"As well as other things...but it's not that bad. It's not like I stalked your social media accounts to find out your name or anything."
"Good."
"Although...if your e-mail starts with 'clquinn' then I'm going to guess that Quinn is your last name."
"Yeah..."
"A-ha! That means that your name starts with cl. What is it, Claire? Clara? Claudine? Clover? Cl-"
"It's Cleopatra, actually, but no one calls me that anymore."
"Why not?"
"When my mum committed suicide some part of me knew that things were never going to be the same. Neither was I."
"But I like the name Cleopatra. It makes you sound like an empowering female. It describes you perfectly."
"I know, I mean, I like it too."
"Then why change it?"
"I didn't change it as such, just shortened it. It was more out of spite than anything else."
"Spite?"
"Yeah. Almost like revenge. My mum loved the name Cleopatra, she'd already planned out what her child's name was going to be by the time she had turned eleven. Or at least that's what she said. I could always see the pride in her eyes as she introduced me to other kids, my name rolling off of her tongue like some kind of omen. She adored the name so when she committed suicide I decided to get my own back."
"That doesn't make any sense. "
"It does, in a weird sort of way. I was angry. At her, for leaving me alone with the one person that terrified me the most. So I shortened my name in the same way that she shortened her life. From that day forward I have been Cleo."
"That...actually kind of makes sense."
YOU ARE READING
Suicide Helpline
Teen Fiction❝In which a celebrity dials a random number in hope of finding one last thing to make him smile before he commits suicide at the end of the month.❞ "I'm going to commit suicide in one months time." "I think you have the wrong number." "It can't be t...
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