Breaking Point

Harry Potter

     The weekend passed by way too quickly, as always. Rainey was on Facebook, MySpace, AIM, and the phone all at once on Sunday afternoon, complaining about it.

     “It’s unconstitutional how short the weekend is compared to the rest of the week,” she said over the phone to Anna, holding it between her cheek and shoulder. She was lying across her neatly made bed (she hated clutter) as she searched for the latest music on MySpace. URLs to illegally download music had become MySpace’s sole purpose in life for her, especially since Limewire had been taken down by the government.

     “I hate our government,” she went on, thinking of this.

     Anna laughed. “Why?”

     “They suck ass.”

     “They’re probably listening to this conversation right now. I bet they heard that.”

     “I HATE YOU, YOU STUPID BASTARDS!” She shouted into the receiver. “There, they can kiss my ass… FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BITCHES!”

     Anna was laughing. She loved Rainey to death for her ability to make you laugh at anything. She was one of those people who could make the evil librarian at your school library die of laughter just by saying ‘pudding.’ She didn’t even have to try; she just was funny.

     Rainey began to sing as she waited for her friend’s laughter to pass. Nothing in particular, just something made up to the tune of some song on a toilet paper commercial she liked.

     “I forgot my pills,” she mentioned, more thinking aloud than talking.

     “Yeah, that’s not good, Rain,” said Anna. “You kind of need those.”

     Rainey shrugged, forgetting Anna couldn’t see. “Whatever. I’m not going to go crazy or whatever. I’m beautifully fantastically wonderfully fine.”

     Anna shifted uncomfortably on her living room couch on the other line. “Maybe a little too fine?” She was lying on her back watching TV with a bag of popcorn, but not really paying attention now that she was noticing Rainey’s mood was changing.

     “How can you be too fine?” Rainey asked, scoffing. “Well… you could be me. Just kidding.”

     Anna had seen the episodes before, all too many times. She’d known Rainey long before her diagnosis. Unlike most people, Rainey had been bipolar her whole life. Because this was so rare, she hadn’t been diagnosed until she was nine.

      “How many doses did you miss?”

      “Uhhhhh,” Rainey dragged out the word until she burst into a fit of giggles. “I dunno. A lot. But who cares? I feel great! Like that weird orange pedophile tiger on the Kellog’s commercial.” She laughed. “I love commercials. I’m gunna make them when I grow up, and their gunna be epic.”

     “I thought you wanted to be an astronaut?”

     “Yeah but then I found out you need math. I want to do art.”

     “Oh. I guess that makes sense.” Anna was less focused on the conversation and more focused on her friend’s behavior. Maybe she was overreacting, but this was really weird.

     “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

     “What?” Anna said distractedly. “Oh- I dunno.”

     “You’re so smart,” Rainey said admiringly. “You could be anything”

     “Thanks,” Anna muttered.