[ WP ] *sigh* Let 's have some tea . I 'll put the kettle on . We need to talk ''

**PREQUEL FOR http: //www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/2uw086/wp_lovesick_a_man_scrolls_through_his_iphones/coc9465** 
 
 While staring at the blinking red icon at the bottom of his computer screen, Christian realized that his headphones were strangely silent at the moment. As he moused over the music player in his taskbar, he saw that the lengthy playlist he had queued up had actually reached the end almost twenty minutes ago, and he had been to engrossed with his work that he had forgotten about it. 
 
 He leaned back for a stretch, simultaneously yawning as he pulled his arms towards the screen. He had no idea how long he'd been programming for, but he definitely needed a break. The new error that popped up was probably as good a stopping point as any would be for him. He sat back upright, gently removing the large purple studio headphones that had been clamped around his head for the past few hours, and looked around the computer lab. If he was going to take a quick walk, he'd have to make sure someone he knew was still in the lab to watch over his backpack. 
 
 Except there was nobody there. 
 
 Christian realized that not only was he the only person left in the computer lab, but that his monitor was the only remaining source of light. As he stood up and put his headphones down on the desk, the motion sensor in the lab ticked conspicuously, turning the lights on for the entirety of the room. Blinding fluorescent lights revealed an unusually tall and lanky twenty year old college student, in the middle of rows upon rows of sleeping computers, covering his eyes at the sudden change in the lighting. His olive skin and nappy dark hair giving away his half-Filipino descent, Christian was almost impossible to miss in a crowd, and especially now, alone in the computer lab, he felt strangely out of place. 
 
 Looking up at the clock on the wall, he realized that he had gotten so engrossed in his work that he was still on campus at midnight, well past the time that most of the staff of the building had gone home. It was definitely way too late for him to stay in the lab, and seeing as how if he left to take a walk now he'd get locked out, Christian decided to pack up his belongings and head back to his dorm. Quickly saving his work and throwing his USB drive and headphones in his backpack, he noticed a dim light glowing int he corner of the bag. 
 
 Reaching down to pull out the source of the light with his right hand, he simultaneously kept a hand on the keyboard to log off of the computer. Pulling his phone up out of his backpack, he saw that he had received a text message some time ago while he was busy working on his programming assignment. Hoping it was n't anything important, he put the phone in his pocket as he zipped up his backpack and bounded out the door with it, hoping he would n't disturb his roommate too much by getting back so late. 
 
 As he walked across the campus courtyard towards the tall towers south of campus, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped the messages icon on the bottom of his screen. Listed in chronological order were the names of people he had been having conversations with, and at the top, in bold letters, was the name of the person with whom he had the most recent unread text conversation, containing the message he had received while working. 
 
 **ASTORIA** 
 
 He read the name again, making sure he read it right. Astoria was a girl he barely knew, having met her months ago when he had first moved into the dorms as the girl that was `` not really girlfriend but sort of'' to his roommate. They had exchanged numbers in case either of them ever needed to get a hold of his roommate when the other was n't available, but he definitely never expected a text from her now, considering how the two had broken things off almost ten months ago. 
 
 Tapping on the name, Christian sighed as he read the two text messages that she had sent him. 
 
 **Hey are you free to come over? ** 
 
 **Let's have some tea. I'll put the kettle on, we need to talk. ** 
 
 Christian paused at a crosswalk, looking across the street at the dorms. Somewhere up on the eleventh floor, in a dorm room, his roommate was probably fast asleep, ex-not-really-girlfriend far and away out of his mind. With finals week coming up, the last thing either of them needed was for something outside of their academic lives to take priority for them. 
 
 As the light at the crosswalk turned green, Christian looked back down at his phone and began strolling across. He scanned the texts for a timestamp, and saw in the bottom corner, bumping against the most recent message, a small set of text indicated the time at which the messages were sent. 
 
 **Today, 6:45PM** 
 
 *Well, * Christian thought to himself, *It would n't matter if I brought it up now anyway, it's way too late to respond to that. * 
 
 As he thought this, he suddenly noticed the road behind his phone getting brighter. Looking up, he saw a set of headlights barreling down the road towards him, speeding way too fast. He had seen them just in time to jump out of the way, landing with an unceremonious **THUD** on the concrete of the sidewalk next to the road. 
 
 Getting up and nursing the shoulder that he had landed on, he looked around and locked his eyes onto the car that was speeding away. Swerving between lanes, it was obvious that it was a drunk driver that had unintentionally almost missed him, and he had just gotten simultaneously unlucky and lucky. Unlucky that he was almost hit by a drunk driver, lucky it was n't someone with malicious intent. 
 
 He stared at the car as it turned down a side street and disappeared behind some buildings, heading towards the medical campus that was a separate campus, barely connected to the rest of the university. A generic, white, late 90's Honda Civic, he secretly wished that it had been some rich asshole in his dad's Ferrari or something more distinctive than the car that almost everybody on campus drove so that he could report it to the police. 
 
 With the situation being as it was, though, he figured that whoever was going so fast would reach their destination soon, and anything he could do to report a generic car with a drunk driver in a college town would be a pointless endeavor. Dusting himself off, Christian noticed that his phone had fallen out of his hands when he had dived for the pavement, and had bounced off toward the entrance of the dorm. Rushing over to check on it, he breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was fine, still displaying the same messages that he had just been reading. 
 
 Locking his phone and sliding it back into his pocket, Christian walked up to the dorm, punched in his passkey to the keypad, and strode towards the elevators. Returning his thought process back to the text messages, he made up his mind as he rode the elevator up to the eleventh floor. He would n't say anything about the messages until after finals week, and if he ever saw Astoria he would pretend he never saw them. 
 
 As Christian tiptoed into his room, he could hear light breathing coming from the top bunk where his roommate resided. Matt was a light sleeper, so whether or not he was actually asleep was up for anybody to guess, but just in case, Christian felt it was better to act as if he were really asleep. 
 
 Gently resting his backpack next to his bed, Christian removed his shoes and climbed into the bottom bunk, pulling his phone out of his pocket in a motion he repeated every time he went to bed, getting ready to plug it into the charger. In doing so, the phone unlocked and opened back up to the text message screen. Christian tapped the messages to prepare to delete them, and stared at the screen for a while, hesitating. 
 
 *What if it was really important. Like life and death? * 
 
 He shook his head and laid down, locking the phone and putting it on the nightstand next to his bed. Anything that important would've gotten him a phone call rather than a text message. 
 
 *Right? * 
 
 He laid there for another hour, debating with himself about what he should do next. He was losing a lot of sleep over this, and had to make a decision sooner or later. Eventually, he reached for his backpack. In times when he needed to relax and just make a clear decision, he found that his favorite racing game was always a good distraction for him. As he pulled his laptop out, he thought for a moment what would happen if he relayed Astoria's message to Matt, or if he responded to it in the morning. Neither option presented likely positive consequences, but neither did ignoring the messages. 
 
 As his laptop booted into the desktop screen, he glanced at the clock in the corner. 
 
 **1:45 AM** 
 
 Well, either he would come to a decision soon, or he would hit gold on the final track. Hopefully both would happen and he would get a chance to have an epiphany. 
 
 He only played for 18 more minutes before a voice startled him from above. 
 
 `` Hey man are you still trying to get gold on all those tracks?'' Matt asked, his head poking down from the bunk above.
