And stop.

I'm mad at this jerk, yeah, he'd better call to apologize. It's his fault, what took him so long? But I don't want to hear it. I don't care what he has to say, I'm too mad.

It rings again, and again shatters the silence I built up while waiting.

Let him think I don't care; he can mess with my head, I can mess with his. We fought, so what, doesn't matter, I went out. I'm out at the movies with my sister - no, with Some Guy He's Never Met - and we're laughing and flirting and That Jerk doesn't even enter my mind. Yeah, that's it, let him think that.

Another ring. I never noticed how loud our phone is.

No, he knows me too well. He'll know I'm just alone here, crying into my pillow, making a pig of myself on Ben & Jerry's, missing him. Blaming myself, waiting desperately for him to call. He knows that, he can always tell...

Another ring. Unnaturally loud.

But what if it is my fault? Maybe that's why he was such a jerk, I did something - oh God, what did I do? I must have hurt him, he only gets like this when I screwed up, oh fuck, why do I always mess things up?

A ring, that's it, I have to answer now, find out what's going on. I lunge for the phone and snatch it up like it's some sort of lost-and-found treasure, slam it into place at my ear and---

---click.

Damn. One moment too late. One ring too many. The room falls back to silence.