“Hey”
“Yeah?”
“Wassup?”
“Nothing”
“Working?”
“Nope”
“Talk?”
“Why?”
“Because.”
“Hmm…”
“Arrrgh!!”
Those one word replies were confusing to him. There she was, the usual name in his contact list. The one person who could talk his ears off, was offering nothing but single word replies today. What was wrong?
Those one word replies were tough on her. There he was, the usual name in her contact list. The one person who always listened to her blabber, couldn’t entice more than the single word replies from her today. What was wrong?
He kept digging up topics. Memes. Netflix series.
She kept replying. “Haha”. “Oh the irony”. “Haven’t seen”.
He ran out of topics eventually. Gave up.
“Goodnight”
“Gn”
She opted for his style of replying. Wished harder that he didn’t give up.
A silence followed. And then a longer message.
“Are you upset with me?”
“Yes…”
He waited, hoping this would trigger her usual length of messages.
She waited, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, wanting to capture that hurt into appropriate words.
He dug further, she tried to relent.
She began to type, he started to listen.
He waited patiently, she typed like a maniac.
Their replies didn’t sync up, but a certain calmness began to spread.
The fact that he was there. Would always be there.
The realisation that she wasn’t angry. Couldn’t really be.
He randomly threw in suggestions, not knowing she’d smiled…but hoping she did.
She spewed out her misery through GIFs, not knowing whether he’d hurt…but hoping he had, at least for a bit.
Their chats dipped from paragraphs to one word replies to occasional sentences. Just like their friendship.
And just like their friendship has thrived through dot days to long trips, so would this chat window survive, from one word replies to an outburst of emotions.