Be in the Stars

The Fig

Be in the stars

-Sarah SM

A short story collection

The Fig:

Figs! That was the smell! It was figs. She turned to Caroline to share that but remembered there was no one there to boast to.

A sigh fell from her tight lips as she forced back a nagging feeling.

Figs… she hated them they were squishy and just yuck.

But a memory was a memory.

“I hate figs” she still muttered even though there was only a bag of dry fruit to talk to.

She stood up, embarrassed. Throwing the bag into a bin next to her.

Maybe she was a fig.

She figured.

She figure skated.

“Figs,” the word even tasted wrong.

Turning around she found a door.

The door out of here, out of the grief.

Why was she so early?

“Because I figured-,”

Startled she stopped, wide eyed and staring at a man.

“You figured..?”

He had blue bags under his eyes; he could be a fig too.

Maybe.

“I-I,” she couldn’t stop looking into his black eyes.

‘feel like an idiot’

She should go.

“I’m Caroline’s sister.”

She took a gulp of air, as if it were water or Champaign that she could awkwardly fill her mouth with, so that she didn’t have to talk.

“oh.” He said.

He looked down, as if trying not to cry.

“I’m sorry who are you?” with no idea how those words came out of her throat and out of her jaw, into the air and toward their ears she blushed.

“Boyfriend,” he choked, “ex-boyfriend.”

Oh no. He wasn’t meant to be here, what he if he met another of Caroline’s supposed ‘boyfriends’ or ‘ex-boyfriends’

Instantly she wanted to slam her head into a wall, she was such a b!tch sometimes.

“Did she ever mention me?”

He looked up with angry eyes, “yeah she did,” he said with venom dripping from his words.

“Right…” he opened the door as if to leave, but something inside her made her want to know why he sounded so mean.

“What did, sorry.” She cleared her throat, “what did she say,”

Bad move.

He stood over her, she felt trapped in his dark shadow.

“she told me how you treat her.” She gulped.

“treated,” she corrected feeling like the world’s biggest fig.

“whatever,” anger drifted around like smoke from a fire in her head.

“you know I regret everything,” she told him loudly as if this pathetic guy could erase the bad atmosphere.

“really? I find that hard to believe,”

She grabbed his shirt, a fistful of black cloth, “hey, you know nothing about me.”

He shrugged her off, “I shouldn’t have come here,”

She nodded, “yeah you shouldn’t have, now you might actually find out the truth about her, and how she cheated on you with three other guys, who were much nicer and-,”

“What?!” he roared, obviously she hadn’t made the situation any better but she prodded on, “you heard me, I always kept her home and dobbed her in so you guys wouldn’t get broken, I may be the reason why you all are single, but I did you a favour. You- you fig.”

He looked pained. “a fig?” he asked.

Ok not what she’d expected as a response, “yeah.”

He looked torn between yelling and laughing at her, but chose to roll his eyes.

“I’m going,” he finally said.

“good,” she ended.

But before he was completely outside the church he handed her a rose, “it was for her deathbed. Tell her to rest in peace,”  

Somehow this brought tears to her eyes, “I’m sorry,” she whispered to Caroline, whom she figured would be listening.

She looked up to see if the man had gone, and he had.

She threw the rose to the ground and turned around to stare at the front of the church. Then spun around again and left, watching as more family piled in.

She really was a fig.