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song: bored — billie eilish
IT WAS NEW YORK, I told myself. People moved fast, and if you were rejected, it would only take you a few days to find someone new. My own thoughts had come back to bite me.
I need some time to work on...all of it. That’s what he’d said. A few more months and you’ll have me all to yourself. And I had believed him.
I wanted to scream. The alcohol in my system licked a strange combination of hot anger and passive demureness in my veins. The anger won. I was about to lurch forward and call him out on his bullshit, but an arm on my shoulder held me back.
Mae. Right. I’d forgotten she was still at my side.
“Forget about him,” she said with an imperceptible shake to her head, “He’s not worth it.”
I listened to her.
And that was exactly how we ended up at the porch of Kade’s apartment, three large cartons of eggs in hand.
“Pass me one,” I said.
Mae grinned, curtsying as she offered me an egg like a sacrifice. “The honor is all mine.”
I snatched it from her grasp, played with it between my fingers, enjoying the cool feel of it, before I swung my arm back, and, without thinking, launched it toward the window.
It cracked evenly, and a wicked sense of exhilaration shot down my spine.
“Yeah yuh!” Mae cackled.
She reached for an egg, taking aim. Hers splattered lowered than mine, but not with any less force.
After that, it was free range.
I guffawed outwardly at the horrible pun.
The air was filled with the sickening sound of eggs splattering, and Kade’s window was soaked and leaking with yellow goo.
I think people underestimated the true genius of egging a surface: the real art happened when it dried. It hardened to a thick, rough, semi-sticky mess that was a real bitch to clean. And if you left it for too long, the egg would start to rot.
When the cartons were emptied clean, Mae grinned. But a sick feeling took over my stomach. My eyes began to water. “What have I done?”
Mae’s eyes flickered my way, her face falling. “Indigo.”
“What have I done, Mae?”
“Indigo, you—”
“He didn’t cheat on me. We broke up three weeks ago. Yeah it might suck for me, but he didn’t technically do anything wrong. I have no right to be upset. I—”
“Indigo!” Mae yelled. “He told you he wanted to focus on his work. Did what he was doing look like homework to you?”
I couldn’t help it. I felt like I was going to puke, but at the same time, my throat was clogged up with unshed tears. Heaving, I bent over to try and ease my lungs.
The image of him and that girl kept playing in my head over and over again. My chest was physically aching. Like it was caving in. I shouldn’t care this much. I shouldn’t give a damn…
but I did.
He said he needed to focus.
Was I more distracting than a stranger? Did being with me feel like…a chore? Were the five years we spent together a joke? A waste of my time? And perhaps the question that hurt the most: how could you spend so much time with someone and still not know them?
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Fragile Little Things ✓
RomanceIndigo Gallagher was born with osteochondroma, a condition that leaves her physically fragile. Between shifts at her granʼs flower shop and her tumultuous relationship, all she wants is to get through her second year of pre-med unscathed. Although...
