Chapter 13: Tripped
279 Words
He’s smoking, leaning over the railing. His line back is even upset. I imagine the cilia in his lungs screaming in agony as they become paralyzed.
"Everything okay, Brielie?"
"Don't call me that." He says between smoky inspirations. His left hand is shaking, and he grips the railing tighter. "Sounds like some brand of French cheese."
"What happened?"
He exhales a cloud of noxious gray smoke, and I wrinkle my nose. "I'm just upset."
I keep the rhetorical ‘it’s obviously not just’ to myself. "Are you about to fling yourself from the balcony?"
"No." He doesn’t seem to be in the mood for eye contact and stares at the shrivelling cigarette between his fingers before extinguishing it against the top of the railing. He pouts and pushes it against the metal until it’s crumpled matter and dust. Perhaps chronic bronchitis isn’t in his future after all.
"Okay. Guess who I tripped on the sidewalk today?" I pump a little bit of enthusiasm into my tone, and he peeks out from beneath his eyelashes as if to judge whether I’m actually serious.
"Who?" He says it as though he’s allowing me something; allowing me to distract him.
"Jeremiah." I’m greeted with a blank look, the same one I gave Gabriel when he told me the name a few hours ago.
"And that is?" He looks up, the moroseness obviously overcome by curiosity.
"Some jerk who pinched my butt during the volleyball game in gym class. An utter troglodyte."
"Hmm... props for the tripping and the of the word troglodyte in a sentence."
- Writer
