Dialing
Cigarette
//call received//
Devin: Hey, Cherry.
Cerise: Oh... you're a boy.
Devin: [laughs] You're clever, Cherry. Very clever.
Cerise: Thanks. [breathes an exaggerated sigh] This narrows it down to almost eighteen hundred boys in Jefferson High.
Devin: Yeah, it does... very smart...
//brief silence//
Devin: What's wrong, Cherry? Why didn't you text back? Why haven't you been going to wo--
Cerise: Slow down! God, so many questions.
Devin: And I want answers to all of them.
Cerise: Okay. [yelps, sharp inhalation]
Devin: What's wrong? Are you okay?
Cerise: Yes... [heavy breathing] Yes, I'm fine. Goodness, you're more worried than anyone in my life has ever worried about me... since when do you care so much?
Devin: Stop changing the topic, Cherry...
Cerise: Alright...
//pause//
Devin: So... why didn't you show up at work?
Cerise: [sighs] I'm a little sick.
Devin: What happened?
Cerise: Just influenza. Nothing major.
Devin: Oh... okay. You'll be fine.
Cerise: [softly] I'll be fine. And you, too... we'll both be fine.
Devin: We will.
//quietness on both ends//
Cerise Cigarette?
Devin: I'm here...
Cerise: I've always answered your questions. [deliberating pause] Now, will you answer mine?
//silence//
Cerise: Just one question a day! ... Please?
Devin: Christ. [sighing] Fine...
Cerise: Since when do you care so much about me? And don't lie, one only ever asks persistent questions about another's well being when one is concerned!
//long lapse of silence//
Devin: Does it matter?
Cerise: [high pitched] To me, it does! [softer] Sorry, didn't mean to scream at you.
Devin: It's okay... [sometime later] I guess it started when I learned about your mother.
Cerise: What...? What do you mean?
Devin: I... I know what it's like. I know how you feel. I understand.
//heavy quietude//
Cerise: [slowly, uncertainly] May... um, may I ask what happened?
Devin: Leukemia... [swallows] Leukemia happened. [shaky exhalation] I was fourteen then.
Cerise: I'm so sorry...
Devin: Oh, don't be. [short, cynical laugh] Not like you killed her. Cancer did.
Cerise: Yes... I'm sorry. I wish I had something better to say, but I don't...
//lasting stillness//
//soft, rhythmic breathing//
Devin: Cherry? Are you asleep?
//silence, except for the long breaths being drawn//
Devin: Yeah... you're asleep. Goodnight, Cherry.
//call disconnected//
***
YOU ARE READING
🗸 the quintessences of cherry & cigarette
Short Story|| in which a broken boy takes interest in a broken girl and they realize that neither of them require fixing when they fall in love with each other's pieces, flaws, frayed ends, and quintessences || [ love unconditionally ] [ adore irrevocably ] 𝓬...
