“How’s your week been?” Alexavier’s voice sounded so good over the phone. My head was so jumbled up yesterday; especially after reading those articles online about Brighid. “It’s been…” I hesitated before answering. I didn’t know how to answer him. “Alright” I managed to choke out. Before Alex could notice the abnormality in my voice I asked “How’s yours?”
“It’s been okay. I really miss you. Are you okay with walking home after school by yourself?”
I smiled; Alex is always caring for me. It was nice to hear he hasn’t forgotten me yet. “Spring break remember?” I laughed “Have you made any friends yet?”
“There’s this guy that seems alright” He said. I imagined him sitting on his bed looking up at the ceiling with his backpack perched at the end. Lately I have been feeling less me since Aiden came along wanting to talk to me. Aiden called me Brighid, which made me mad. I remembered the pictures of Brighid I saw on Google the day before. I was not Brighid. I didn’t even look like her. “Say my name” I blurted out. I felt embarrassed for asking someone to say it. I just wanted to be reminded of who I was. “Your name is Brigitte,” I heard the page turn in a book so close to the phone it sounded like brief static. I smiled, almost into a grin. “And I am Alex” He continued and I heard another rustle of paper. I wanted to ask him what he was doing that made so much noise in the phone, but at this point I didn’t feel it really mattered. “What’s up?” He asked, and then I noticed I had been silent. “Say it again would you?” I asked. “Brigitte. You are the bridge in which I walk on” He said and I laughed out loud. His stupid puns were the funniest things in the world to me. Alex chuckled over the phone and I knew he was grinning hugely. “Hey Bridge” He said in a quieter voice. “Hi” I responded staring up at the ceiling. I heard another page turn. Then there was complete silence over the phone. When his voice finally came back he said “I love you” My attention snapped back to the conversation. Alex and I have said I love you to each other a hundred times; but the way it came out of his mouth this time made it sound more passionate; more loving than just a couple kids laughing at each other. Alexavier was timeless to me. Every time I saw him it brought me back to the first week of school in seventh grade, it brought me back to all the times I would share my food with him because he never brought his own, in ninth grade when he hugged me in the hall right in front of Jenny Taylor because I had a bad night, the night I came sobbing at his door because my neighbor died, that time he let me cry into his shoulder because of a break up— or something my friends were saying— or Jenny Taylor. Yes, so many memories with this kid, of course I’ve told him I loved him before. “I love you too” I said back. “I mean really,” He said “I want to be with you.”
“Forever?” I had to ask.
“If that is possible, yes.”
Was he asking me to be his girlfriend? Did he mean this? Knowing Alex, he did. “Are you asking me—“
“To be my girlfriend? Yes, I’m asking.”
I took a moment to take this in. I closed my eyes and with pain in my throat I said “But we live so far away now” I could tell that wasn’t something he wanted to hear. Alex likes to be happy regardless of the reality. “Says the girl who went out with a guy in India” He murmured. “I was fifteen!” I jolted up in my bed. “And lonely” he added. Heat raised into my head. “It wasn’t even a real relationship! Plus he was the only guy who would talk to me. And he asked me out so I said okay.” I met this guy on Facebook a long time ago, and feeling like nobody wanted me, I took his invitation to be my boyfriend. Although we spoke online a couple hours a day, we never spoke to each other like a couple. That was around the time Alexavier had bad internet and would only send a few messages a day. That was before he got a phone to text me with. “Oh. Okay. He’s the only one who talked to you. What about the time I blew off a family gathering so I calm you down that day you had a mental break down? What about me missing my bus to pick up my little sisters so I could watch you run around the track with a bunch of idiots? What about when you came crying to me because Jenny had sex with your crush? Well I’m so glad to hear my friendship with you was a waste” I flinched at the sound of Alex’s angry voice. We’ve fought before, subtly, but we never brought up the past like this. “Alex I—“
YOU ARE READING
Eternal.
Teen Fiction- A young poet suffering from PTSD and Depression thought she knew her place in life. That’s before she gets acquainted with a boy who seems to be following her. By the way he talks, and his constant disappearing, Brigitte realizes that the boy is n...
