A bedroom door creaks open, light washes through the dusky
room aiding the small desk lamp that’s lit in the corner on the desk where
books are piled high. A girl sits hunched over and inches away from her
textbook and phone which are sitting side by side on the cleared space on the desk.
The light from the screen illuminates her face in a sickly blue wash, her
twisted head phones entwined and connected to the device like some alien umbilical
cord.
“So I talked to Chris about his sister today.” The girl announces
who just walked in. The other girl removes the head phones but not taking her
eyes off the screen. The gadget blinks and notifies her of another reply.
“Hmm…?” She answers back to the girl standing there.
“You know Chris’ sister was in the hospital earlier this
week for attempted suicide, right? I know I told you about it.” The other girl
walks to the bed and sits down on the edge, leaning forward on her knees.
“Oh, wow, yeah. Now I remember…” Blinks, rubs eyes.
Silence.
“Don’t you want to know how she’s doing?”
Silence.
“Yeah, sure.” The screen blinks again, this time vibrating
the papers beneath it a little. This time it’s a photo notification.
“She’s okay. She’s stable and everything. The doctors want
her to go to rehab or something for a while.”
Silence.
“Chris doesn’t want her to go to rehab because it’d mean she
would be moving for a while. Honestly, I
agree that isolation like that would not be a good idea for her in this
situation. Don’t you?”
“Sorry, what?”
“Aleah, Chris’ adopted sister, she shouldn’t go to rehab.”
“Why not?”
“Ugh…you don’t even try… do you even care?”
“Ugh…you don’t even try… do you even care?”
“Yeah I do! And what do you mean I don’t care? I do care.”
“Then why didn’t you respond when I told you about her going
to rehab?”
“Who? For what?”
“Aleah Carpenter, my ex’s adopted sister who I used to be
really close with and we got along really well. That girl.”
“Sorry! I just forgot for a second. Gosh, you’re so temperamental…”
“Sorry! Maybe you should get off that stupid phone one of
these days and actually listen to people. I guess it’s not like you’re
obligated care about Chris’ sister anyways, even if she did just try and murder
herself.”
“I’m sorry okay! I’m just really stressed with school right
now, the texts were from my professor.”
“Oh, so you’re just too busy right now?”
“Yeah-”
“Great! Fine...”
“Hey, that’s not what I meant.”
“Wasn’t it? Anyways I’m leaving now. You can study in peace.”
-dh
