The Message

My eyes opened suddenly

And just like any Gen Z person

I looked at my phone

3 AM, The clock read

I realized I hadn’t turned off the WIFI

And on that bright lock screen

With half-opened eyes, I saw her message

“I Miss You”

To those who think that the three magical words are ‘I Love You’

The three words I got are much more magical

I sat right up and opened the conversation

She was online

I started typing and suddenly a voice message came over

I grabbed my headphones and played that message

In a drunk voice, at 3 AM

I heard her crying

And in those 3 seconds, every cute memory we had together

Flashed right before my eyes

With my eyes closed,

I continued the rest of her voice message

A voice that I haven’t heard in more than 6 months

“I really miss you; I miss us; I don’t know why I am doing this

Probably because I am drunk”

And I didn’t know what to say to that

I was sitting on my bed, playing that message on repeat

I finally gathered up the courage and asked

“Where are you?”

I know, a shit question, but spontaneous questions at 3 AM are hard to form

And when your ex texts you “I Miss You”

Trust me, you go blank, especially when you’ve moved on

After 20 minutes, her reply came

“Why do you care?”

Excellent question

Why do I care

What am I supposed to do with that information?

I cannot step out of the house at 3 AM

But I had to know

I don’t know why

There was something I felt that night

And I asked again

“Where are you ____?”

Offline. No response. My heart was already racing due to the adrenaline

Calling her was not an option either

Calling someone at 3 AM?

My parents would kill me if they heard a single voice

Yet due to those three magical words

I was now obliged to call

And there was her beautiful drunk voice on the other side

Weeping, wailing

We said nothing

Sharing that comfortable silence after 6 months was really magical

And I don’t know why again

But the only words that came out of my mouth were

“I miss you too”

And there was no way for me to know

But I could sense it

I almost saw her smiling through her tears

And as she was about to reply

My phone rang and vibrated on my chest

My eyes opened suddenly

A dream. Of course. What else could it be?

I woke up. I sat on my bed.

And like any Gen Z person

I checked my phone.

On the lock screen were the time and the message notification.

The Time- 3 AM

The Message- “I Miss You”

Sender – “____”