Somewhere Quiet

CHAPTER 3: His Voice on the Line

Five seconds passed. Then ten.

My phone vibrated twice against the mattress, buzzing like an electric shock straight through my spine.

I grabbed it so fast I almost knocked my nightstand lamp off the edge. My thumb swiped the screen open.

Elijah: Great. Easier to talk than type—mind if I give you a quick call?

My jaw dropped.

A call? Right now? At almost midnight?!

Before my brain could even begin to construct a polite excuse or reason to delay, my phone screen transformed. The incoming call layout flared to life, glowing with his name:

Elijah Incoming Audio Call . . .

My breath hitched in my throat. I sat bolt upright, frantically smoothing down my hair and straightening my pajamas as if he could somehow see me through the microphone.

Pick it up! No, wait two seconds so you don't look desperate! But what if he hangs up?!

On the third ring, my trembling thumb swiped green. I pressed the phone against my ear, locking my back straight against the headboard.

"H-hello?" I managed, silently cursing the slight wobble in my voice.

Silence held the line for a single agonizing beat, filled only with the faint background hum of a fan on his end.

Then came his voice.

"Hey. Sister . . ." He paused, a low, smooth chuckle rumbling softly through the speaker. "Sorry, I actually don't think I caught your official name. Sister Grace just handed me your contact and said 'Logistics Head'."

His voice.

Hearing it through a speaker—so close to my ear, stripped of the loud echoing church acoustics—felt intimately overwhelming. It was deep, calm, and carried a subtle raspy edge, like someone who had been rehearsing vocals all evening. It wrapped around my senses, making the familiar walls of my bedroom feel suddenly small and charged with electricity.

"Oh! Um, it's..,it's Joy—no, wait! I mean, my name is Miracle," I blurted out, shutting my eyes tightly in pure mortification. Did I really just almost give my best friend's name?!

A warm, quiet laugh sounded on the other end. "Miracle. Right. Nice to officially talk to you, Miracle. I'm Elijah, but I guess you already knew that."

"Yeah," I squeaked, clearing my throat hurriedly to sound like an adult human being who didn't spend her free time memorizing his choir solos.

"Yeah, I know. I mean—Grace told me. About the setup."

"Cool," Elijah said, his tone relaxed and impossibly steady compared to the absolute storm raging inside my chest.

"I won't keep you up too long, I know it's late. Grace sent over the rough draft for Saturday, but the choir needs to bring in our instruments and amplifiers by 7:30 AM before the main setup starts at eight. Do you have the keys to the main hall, or is Logistics handling that?"

"Oh, the keys!" My brain kicked into gear, desperately grabbing onto the familiar ground of my responsibilities. Organizing things was my armor; as long as I talked about schedules and equipment inventories, I could pretend I wasn't hyperventilating.

"Yes. I'm picking up the main hall keys from the church administrator tomorrow afternoon. I can be there by 7:15 AM to open the side doors for the band."

"7:15 AM?" He sounded genuinely surprised.

"You don't have to come out that early just for us, you know. I can pick up the keys from you on Friday evening if that's easier."

Meet him on Friday evening? Alone?!

My heart did a violent, acrobat-level flip inside my chest. My palms instantly went clammy against my phone case.

"N-no! It's no trouble at all," I said quickly, perhaps a little too quickly, desperate to sound professional. "I always like to arrive early anyway to double-check the sound system inventory and verify seating charts. So . . . 7:15 AM works perfectly."

"Alright then. It's a date—I mean, a plan," he corrected smoothly, though I could swear I caught a brief, playful tilt in his voice. "7:15 AM on Saturday."

My face burned so hot I was sure my cheeks were glowing red in the pitch-dark room. Did he just say 'It's a date'?! No, Miracle, don't be delusional. It was a slip of the tongue!

"Sounds good," I murmured, clutching my blanket till my knuckles turned white. "Is there . . . anything else on the choir roster?"

"Just one thing," Elijah replied. He paused, the sound of pages turning faint in the background, accompanied by the gentle rustle of a notebook. "Grace put five volunteers down for the media desk, but we need two people stationed at the sound booth during our morning rehearsal session to manage the digital song lyric displays. Can you manage that?"

"Definitely. I'll assign myself and Joy to the booth," I replied, instantly picturing how much easier it would be to manage the slides if I had my loud best friend right beside me to keep me grounded.

"Perfect. Looks like we're all set then." A soft, comfortable beat of silence lingered on the line. Neither of us hung up immediately, the ambient sound of his breathing filling the quiet space between us.

"Thanks for taking my call this late, Miracle," he added, his voice dropping into a softer, gentler register that made my stomach do another happy, terrified loop. "See you on Saturday."

"Goodnight, Elijah," I whispered.

"Goodnight."

The line clicked off.

I laid frozen in the dark, the phone still pressed against my ear, listening to the hollow dial tone before the screen went black. My whole body felt light, tingly, and entirely drifted away from reality.

A second later, my phone buzzed violently in my palm, shattering the spell. A bright notification banner popped up from Joy: WELL???? DID YOU DIE OR ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?! CALL ME RIGHT NOW.

I let out a shaky, half-hysterical laugh, unlocked my phone, and tapped Joy’s contact for a video call.

She answered on the very first ring. Her face popped up on my screen, bathed in the harsh white glow of her bedside lamp. She was sitting bolt upright in bed, wrapped in a fluffy pink bathrobe, staring at me with wide, unblinking eyes.

"Spill!" Joy whispered, her hands flying up in a dramatic gesture.

"Did he breathe? Did he ask you out? Why on earth did that call take seven whole minutes?! Trust me, I timed every second!"

"He didn't even know my name!" I hissed back, burying my face in my hands before peeking out through my fingers. "When he asked who he was talking to, I almost gave him your name!"

"My name?!" Joy gasped, her jaw dropping before a massive, mischievous grin split across her face. "Oh, this is cinema. Absolutely bingeworthy. Tell me every single word, Miracle, or I swear I’m calling your mom right now!"

And right there, huddled under my blanket in the middle of the night with my heart pounding against my ribs, I spilled everything. I told my best friend how a simple, logistics check with the tall, sweet-voiced choir lead had just turned into the most terrifyingly wonderful mess of my life.