In between sundays

The Quiet Girl and the Night Talks

Chapter Ten – The Quiet Girl and the Night Talk

It was still the same night, maybe a few hours after our last chat. Sleep wouldn’t come, so I just lay there, scrolling through messages when Philemon texted again.

> “I know Stella as a quiet girl who finds it hard to use polysyllabic words,” he said.

“But here she is kinda making my night.”

I laughed quietly at that. The boldness in his tone, the way he typed like he was grinning on the other side of the chat. He said he was supposed to be watching a movie, but something on w******p was keeping him company — and that something was me.

For a moment, I didn’t know what to reply. My fingers hovered over the screen before I finally typed, “I literally just started talking to you because of something I know nothing about — me likewise do you.”

He teased back, asking how many times we had even spoken physically. I thought hard and then remembered — just once. That Sunday when I asked him for Bible passages.

“Thank God you remembered,” he said, adding a few laughing emojis.

He was clearly enjoying this.

“So I’m still surprised here,” he continued. “But all is fine.”

I asked why he was surprised. He said, “Something like that… and the way we’re kinda getting along is amazing me.”

And honestly? It was amazing me too. There was something warm about how easy it felt — no pressure, no pretending, just small honesty moving between texts.

Then he said something that made me blush a little, even though it was past midnight:

“You don’t talk to someone. Even on Sunday after service when they say greet your brothers and sisters — you just move.”

He added, “Sometimes I just…” and stopped midway.

I laughed softly, typing back, “Lol, I’m a shy person. I’m sorry.”

That was the first time I said it out loud like that — that I was shy.

He didn’t mock me, though. He just replied the next morning:

> “Indeed a shy person. Talk for another day 😂 Why is it so? Good morning 😊”

I smiled reading that “good morning.” It sounded more caring than casual. So I told him the truth — that I had lost many things because of shyness, and the last loss was painful enough to make me want to change.

He asked, “Do you mind sharing?”

And I did. I told him about my failed presentation in school, how I froze and ended up with a C even after studying like my life depended on it. He didn’t laugh or dismiss it. Instead, he said, “Nah, you were not stupid. It was just that the people around you don’t care.”

Something about that message touched me. Maybe because he didn’t pity me, he understood me.

He went on teasing again, saying, “You shy around me? That can never happen. I don’t have shy friends. They all change their algorithm whenever they’re around me.”

That made me laugh out loud. I told him, “Yeah, you’re really friendly and jovial from what I’ve seen.”

He prayed playfully, “I pray for you today that you will encounter one Philux in school this semester.”

And I replied, “Amen 😭🤲 Asuu do this one — we don strike.”

We kept chatting about my friends, about school, about everything and nothing. It was simple, yet I felt something slowly growing between the lines — a small comfort, a safe corner of understanding.

He asked one last thing that night, “So what are you now?”

And I just smiled at my screen, thinking, I don’t know yet — but I think I’m changing.