Chapter 56 - NIGHT CALL

Emma was applying cucumber juice on her face and neck when her phone beeped to alert her that a message had just popped in.

Keeping the lotion by the bedstand, she picked up her phone, wondering on who could be texting her by 9 in the night.

Her mind settled for a second on her sister, Amelia; perhaps a text to ask her how she was coping at the other side of the world.

Then it shifted to Clem, the guy who she thought was already hooked up on her, then to Derek. Out of the three, her heart yearned for a text from a Derek, although her head-sense thought otherwise. Her head wished the text to be from her sister, they so had a lot to talk about; from her meeting with a governess to her snagging a new boyfriend.

Unlocking the phone with her fingerprint, a security pattern which she had reactivated in her phone two nights ago, she tapped on the unread message; her eyes thinning in curiosity, waiting for the unfolding of the text's contents.

"I miss you baby. Goodnight, and think of me."

The text read.

A smile escaped Emma's lips as she read the message, and re-read it again. She already knew who the sender was. It could only be her new boyfriend, Derek, who made her feel things she had never felt for anyone.

And with the way she was feeling on her inside, she knew that a blush must have coated her cheeks which were already aforehand covered with the slimy cucumber juice.

Still staring at the short message which she must have gone over, more than a dozen times, she wondered whether it was necessary or advisable for her to reply back, or just to play dead. For a second, she wished her sister was here with her; she would have known what to do. 'Perhaps, I should call her.' She thought, tapping her thumb on her phone screen repeatedly, on the message level precisely, as she drowned herself in her thoughts.

But as soon as the thought came, Emma laughed a bit at her self. She couldn't believe that a little text had made her so jittery that she had to seek for her sister's help for a relationship matter. It had always been the other way around.

Since Amelia and she reached their adolescent ages, the age of trying out new things and playing around with guys, she had always been the relationship coach among them.

At a time even, she had advised her older sister to break up with her then boyfriend because the guy had refused to get her, her favorite ice cream on a Christmas.

Her sister had obliged to her suprise. But it had been not so funny thereafter, when the guy, Scott, had found out later what happened. He had almost beaten her up with his friends. What had saved her then was her little knowledge of judo, and a certain strength she didn't know that she had. She had overtaken the four guys, all by herself, without a scratch on herself. The incidence still dazed her till date.

Amelia had almost gotten the nut head arrested, if not for the pleadings of his crippled mom, especially when it was discovered that he was part of a gang which dealt on drugs.

Emma was still chuckling at the rememberance of the event which had taken place sometime last year, when another text message trouped into her phone.

"And don't forget to call me tomorrow, to pick you up for school. If you don't, get ready for a spanking. "

Ungodly thoughts wrecked her mind as she came across the spanking content in the message. Of course she had read alot of romance novels, and was even a bit surprised at her sister's thinking when she had seen like a dozen of them in her bag while unpacking some nights ago. So, the spanking word was not new to her; she already had a twisted knowledge of it from the books that she had read, and will still read.

She shuddered as the mental picture of being spanked blanketed her thoughts. Keeping her phone on the bed, she fanned herself with her right hand, breathing in and out, as she tried to shake away the thought of being spanked by Derek.

The message tone went off again, and Emma wondered what the next message could be again.

"I love you." It read.

She smiled, then decided that it was best that she replied his message, wanting all of a sudden to have a chit chat.

"Spanker." She typed, then erased it. She didn't want to think about the word again, or have a conversation about it. The five lettered word made her uncomfortable.

"I love you too." She finally typed, and after a little consideration, she sent it; knowing fully well that the message was the mild actuality to what she felt.

As she held the phone in her hand, drawing unseen sketches on its screen with her index finger, she counted the minutes and the seconds, as she waited for a reply.

And when the message beep came again, she jerked up a bit.

"You're still awake?? Why?"

The message read, as she finally opened it, after bitting her lips for some seconds in antsy.

"Couldn't sleep." She texted back, finding her reason of coating her face with cucumber juice negligible for a good excuse. She had been trying to make a choice of a literature to read, when she had remembered the lotion lying in the deepest part of her backpack which she knew her sister must have smuggled into the big bag. Smuggled because the lotion was their mother's property, and was very expensive; but then, very effective.

She doubted if Derek would want to hear any of that.

Emma jerked back, for the second time that night, when her phone started ringing out loud; disrupting her thoughts and the deep silence in the house. She hadn't been expecting a call from Derek.

After a while of staring at the phone in aflutter, as it rang, She tapped the answer icon, pushing a deep breath out; still not understanding why she was hot and happy at the same time. They had just spoken facially, few hours ago.

"Hello..." She said, as she put the call on loud speaker.