Short Stories

Burnt

The flame danced in the cool night air, warming her hands as she sat leaning against a smelly green dumpster in the narrow alley. She didn't like it. She didn't want to do it. But she did it anyway.

The cigarette fell from her hands and landed on the rough pavement. It flickered for a moment before her boot stamped out what was left of the lingering flame.

"Katie, I've said it a million times. Clean up your stuff before my friends come over. It's not that hard."

"But when my friends are over you can't be bothered to move your dirty laundry off the couch?"

"You don't own me, so stop acting like it."

She sighed and ran her fingers through her newly dyed blue hair. She had put up with him for too long. Too many nights had been spent in the alleyway outside her own apartment. The one she had worked her ass off to pay rent for every month for a year while he was 'struggling' to find a job.

She hadn't seen through the lies then, but it was all clear to her now. Hanging with friends all day had no correlation to looking for a job.

With a deep sigh, she slid her tattered gloves back over her chapped hands. She normally hated the cold, but it was better than being inside with him. She wouldn't have dated him in the first place if she hadn't liked his snarky sense of humor or unapologetic smile. But now it was becoming less of a quirk and more of a problem.

"Hey Katie, go make me and the boys some sandwiches."

"Do it yourself."

"I said, go make me and the boys some sandwiches. Do I really have to ask you twice?"

"Stop, you're being rude to me. I'm not your personal servant."

"Chill. You're freaking out over nothing, babe. I'm making a joke."

Her hands clasped the frigid metal railing of the fire escape on her apartment building and she lifted herself onto the landing at the bottom. She sat there a minute, catching her breath for a few second before continuing the climb up the building to the seventh floor. By the end she was panting like a dog and chilled both inside and out.

From the landing on the seventh floor, she was able to see over the roof of the building next door and observe the twinkling lights of the skyscrapers towering above her. From this height, they seemed to be man-made stars, guiding her higher and higher off the ground and into the heavens.

Sadly, she had to deal with her boyfriend from hell before she could ever join them.

"You bitch! Get yourself off the couch and go work! The landlord's been calling all day looking for our payment. You're going to have to work harder if we aren't going to be evicted."

"Maybe if you got a job and stopped lounging around with 'the boys' all day, we'd be okay. I'm working enough odd jobs for the both of us right now."

Needless to say, she'd been fed up for a while. It was hard for her to admit her faults. It always felt like she was dissecting her own find and laying out all the parts to dry. But it was a task that she had to do. A necessity for self-preservation.

She ducked through the window and into the empty apartment everyone was using the access the escape. It was peaceful in here. The way she'd always imagined her apartment feeling. Not littered with empty bottles and food scraps.

She crossed the apartment to the door and slipped into the hallway. Though she could barely hear him and his friends down the hall, the noise was deafeningly loud in her ears. She could already hear what he was going to say.

"You out smoking again? I already told you, I'm not paying for your nasty habits. You should stop it."

Or maybe he'd say something else.

"Where you been, girl? I've been looking for you. Wanna have some fun tonight?"

Or possibly he'd be even more rude.

"Why are you even here? I told you that me and the boys are gonna be here all night. Stop interrupting us."

She reluctantly moved down the hallway towards her apartment, the rowdy noise growing louder with each step she took. She could hear "the boys" jeering at something on the TV. She instinctively reached into her pocket, her hands caressing the lighter in her pocket and her gripping her last cigarette.

It's not like she wanted to be addicted to smoking, she just had started the habit after he specifically told her how he hated people who smoked. It was her personal act of rebellion in a turbulent sea where she had lost control.

She leaned her head against the door, listening to them talk. At first it was just sports talk, about some team losing and another beating a record. Then it escalated to politics. And finally she heard him confirm her worst fears.

"You know, I kinda want to ditch Katie. She's just another burden for me. She whines a lot. Linda's so much hotter anyways. And she's even down with the fact that I'm already dating someone else."

Of course he would cheat. Of course he would rip her heart out and throw it to the dogs. Of course he would ignite everything they ever had and use it to burn down the facades that had been hiding the truth from the both of them.

She wasn't about to confront him today. She couldn't bring herself to fight with him and end it. The truth was, she was afraid of standing up to him and afraid of being alone.

It took effort to stay and talk with him. It didn't take any effort to run back down the fire escape and light her last cigarette. It didn't take any effort to let her tears run down her face and into him palms.

They had always told her to be careful what she wished for and this was what happened when she had wished for love.

Maybe she didn't deserve it.

Or maybe she'd been burnt. Burnt by those who she let into her life.

And as her last cigarette grew shorter by the minute, her dreams did too.

For the #justwritebits March 2020 contest.