“I like you,” she said, her voice shaking slightly.

There was silence for a long while and Jessica felt the silence swallow her whole. She bit her lip, anxiously waiting for the person to speak. She could hear the person’s faint breathing and she almost thought the line disconnected. It seemed like an eternity, until the person on the other end broke the silence.

“Jessica? Is that you?” the husky voice asked.

“Tiffany, I like you,” Jessica repeated. Her voice didn’t waver this time.

“I-”, Tiffany paused, “I’m not sure what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know.”

Jessica could hear a chuckle from the other end, “Your voice is exactly how I imagined it to be.”

“Really?” Jessica asked, relaxing her death grip on the phone. “How do I sound like?”

“You sound like everything that I’ve wanted for a long while.”

The sentence only made Jessica’s heart skip a beat. She cleared before continuing.

“And what is that, exactly?”

“You sound like home.”

The reply surprised Jessica slightly.

“I sound like home?”

“It’s like warmth. Comforting. What I want to come home to after an exhausting day.” Tiffany confessed.

Her words made Jessica’s heart soar. Hope blossomed in her chest, like flowers in spring and Jessica couldn’t do anything to stop the hope from growing.

“Tiffany, I-”

“Why do you like me?” Tiffany cut her off, “I offer nothing to you. I’m not there with you. You don’t even know how I look like. I-” Tiffany paused mid-sentence. There was an exhale and Jessica struggled to understand Tiffany.

Jessica racked her brain to come up with an appropriate response but her brain refused to function properly now that she was actually on the phone with Tiffany.

“Tiffany, I like you,” she repeated once more.

“I heard you the first time, Jessi.” Tiffany chuckled softly.

“You can come home to me,” Jessica whispered.

She thought she heard Tiffany sigh again. Maybe she misunderstood. Maybe Tiffany didn’t like her back and Jessica read too much into things. Jessica could feel her heart sink. Her lower lip wobbled at the thought of a possibly unrequited love.

“Don’t you like me?” she asked painfully.

“No, it’s just-” Tiffany struggled to find the right words, “Why me?”

“Because it’s you,” Jessica simply said.

“I don’t understand, Jessi.”

“It’s you. It has to be you. Nobody else. It only feels right because it’s you.”

“Oh god, Jessi,” Tiffany breathed.

“I didn’t expect to like you this much. When you first sent me that fan mail, I didn’t know you were going to be so significant.”

“I didn’t know you were going to be so significant too.”

Jessica looked at her computer screen, reading the last message Tiffany had sent earlier.

Tiffany: Wow, Jessi’s bolder than I thought~

Tiffany: Give me a second, I’ve an incoming call

Jessica frowned. Things were so much simpler and easier before her confession. She was starting to think her confession was a bad idea.

“My confession… It’s a burden, right?” Jessica asked.

Tiffany half-yelled into the receiver and Jessica cringed slightly at the volume, “No!”

Tiffany took a deep breath before continuing, “No. It’s not a burden. It’s… warm. Jessi, oh god. W-What if I hurt you? I promised to protect you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“How are you so sure you’ll hurt me?”

“I’m not, that’s why I’m even more afraid. The possibility of me hurting you, it scares me. What if I hurt you, Jessi?”

There was a brief silence before Jessica replied.

“Then you’ll be worth the heartache,” Jessica said quietly.

Jessica could hear Tiffany gasp on the other end of the line. Tiffany stayed quiet and Jessica bit her lip in worry. Jessica didn’t dare to breathe. She held her breath and only let go when Tiffany spoke again.

“But I’m not. We’re both girls. We’re prone to getting hurt. You’ll be hurt.”

“What the people say doesn’t matter.”

“Let’s be realistic, Jessica. What others say, we can’t ignore them forever.”

“I’m a crazydreamer, after all,” Jessica tries to crack an awkward joke.

“It’s not funny, Jessi.”

Jessica frowned, “I like you, Tiffany.”

“No, no, no. We can’t.”

“Why can’t we?”

“We can’t because I’m in love with you.”

Tiffany hung up.

///

Jessica’s sobs filled the room. It had been a week since that phone call. One depressing week since Jessica last talked to Tiffany. Jessica had tried to contact the latter, through both tumblr and phone calls. Tiffany never replied and her calls were sent straight to voicemail, as if Tiffany had blocked her. Jessica left the girl thousands of messages and the worst thing was, Tiffany had seen them all. (The double blue-ticks at the corner of each sent message told her so.)

Jessica: Tiff, stop hiding. You said you would protect me. Why are you hurting me even more? You promised. I trust that your words aren’t empty promises. Reply me soon? Please?

Jessica: Is it that terrifying? Did my confession scare you away? I like you. Please reply me soon?

Jessica: You said you were in love with me. It doesn’t feel anything like it. The past few days seem longer for some reason. This emptiness is so persistent. When will you reply me? The wait is too long. Tiffany, won’t you reply?

Jessica: I miss you. Please don’t leave me.

Jessica had never felt so lonely before. There were tons of missed calls on her phone, all from her friends, but she refused to answer anyone other than Tiffany. She kept to herself at school, only talking when necessary and her friends were worried. They tried to get her to talk but Jessica stubbornly kept shut.

She just wanted to hear Tiffany’s voice again.