Mask of Celibacy: A Multimedia Novella

11 ¦ Burn the Bridges

The phone rang like a klaxon of doom.

In that instant before the third ring, I prayed that Bryan would hang up. But, of course, the dang thing trilled again.

God isn't a force of action, dumb-ass.

Even if He was, His priority list doesn't include spontaneous regional phone outages.

"Jess, can you get the phone, please?" Mom called upstairs.

Great, the one time Mom doesn't answer...

"Got it!" I grumbled in reply.

I picked up the receiver with a sigh.

"Hello."

"Jess?"

"Bryan..."

"You said it was cool to call."

"I said it was okay to be friends."
Maybe. If you aren't a jerk.

"And friends call each other, right?"

"Yeah, I guess..."

"So how are you?"

Are we really doing this?
"I'm all right. You?"

"Okay..."

A long pause. The awkwardness made me cringe, but I wasn't the one who had walked away. I wasn't the one who had maintained radio silence for four months. And I wasn't the one who had shown everyone a page from his journal.

"I'm sorry, Jess."

"About what?"

It sounded like a bitchy question, but I genuinely needed to know what had made him change his tune all of a sudden.

"Leaving you like that.
Not listening to you.
Not being patient."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And...what about showing a copy of my
online journal for everyone to see?
Any remorse about that?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Bryan, don't play games.
This isn't a set of Friends, you know."

"I know."

"Then don't turn this into a drama.
You never used to be that person."

Silence fell like a pall on our call. He exhaled a long, steady breath.

"I did a lot of shitty things, Jess.
But I never shared your blog."

*scoff*

"You'll have to ask Nicky about that."

"What the hell are you talking about?
You shared my blog, not her."

"After we'd broke up,
Nicky cornered me in the hall.
Asked me if my D didn't satisfy you."

A snigger escaped my lips. Bryan and I had never done anything remotely sexual. I had no idea how big or small he was. Quite frankly, I didn't even understand why that mattered.

"What the hell does that
have to do with anything?"

"Real mature, by the way.
Thanks for that."