My mom got a Phone for my 21st birthday a few weeks back, which was a surprise, since she is a single mom and has to look after three kids on a nurse’s salary. Ok it might have been second hand, but I don’t care. Knowing my mom, I was expecting a dial up phone, so, you can imagine how happy I was to find one of the most expensive phones on the market.
That night I went out to celebrate, I was finally able to have my “first” drink, well, at a bar that is. So, I was really excited and took loads of pics, later we went to a club, and I got so wasted my friends had to carry me out. In the taxi I puked all over Tara’s new heels, she was not happy, but been the amazing friend she is, she still helped me to bed and made sure I was ok.
When I woke up the next morning, I was so sick I thought I was dying, to make it worse I fell out of bed trying to grab my phone from my locker. I started to get a bad feeling something was wrong, and there was, because when I opened my phone, I must have had a hundred angry messages waiting for me. I thought what did I do last night, when I found out I literally wanted to die.
Apparently, I must have drunk dialed EVERYONE, well drunk voice noted, I was so embarrassed. At first, they said I was just breathing heavy and making grunting noises, which they found funny. Until I started speaking in a creepy voice about what I was going to do to them and it’s not what you think, even though, I wish it was at this stage, it would be so much easier. I am not going to go in to too much detail right now, but let’s just say there was talk of an institution among my friend’s afterword.
I swore I would never drink again after that, but guess what, I was out the following weekend, I mean what is wrong with me. This time I tried to be clever and took precautions or so I thought, I give Tara my phone and made her promise not to give it to me under any circumstances. That worked out great until she got drunk, and I ended up looking after her. I was careful that night and didn’t drink too much, how could I when my, “babysitter” spent most of the night chatting up a lamppost. After spending 30 minutes of explaining why “he” couldn’t come with us, the taxi finally arrived, and I dropped her home.
When I went to bed that night, I was sure there would be no embarrassing apologies to make the following morning. But of course, I was wrong, and I had pissed of a lot of people again. I didn’t know how it happened; I was not drunk enough to just forget making all those calls, yet I had no memory of it, my head was wrecked.
My friend Jess was the first to ring, she found the whole thing funny, unlike Tara who was starting to get really freaked out. Jess told me Tara was afraid to go to sleep after listening to my voice note, I felt awful so I tried to ring and apologize. When she answered she seemed distant, so I offered to call over but that seemed to upset her even more. I spent the whole week trying to make it up to her, and by Saturday night she was ready to party again.
I made sure to only drink the bare minimum, so by the end of the night I felt sober, just to make sure I didn’t have another repeat of the week before. Tara agreed to stay and keep an eye on me. We decided to skip the club and went home early. We stayed up late talking about old times, it was fun we hadn’t done that since we were kids.
I woke up happy the next morning, confident that I had not drunk dialed anyone. So, you can imagine how surprised I was when I checked my phone, and it was full of messages. I knew Tara would back me up we were together all night. I went to get her, but she was not in bed, I assumed she got up early and went home, so I got on with my new weekly apology texts. Everyone was starting to get sick of me, half my friends wouldn’t even reply, the ones that did give one-word answers, they wouldn’t even tell me what I said this time.
I thought, at least I had Tara and tried to ring her, but there was no answer. So, I started to become concerned and called to her house. Her mom Mandy answered but said she hadn’t seen her since the day before, I rang around, but no one had seen her. We were really worried, so Mandy and I decided to go to the police, but they wouldn’t do anything. What could we do but go home and hope for her safe return.
Days went by and there was still no sign of her, but I wouldn’t give up hope, I was sure it was only a matter of time before she would return, and all this would be over. Then one morning while I was eating breakfast her mom rang; a body was found matching Tara’s description, they needed someone to identify her, and Mandy asked me to go. I did not believe her; I was convinced that it had to be a mistake and someone else’s life would be ruined instead of ours. But I was wrong, it was her, I couldn’t believe what was happening I was in a daze for the rest of the day and ended up staying with Mandy for the night.
I couldn’t sleep and sit up all that night trying to figure out what happened to Tara. The last time I had seen her she looked so happy, and now just like that she was gone. The next morning, I decided to make Mandy breakfast, I left my phone on the kitchen table before I brought Mandy her food. When I came back my phone was going mad with notifications, somehow it happened again. I knew then that it was not me who left those voice notes even though they were clearly sent from my phone.
Before I got a chance to think, a knock came to the door, Mandy rushed down the stairs and answered it before I got there. It was the cops, as soon as they saw me, they started reading me my rights, I will never forget the look in Mandy’s face as they escorted me out the door and into the back of the car. They said Tara’s body was found in a stream just behind where I was living, someone had shoved her phone down her throat, and she choked. With all that happened, all the evidence pointed towards me, but what sealed my faith was the last voice notes which described in horrible detail exactly how she died. I did try telling them it was the phone, but that only made things worse, and they ended up putting me in an institution.
My mom is about the only person that believes me now, she calls to visit me at least once a week. The last time she called I asked her where she bought the phone; she told me an old guy with a ponytail called to the house selling all kinds of stuff. When she told him her daughter’s 21st birthday was coming up and she had not much money to spend, he pulled out the phone and practically gave it to her. I don’t who he was, but I believe he knew exactly what was going to happen, when he gave her that phone.