Short Story...Breaking up is Hard to Do

Today, I thought I'd share a short story I wrote with everyone. Enjoy!!!

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

BY Dawn Brazil

     I faced the toughest decision ever: should I recycle, or not.

I twisted to a better view of the hall. Colin could sneak up at any minute and ruin everything. I placed the call as quick as I could, though I didn’t understand how they could stand these shiny things with all the numbers on them. They were archaic – we hadn’t used them in ages.

      “I love you, Amy,” Colin said. He strolled over and traced his slender finger over my chin. I slammed the device shut. No time for a call now. I would have to make the decision without my audience’s help. I smiled despite the rise of fear that attempted to choke back what I knew I had to do.

      “Hey there.” I tried to sound normal. “We should talk later.” I refused to engage eye contact. I opened my locker and peered inside for my calculus book instead.

      “Let’s talk now,” he said. He seized me by the hips and pulled me to him. “We still have ten minutes before first period starts. What’s up?”

      “Maybe we should wait until after school,” I proposed, hoping he dropped it until then. I knew it was the human condition to be curious. Why had I opened my mouth? I clinched my fingers into a fist and dug a sharp nail into the palm of my hand.

      “Why? Is something wrong?” He drew my chin to meet his inquisitive gaze. His eyes were the handsomest shade of brown, like chocolate velvet. Regardless, I had to remain composed. I’d gotten the approval to dump my package, all I had to do was guide it home.

     Why did I even mention talking? Why couldn’t I have waited, I thought, souring inside. Oh yeah, because I was sick and loved to torture others, I reminded myself, with a nervous flutter of my abdomen.

      “Listen, I really think it’d be best to wait until after school. Plus all the extra ears.” I drew from his grasp to lean on my locker - away from his probing hands.

     The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Drop it, drop it, drop it, I stormed in my head. I could not afford to do this wrong; tact and skill were my allies. This isn’t my first offense but it should be my last, I reminded myself.

     “Hey Colin,” came Jennifer Riley’s syrupy voice. “Looking good today.” She ran a hand over the collar of his light blue tee shirt. “How’s it goin?”

     “Oh…uh, hi, Jen,” Colin responded. He always got nervous around Jennifer Riley, all the boys did. If only they knew. “Hello, Jennifer.” I poked my head around Colin and peered at her with disdain. “Shouldn’t you be running along…somewhere else,” I said, through clenched teeth.

     “Amy,” Colin exclaimed, “be cool.” He reached over, grabbed my hand, and gave an encouraging squeeze. I pulled my hand from his grip. He was such an idiot.

     “Yeah, be cool, Amy,” Jen said. Her eyes glistened and I knew her audience hated me. They had every right to.    

     “Do you need something, Jen?” Colin asked.

     “I wanted to invite you to my birthday party.” She reached into her oversized bag and pulled out a hot pink invitation. As she slid the invitation to him, she ran her pink manicured nails over his hand, caressing and folding his hand into hers. She knew I was watching and she didn’t care. I was taking note.

     “Oh, thanks for the invite Jen. Amy and I’ll be sure to stop by,” he said. I’m fairly certain she would rather he drop me at the side of the road, or off a bridge on the side of the road before he arrived to her party. I stifled a giggle at her jealousy. How hilarious! How completely interesting!

     “Uh, Jen, Amy and I were about to talk about some personal stuff. Can we have a minute, please?” Always so polite. Just tell her to get lost. So weak. That was why he came up as a target I suppose.              

“Whatever,” she replied deflated. She rolled her large ebony eyes at me as she marched off down the hall, eyes as black as the soul that possessed them. I observed her as she traipsed down the hall, every guy turned to ogle at her. She was beautiful but lacked discipline and charm. However, she did have potential. She was on her fifth offense. No wonder.

     Not wanting to get too ahead of myself, I turned to face Colin. He stared at me as if he were trying to pick the thoughts from my head. He was nervous. You didn’t tell a guy you wanted to talk. They always assumed the worst.        

    “Babe, you know I don’t care about anybody listening to us. I love you. You can tell me anything.”     

“I still think we should wait. We can always talk later.” I sucked in a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly.    “I won’t be mad Amy, or upset. I promise. You can tell me anything. Did I…do something wrong? Are you upset about something…?”    

     “Colin just drop it.” Losing it, I bit the inside of my lip until a trickle of coppery blood tasted on my tongue. I was ready to go home; I didn’t need another strike on my record.

     “I can’t just drop it.” He wrung his hands through his thick hair. “It doesn’t work that way Amy and you know it. You put the idea in my head -”

      “I think we should break-up-” Dang it! I wanted to do that different. “Look what you made me do, you moron.” I took a step in his direction. Anger rose up the back of my neck and swelled in my chest.  

     “No,” someone in my audience yelled. I bit down on my lip again. Hard. Then I took a step back to calm myself.        

     I polished that line, now it was ruined. I did not have an adequate glimpse of his reaction either. I wondered if my audience had a good view of it. Maybe I could still salvage the moment. 

      “I think we should talk about this later.” I grabbed him and pulled my chin to his chest. I turned my eyes up in that seductive manner he liked. “I’ll come by later. We can talk then. Forget what I said, we can work it out.” I thrust my shoulders back and raised my chin, the epitome of self-control and confidence. But I felt a bead of sweat caress the right side of my face. I never perspired. What was wrong with me?

