“Why do you keep staring at my legs?”
“Because I was thinking about the pale little half-moons that have made their home on your thighs and what exactly they mean.”
“They mean I’ve lost some of the battles, but never the war.”
“What battles? You never told me you served.”
“Oh yes, I’ve served many times—but not in the Iraq war, no, in my own little war—for example, there was the time during my freshmen year of high school where my older sister ran away for a week in a strapless black dress and came back in a black casket. And then, there was that time when I handed myself over to a boy like an apology and he returned me in worse condition than I left in. Oh and my cat, Sammy, never came home last Saturday so there’s two for that—one because he deserved a better owner and the other because I should’ve just bought a goldfish instead and then maybe we both would be happy rather than miserable. One’s even for when my younger brother asked me how to go about tying a noose with only his bare hands because the fact that his best friend's dad unlocked his bedroom door in the middle of the night without any permission was enough reason for my brother to want to kill himself for not having protected his friend.”
“Wow, is there a scar for me?”
“No, there’s not, but even if there was, I wouldn’t tell you because I know how upsetting that would be and I don’t want to be the reason for your tears. My scars don’t hurt me so there’s no reason for you to worry over them, they’re much like old friends that I invite over once a month to remind myself of the past and what once was. That’s all.”
“How many do you have?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I quit counting. There’s a scar for everything, isn’t there? Even if you can’t see it. All the things that have ever happened to me, they’ve all left some version of their own scar.”
“Is that the same for everyone?”
“Yes. In fact, why don’t you show me yours?”
"Okay."
YOU ARE READING
Conversations
Short Story❝oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas.❞ a series of unrelated stories told only through dialogue in which two anonymous characters share bits and pieces of themselves with the reader.
