What are you drinking?
What are you wearing?
Noi?
I roll my eyes. He’s such a mom. I answer one question at a time.
I’m with some students I met here. Aren’t you proud of me? You’re always telling me to go out and have fun.
I don’t know what kind of bar it is. A lot of guys who drive motorcycles are here. Is there such a thing as a motorcycle bar???
I hold in laughter as dots indicating that Sud is typing keep appearing and disappearing on my phone screen. It seems he doesn’t know what to say.
Biting my lip, I type out another message.
I don’t feel so great, though.
The dots return and then a message pops up.
Why? What’s wrong? You don’t have to drink because everyone else is.
I wait a solid five minutes to answer, during which Sud sends me a continual stream of text messages and then tries to call me.
I don’t answer. Instead, I take the joke further, purposely making typing errors.
I’m wearing my black shird wait don know where it wen.
Grinning, I wait. And wait. Shit, I hope he isn’t on his way to Nakon Pathom.
After four minutes, I begin to regret my actions. Six, and I’m really getting worried. Seven, and I try to call Sud repeatedly for the next ten minutes but can’t get it to ring. A light comes on in the hall, and I look up to see a figure in the doorway. Around me, the guys snore softly.
“Mee Noi?” Bua whispers.
“Over here.”
A moment later, she sits on my cot beside me.
“What the fuck are you telling Sud?” she hisses. “He’s been blowing up my phone with text messages that I missed because I was sleeping, and then a call from an unknown number woke me up, and it’s him using someone else’s phone because his died. He demanded to know why you’re out drinking and half-naked. I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about! I had to come check to see if you were really gone.”
One of the guys moves restlessly, and I put my finger to my lips and motion for Bua to follow me outside.
Once we put some distance between us and the building, I say, “We were texting, and I was teasing him about being out drinking, and he got all helicopter mom on me, so I guess I went a little too far. I acted like I was drunk and said I lost my shirt.”
“Mee Noi! Why would you do something like that?” Bua scolds.
“I don’t know,” I say on a moan. “It’s just that…he goes out and drinks, so I should be able to.”
“Youareable to. You don’t like to drink,“ Bua reminds me.
“That’s beside the point.” I sigh. “It was a joke. If his phone didn’t die, he would know that by now.”
Taking my hand, Bua slaps a paper into it. “Here’s the number of his friend’s phone. Call him, please.” With that, she turns and heads back to the building.
Sud answers before the first ring ends, sounding like he’s out of breath.
“Noi? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I say apologetically. “I’m sorry, P. I was just giving you a hard time.”