Page 7 of No, You Hang Up

“Where did you get those numbers, anyway?” I ask, eyeing her with something like discomfort definitely clear on my features. “I doubt these people are willing to get calls like this.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Mads tells me, erasing the number with a shake of her head. “Sorry, I think I fucked that one up. Let me…” She puts in another and hands it to me, already hitting the call button so I can’t do anything but take it with a sigh and pull it up to my ear.

“Hitspeaker!” Mads reminds me with a stupid grin on her face. I can’t help the roll of my eyes, but I pull the phone away from my face just to smack at the speaker button on the screen until it finally registers what I want.

Too bad for me. I was definitely half aiming for the hang-up button instead, ready to blame it all on the person not picking up.

But the ringing stops after two long rings, making it clear that either the person sent me to voicemail or actually picked up. My heart stumbles along in my chest, and I’m just as afraid as I would have been as a teenager making a prank call after playing with barbies at a slumber party.

Though if I replace barbies with comedy movies and assume they’ll stumble home in a few hours instead of spending the night, this is pretty much the exact same thing.

“Hello?” The voice has a slow, sighing drawl that makes me blink, and the script Mads showed us on her phone suddenly goes right out the window.

Fuck, I think to myself, staring blankly down at the phone as if it’s going to suddenly tell me what I should do. What in the world am I supposed tosay?I could hang up. I could apologize, hang up, and throw my phone against the wall?—

“I can hear the tv in the background,”the voice on the other end of the phone says with a sigh, just as Em lets out a nervous snicker that has me glaring her way until she covers her mouth and tries to control herself. She really is such a fucking child, but Mads isn’t any better.

“Sorry—” I begin, ready to say that I’ve definitely called the wrong number. “I?—”

“Wenailedyour car,” Mads interrupts, grinning ferociously and lurching forward to sit on the end of the couch. All I can do is glare at her. “Gosh, I’m so sorry. We did some digging once we got your license plate number. This is, uh, a pretty nice car.”

There’s silence on the other end of the line, and I freeze, still staring at the phone. As the moments tick by, I’m sure the person on the other end is going to hang up.

“Oh, yeah?”he drawls instead, this time sounding amused. “You nailed my car, huh? Tell me, what do I drive, exactly?”There’s a loud thud in the background, like something heavy and soft has dropped.

Mads and I look at each other, and I realize this definitely isn’t what she’s expecting. I guess she relies on a numbers game for this, hoping the people she calls will just be upset enough at the idea of their car being damaged, that they won’t ask anything further.

Which has it occurring to me just how bad of an idea this whole thing is. She has no backup plan. No way for this not to go to shit.

“Umm.” Mads stares at me as if I have the answers. I don’t, and I only shrug my shoulders. “Well, you drive a?—”

“There was someone else talking first, right? Someone a lot less irritating than you?”God, I should hang up. I really need to hang up. “Where’d you go, other friend?”

Fuck.

He’s talking tome.

“I’m…” I don’t know why I say anything, and I glance up at my two friends who just mirror my confused gaze. “I’m still here.”

I’m pretty sure this isn’t how prank calling is supposed to go.At all.

“There’s the little rabbit. So, you hit my car, did you?”There’s a groan on the other end of the phone, though it doesn’t sound like it’s coming from him. “Remind me what I drive, will you?”

Glancing down at the phone gives me no answers. “I’m going to hang up,” I say instead. This was a terrible idea, and I’m ready to rip Mads a new one for it.

“No. Why would you do that?”Another noise. More shuffling sound. “You called me wanting to talk. Is this not going how you thought it would, rabbit? Tell you what. I can just move past asking what it is you think I drive. I mean, who needs to, right?”There’s a momentary pause. “After all, I’m standing right in front of my car.”

Yeah, this is going pretty poorly.

Before I can answer, Madalyn wrestles my phone out of my hand and gets to her feet, eyes a little wide and her voice a little high when she speaks. “Take a fucking joke, bro,” she snaps into the phone. Anyone else would think she’s angry, but I can hear the fear in her voice. I can tell how nervous she is about how badly this is going, even if she’s pretending otherwise. “Don’t be a creep.Sorryfor bothering you. We were just having fun?—”

“God, you really are irritating, aren’t you?”He sighs into the phone. “Have you ever considered?—”

“Go fuck yourself.” Madalyn doesn’t let him finish. She hits the screen to disconnect the call, then tosses it back to me. Surprised, I nearly drop it, and give her a look of disbelief as I manage to save it from smacking into the fake hardwood floor and set it on the coffee table, instead.

“So, let’s not do that again,” I mutter, running my fingers through my hair. “That was seriously a shitty idea, Madalyn.” I know fighting with her won’t get me anywhere, and from the corner of my eye, I can see her getting frustrated.

“Yeah, okay,” she mumbles with a shake of her head. “I’m going to run to the bathroom.” She goes, and Em gets to her feet, groaning and stretching her arms above her head.

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