Read Before Time (The Time Trilogy Book 1) for Free Online

left.
    I enjoyed talking to him, a stranger, about whom I knew nothing. Perhaps that was the beauty of our friendship. Knowing too much about someone makes you either hate or love that person. While knowing nothing, I was safe from those emotions, but for how long? We hadn’t even asked each other our names, and we felt comfortable with that. Well, come to think about it, the last time we talked properly was only the day when we had such a long conversation. However, I’d really liked that.
    I’m normally a happy person who has no issues in life except for what I’m going to do next—at least, it’s how people see me. What I am inside, that’s another story. I am an emotional wreck, true. I didn’t even know the root of my problems or the ways in which I could have solved them.
     
     

     
     
    The digital clock on the laptop showed 11:25 PM. Stifling a yawn, I stood up from my desk and plugged in my cell phone to charge it. I had totally forgotten that he was going to call and the battery was low. I’d turned around to switch off my laptop when my cell phone rang. It was only 11:30 at night, so I thought it must be someone else. I unplugged the cell from the charging cable and looked at the number.
    It was an international number.
    My heart raced. I still had thirty minutes before he was supposed to call me; why so early? Trying to slow down my racing heart and my breathing, I took my own sweet time to attend the call.
    “Hello?” I hated my voice. It sounded breathless and eager, even to my own ears.
    There was silence from the other end. I repeated the same twice, but nobody spoke. I rejected the call and locked my phone screen. But before I could place it back for charging, it rang again. This time I had no doubt who was calling, and I took the call on the first ring.
    “Hello?” Now I was a little irritated. If he had decided to call me before the time, he should have the decency to speak up.
    “How are you?” His voice was hoarse, a little intimidating, but there was an intensity to it that left an impact on the listener. If he had been a debater in college, he would’ve won a lot. It was a politician’s voice.
    “I’m surviving.”
    “Well, can you please call me back in like fifteen minutes; my phone’s battery is almost dead. Let me charge the phone for a while.”
    “Sure. Talk to you later.”
    I plugged my phone back on the charger and returned to my bed.
    Half an hour passed, and he finally called back. I moved to the other room, as my sister was sleeping right beside me.
    “Yeah, you took a long time,” I said as I walked to the adjoining room.
    “I was giving you time to charge your phone.”
    “That’s fine.”
    “Anyway, you know the reason I have called you. What kind of psychological reasons can there be that you had to opt for alcohol?”
    “There are many things that you don’t know and that you’ll never know about me. Therefore, you won’t understand why it was so important,” I snapped.
    “Well, that was the main reason I asked to talk to you on phone rather than discuss this topic on mIRC. So, what are the reasons?”
    “Well, I have family issues, and then my own issues. I can’t really tell you those.”
    “Let me tell you a story, then. You don’t even understand what issues really are. I have been on mIRC for almost ten years now. While I have seen and heard a lot, there have been some events that are branded on my mind. A long time back, there was a group on IRC called the Pakistan Airforce Group. There was a girl who used to come on their channel. She was the most beautiful, educated and decent girl I’ve ever seen there, and every guy was after her to win her favors, but she wouldn’t trust anyone. Then there was a guy who was also a friend of mine talked to her. Slowly, they started getting closer and closer. She started sharing everything about herself. She told him her real name, her address, her pictures, contact numbers, everything. He even knew