Episode 3

My heart was pounding. The room was spinning faster than before.

A few seconds later, the phone started to ring. Clutching my knees to my chest, I simply stared at it as if it was a bomb that would have exploded upon answering.

No. I wouldn’t answer. I’d made a fool of myself. When it stopped ringing, I let out a sigh of relief that barely lasted until the phone started going off yet again. I still didn’t answer. It eventually stopped—for about five minutes.

Then, it started ringing again.

I finally lifted the phone and looked at the caller ID: L. Roderick.

Straightening my back against the headboard, I took a deep breath in and prepared to answer.

Clearing my throat, I did my best to sound like a composed woman, one who’d maybe just had a drunken demon exorcised from her. “Hello?”

He let out a deep breath. A moment of silence passed, until he finally said, “Rana Banana?”

To hear those words spoken through that deep voice was truly surreal. Since when did Landon sound like that?

I finally answered, “Yes.”

He let out another breath. “Holy sh*t. Rana F*cking Banana.”

“Look…just forget I ever called, okay? Go back to doing what you were doing. Pretend this never happened.” I was just about to hang up when his voice stopped me.

“Wait.”

I said nothing but kept on the line.

“Are you still there?” he asked.

My voice was low. “Yes.”

“I’m supposed to just forget this phone call ever happened?”

“Sure. Just like you forgot I ever existed.”

“What are you talking about?”

“How can you even ask that? Your parents kicked us out onto the street. You never even came over to say goodbye. In fact, you magically disappeared during that entire ordeal.”

His voice grew louder. “Wait a second. First of all, I have thought about you—a lot, if you really want to know. It’s haunted me, actually. And second of all, you have it all wrong.”

“How?”

“My parents didn’t kick you guys out. They told me your parents left without paying the rent. I remember going in there afterward and helping to clean out half the sh*t you all left behind.”

“Well, your parents lied. We were forced to leave.”

“Look. This is apparently a he said-she said situation. The bottom line is, I never meant to not say goodbye to you. I wasn’t there when it all went down. I’d gone to visit my grandmother for a couple of days. No one told me you were moving until after it had happened. I got back, and you were gone.”

I didn’t know what to make of this. Either he was lying, or my parents had lied to me. Either way, I felt like a complete idiot at the moment.

“Look. Again, this phone call was a mistake. There’s no point in rehashing all of this thirteen years later anyway. Have a good—”

“What made you call me tonight?”

“I was drunk.”

“You drunk dialed me?”

“Yes.”

“You’re still drunk?”

“Unfortunately, it’s wearing off.”

“How did you even get my number?”

“You’re the only Landon Roderick in the United States, apparently.”

“Lucky me. Why are you drunk on a Thursday night?”

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