“No. All I’m saying is, you don’t gotta hover over me like a baby,” Justin said to his sister, Olivia. Sitting in the cab of her hand-me-down pickup at the newly renovated drive-in, Justin was attempting to go ignored and failing. It was just like Olivia to say more than she should. “I’m not planning to kill myself tonight, so relax.”
Olivia huffed, pivoted in the bench seat to face Justin, and tapped her chin with her index finger. As soon as the finger started tapping, his mind sealed shut. Whatever she had to say, Justin didn’t want to hear.
Her finger stopped, but remained on her chin.
Here it comes.
“We’re not trying to treat you like a baby,” Olivia said. Her hand dropped, and her head tilted to one side. “And we understand you can take care of yourself, we’re just… concerned. You know? We wanna make sure you’re alright, because we care.”
Olivia stared, letting a long pause hang in the cramped cabin.
“Yeah, I know,” Justin responded.
Olivia pulled her frizzy red hair back into a ponytail, smiled as if the matter were settled, and turned back to the movie. Justin watched her profile for a moment before doing the same. Ever since his botched suicide, life had become a chain of false bravado, plastic smiles, concerned, yet patronizing expressions, and watchful eyes. But worst of all, in the two weeks since the incident, he hadn’t been alone for more than five minutes each day to shower. His parents even made his brother, Steven—who was nine years younger— a sort of night watchman.
Life before a failed suicide, by definition, was dismal. But life after a failed suicide was a whole new level of hell. Ironically, all the well-meant condescension only managed to instill perpetual misery, constantly reminding, constantly teasing him with eyes that asked ‘why, why-oh-why would you try to end this rippin rollercoaster we call life?’ But they never said the words their eyes were so feverishly asking. They went on with Teflon-coated smiles and sickening head-tilts, proceeding through life with the confidence of someone living a fairy tale.
He searched the parking lot for a distraction. Half the town shared the dusty parking area, mostly family vehicles packed with rowdy tweens. Some families, like the Parkers who occupied the space cattycorner to Justin, walked to the theater and sat on big blankets with buckets of popcorn for a picnic under the stars.
Justin stopped breathing when he noticed Sara Pruitt and Bobby Welsh lying on the hood of a silver Camaro. Sara was a lifelong neighbor that hadn’t spoken to Justin in almost five years. They played together growing up, but somewhere along the line, she severed communications and become one of the multitudes of females who refused to acknowledge his existence.
And as Pembrook Pines’ thick-jawed, good-for-nothing, golden child, Bobby Welsh made it his personal responsibility to punish the dregs of the lower class—such as Justin Burke.
Seeing the two together brought out complex emotions. He yearned for their acceptance, but hated himself for it. Why should their opinions matter?
Sara kicked her leg into the air and laughed at something Bobby whispered into her ear. Justin averted his gaze when her skirt slid down her raised leg.
The sound of the movie grew distant as Olivia hung the speaker on its pole and rolled the window up. The muffled voices of actors arguing on screen penetrated the truck, reminding him of his parents’ arguments over his ‘condition’.
Olivia didn’t move or speak, but Justin could feel her studying him. She reached up and flicked the dome light on, casting a weak orange glow across her face.
“Why’d you do it?”
Justin was dumbstruck. No one had approached the subject so bluntly until now.
Get the full story in...
Stories in the Ether, Issue #4
A Digital Storytelling Anthology
$2.99
Stories in the Ether is a quarterly story telling anthology of fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction short stories from Nevermet Press. This issue features 11 compelling works including:
- The Gorgon’s Love, by Martin Shelby
- The Stars at Night, by JC Hemphill
- Big Heart, by David J. Fielding
- The Chase, by J. A. Gonzales
- A New Beginning, by Colin W. Campbell
- The Mechanical Turk, or All’s Well That Ends, by Tucker Cummings
- Shelled, by M. R. Williamson
- Exodus, by Eric Staggs
- The Emerald City, by Per Wiger
- The Occurrence of the Cavalry Horse, by Teel James Glenn
- Empyrean Skies, by David Gaither
With artwork by Paul Hagwood
$2.99 in ePUB for all eReaders from Lulu, DriveThruFiction.com, Smashwords, B&N Nook Bookstore, and Apple's iBookstore. Also available from Amazon for Kindle.