     “You wanna break-up,” he said. I sighed and backed up to the locker to peer at him in disgust. “Why? What did I do wrong?” With rough hands, he jerked me back to his side. “How can you expect me to concentrate after what you just said? We need to talk. Now.” His grip on my arm tightened and he dragged me towards the exit.

     Once outside in the crisp morning air, he released me. I did not move and neither did he. Though I tried arduously to keep my eyes diverted, I could feel his on me. With a lengthy stride, he was by my side and thrust me into his arms. He smothered me with kisses.            

     Shocked, I slapped him across the face. I bit the inside of my lip to stifle a giggle that was forcing its way to the surface.

    “What’s the matter with you?” he asked. He starred at me with large dejected eyes. “You don’t love me anymore? How could you not love me anymore?”

     “Let’s go,” I flung his hand away as he offered it for me to hold. Was he serious? I was ready to dump him. We walked to his Corolla parked in the student lot. I did not look at him, though I could sense his eyes drift to me every couple seconds. The longer I played this out, the better. I could finally get this right. I could do it. I knew my audience would be rooting for my success back home. 

    Once we reached the car, I climbed into the front passenger seat. I sat as still as stone. I was not ready for this, though I practiced what I would say repeatedly. We sat in silence, not looking at one another.

     “You don’t love me,” he asserted. It was not a question - he was starting to understand. I sighed softly, relief flooding me. It wouldn’t be so hard after all.  

     “No. I don’t. But, if it’s any consolation, I don’t love anyone. That’s my problem.” I looked at him to gage his reaction. Like everyone else I revealed this information to, he seemed confused. Unbelieving, everyone loved someone they all thought pathetically.

     “What. I…I don’t believe that.” He shook his head. I could almost see his head collide with his heart through his pathetic expression.

     “Amy was loving, not me.” I waited for this statement to penetrate. Every crevice of my body tingled with excitement. It would all be over soon.

     He turned and looked at me, his face scrunched in confusion. “You are Amy. What’s wrong with you? Are you in some kind of trouble or something?”

     “Again, I’m. Not. Amy.” I emphasized each word to ensure he understood. “Not Amy, do you understand that.” Of course, I knew he wouldn’t but it was riveting to see the puzzling scowl on his face. I suppressed another smirk. The potential for a real breakthrough was possible, if I could control myself.

     “Who do you think you are?” He gazed at me with the outline of tears in his eyes. How weak. Males were supposed to be the dominant gender, strong and hard. I broke him easily. I had to put an end to this charade.

      “Let me tell you a story,” I said. “A far more advanced human civilization exists in a far away galaxy, called Savoria. Citizens of Savoria come to Earth as part of their therapy. On my planet, I’m a Tessorian. On your planet that would be a criminal…a murderer. My anger often gets the better of me and it’s highly frowned upon.”   

     “A murderer…another planet-” He exhaled deeply and clasped his hands on his lap. “What-“         

     “I’m almost finished. Don’t interrupt me again.” I smiled to soften the blow of my words.

     “The purpose of my therapy is to rid me of my toxic thoughts and deeds. The patients’ assigned therapy on Earth are young. They often infiltrate the school system for their targets. Back on our planet, our doctors, family, and friends are rooting for us to complete therapy successfully. We call them our audience. We each have a target, we must find them and complete our acts and hopefully the aggression and anger that is within us dissipates.

     “Each Savorian is the equivalent of a walking television and can manipulate situations to create a better scene. It has become entertaining for my people, but it’s still used as a form of therapy. Of course, all of this is unbeknownst to the people here on Earth. We are strictly forbidden to kill or mutilate our targets; that would be the opposite of our therapy. After each ‘act’ the actors are given the option of recycling, which is letting the target go and wiping their memory clean. Or sending them home for research.” I released a deep breath, as if I’d been holding it the entire time.

      “Are you joking? That’s a sick story.” He squirmed and inched closer to the door.

      “What I don’t understand is, if you loved Amy so much how could you not notice the shift in behavior. I made it so blatant. She’s been lost to you for some time. She was such a wimp.”

     He raised his brow and squared his jaw. “I-I…don’t know.”

     “Well, we should get this over with. You’re my target Love.” I smiled proudly.

     I pulled out my receptor and pushed the red disenthrall button. A cloud of billowing gas emanated from two slits that appeared on either side.

     “What the… What are you doing to me?” His eyes locked on me and bulged so wide I thought they might pop. “I can’t feel anything.”   

     “My apologies love. I had to etherize you. This could get quite messy if I hadn’t”

   “Are you gonna let me go now?” His brow scrunched and creased together. “Wipe my memory clean.”

     “Um…sorry, I can’t recycle you. I’m not certain but I guess it’s your eyes. They are far too interesting.”

     His eyes bulged more and sweat broke out and trickled down his forehead. “I thought you couldn’t kill me.”

     “I never said I couldn’t, silly. But don’t worry, I won’t. You should be happy you got me and not Jennifer. She would’ve surely killed you.”                         

“Jennifer.”

     “Yeah, she’s awful sick. Her birthday party wouldn’t have been a good thing. I think I’ll send you to Savoria, for research. I’ve been in therapy for some time and I’ve never sent anyone back. But I could never recycle you. Sorry, Love. Don’t take it personally; know that you’re performing a good deed. And after you’ve been researched, you will be used to fertilize our planet to sustain our crops.”

     I pushed the receptor closer to him. “Now, hold still please, this will hurt terribly, but only for a moment.”

     The End.

What do you think? It was just for fun but I really enjoyed writing the story. I may even adapt it to a full novel - one day.

Have a great day. Read a book and laugh!!!