Caroline and Ben stayed in the water for about half an hour before Caroline started to shiver, and Ben decided they had had enough. Ben pulled a blanket out of his back seat and wrapped it around Caroline when they got back to the car.
Caroline wanted so badly to sleep, but she decided it would be a waste of the last few hours of her life. Ben pulled the car out of the parking lot, and soon, they were back on the highway.
"Thank you," Caroline whispered to Ben. He looked over at her curled-up figure and smiled.
"I thought it would be nice to give you one good memory with water before you lose your life to it" he smiled sadly. Ben was serious when he said he would let Caroline take her life. He was serious when he said he wasn't doing some reverse psychology thing on her. But that didn't mean he was heartless. He didn't want this random girl to die, but it was her life, and if she really truly wanted to end it, who was he to stop her.
"Can I ask, and you don't have to answer, but why are you doing it?" Ben asked. Caroline sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm tired, not physically but emotionally, mentally. I have never been happy. Every day it hurts, and I'm alone. There is just no point in continuing this cycle anymore."
"No offense, but that's a bullshit reason," Ben said, switching to the slower lane without Caroline noticing because she was too busy gawking at what Ben just said.
"You can't tell someone their reason for wanting to die is bullshit," she scoffed.
"Yes, I can. It may not be nice, but neither is suicide. So all I'm saying is your reason sucks."
"I- I don't even know what to say to that," she admitted.
"There isn't really anything to say, I think it's a stupid reason, and you don't. I'm not going to try to convince you of something you don't want to see."
"What do you mean," she asked, confused.
"I mean, you want to die. End of story, you got in my car, so I could literally bring your death, no one really does that unless they either really want to die or they are just looking for a reason to live," Ben said with a shrug not taking his eyes off the road. Caroline was speechless.
"So, which is it?" Ben spoke without taking his eyes off the road.
"What?" she whispered, knowing where he was going with this.
"Which is it, are you really ready to die, or do you just need a reason to live?"
word count: 447
YOU ARE READING
Over, Gone, and Lost
Short Story"Whatcha doing?" "I'm about to kill myself so don't try to stop me" "I wasn't going to, but can I make a suggestion" "What" "You should do it on the bridge over Jefferson Lake, it's higher and the water is colder so if you don't die on impact you...
