last night.
Still being conflicted in his heart, Ensen decided to get up and try to distract himself with something to gain a level-head before making the decision.
Slowly easing his way out of bed, he grabbed his phone from his nightstand and slowly made his way towards the couch while rubbing his eyes to try to wake himself up.
Arriving at the couch, Ensen gently laid down and turned the TV on, navigating on a random channel. He was using it more for white noise than actual entertainment.
Ensen hesitantly opened his phone before navigating to the messaging app. Looking at the number that called him yesterday, he decided to add it to his contacts list naming it ‘Sister.’ Afterward, he pulled up the messages towards his sister and simply stared at the screen with conflicted eyes.
There were a few reasons Ensen was hesitant to have dinner with his sister and her family. Foremost was the incident that happened a few years ago, but he also did not want to reveal what he had been doing to his family yet, however distant they were. Plus, he was sure Ada would go around gloating that her uncle was creating his own education institution which would have mixed effects.
But still, he honestly thought his sister had given up on their relationship. Truth be told, he had given up on having a relationship with her too. Although Julia couldn’t be directly blamed for the incident, Ensen had blamed her in his heart.
Nearly an hour later, Ensen was still staring at his phone, not even taking his eyes off of it for a moment. His mind had been debating and going over the pros and cons the entire time, and he finally made a decision.
Slowly typing on the message bar, Ensen slowly wrote out “I will be coming over tonight, please save me a plate.”
Pausing for a moment, Ensen clicked send before giving a heavy sigh. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
In the end, he decided he would at least have dinner with her tonight simply for the reason that she contacted him.
Although Ensen did not know it himself, he did not want to give up on his sister. Although they’ve been distant the past few years, they were the only family each other had. Of course, she had her daughter and husband as well, but that was it. Their parents had died a few years ago, and while they were unaware of if they had any distant relatives, they weren’t too curious to find out.
Looking at the time, Ensen noticed it would soon be approaching midday. Turning his head, he looked out the window to see the brilliant sun shining down on the city as if celebrating their reunion.