Just a Bottle

one

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.

- Norman Cousins

If you were to share that quote with Elliot Caverly before junior year, he would've laughed, and told you it was just some fake deep trash that you found off of Pinterest. Even during most of junior year, he would've said that. On March 8th, the Sunday before the fourth quarter began, however, he might have understood it. Because it was that afternoon, sitting on the bathroom tile, six vodka shots deep, that it suddenly became so blatantly obvious

-Six months prior-

Elliot sat at his desk, typing out his closing words to his essay on the Civil War and reconstruction. He let out a long sigh as he pressed the submit button, and watched his screen as the loading circle continued in a loop for what seemed like at least a minute. As the circle was finally replaced with a green check mark, he closed his computer and got up to go eat dinner.

As he walked down the stairs, he heard the familiar pitter-pattering of Peaches, his little sister's shih tzu, who would go back and forth between his sister, Molly, and his mom in the hopes of either of them dropping food. Usually, his German shepherd, Chewy would be underneath the table, whining for food as well, but Elliot's dad had taken him to the vet. Although it was a rare sight for Chewy to not be at the table at 6:30pm every day, it definitely wasn't a rare sight for Elliot's dad to not be there. He tried his best to make home for dinner at least once a week, but unfortunately it didn't happen often. He always had a phone call to make, or a house to view with a client, or an open house to attend. But even when he didn't show for dinner, his spot at the head of the table was still reserved.

Elliot sat at his usual spot, thankful that Peaches didn't deem him worthy enough to beg from. He sat through his mom's lengthy monologue about her day in extreme detail, and Molly's description of the latest boy she's been obsessed with, which seemed to change every other week. Thirty-five minutes and two helpings later, the spotlight was on Elliot, and per usual, he had nothing interesting to say. So when his mom asked him,

"What interesting things happened in your day?" he gave his same answer that he gave every evening.

"Nothing really." Then his mom would give him the look that parents give when they're concerned but don't want to say it out loud. After that she would sigh, and turn back to Molly to question her more on her crush.

The pile of dishes seemed even larger than usual. Although it likely wasn't, Elliot still washed, while Molly dried and put them away like they did every night. He asked her what she was learning in school, and she gave him a simple shrug and a huff in response. He couldn't resist a slight smile, remembering the times when it seemed like every question asked was a direct attack on him or his grades. Sometimes it still felt that way, although if he threw the same fit now that he did in seventh grade, he'd never hear the end of it.

Once the dishes were done, Elliot retreated to his room, deciding that he'd had enough social interaction for the day.

He sat down on his bed and scrolled through his phone for a few minutes, before setting his alarm for the next morning and placing it on his nightstand. He flicked the switch on his lamp, staring up at his ceiling for a few minutes before eventually closing his eyes and falling asleep.

*****

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Elliot woke up to a loud blaring, but not his alarm, as expected. It was the fire alarms, clearly engraved with some evidence of some in the house. He quickly got up and opened his door to go downstairs. Suddenly there were so many noises occurring at once, that he couldn't focus on a single one. His mom was yelling at his sister, who was complaining about the noise, and to top it off, both dogs were barking. This seemed to happened nearly every day. Well, not the fire alarm specifically, but something would go wrong, and it would set them back at least fifteen minutes, and this is why he now had five tardy passes for his first period, and it was only the beginning of September. He went back into his room to change, hoping the fire alarm would eventually stop.