I am the Skeleton in the Closet

Breaking Hearts and Watching them Bleed

I was working late. Washing dishes in the back as the dinner rush hit when I got a call, then another call, and another call.

Great it's Eric, I don't have time for this right now. Probably just wants to complain about something I said like three months ago. I rolled my eyes, silencing my phone and restocking the front. Why haven't I broken up with him yet again? I sighed thinking of all the reasons I had to break it off. An hour or so later I was finally able to find a minute to call him back. "Hey, I'm gonna call Eric back real quick, he called a few times not long ago. I don't know what's up but I should make sure it isn't important, I guess. Probably just stubbed his toe or something."

"Ok, so long as I get out on time tonight, that's all I care about." My manager responded squeezing out a towel.

"Alright, thanks." I dialed and waited a second for him to answer.

"Elise..." He sounded out of breath.

"What's up I saw you cal-"

"I-I c-can't get their um um uh um scre-screaming out of my h-h-h-head. M-my ear-rs are um um s-st-still ringing." He blew up as soon as I answered.

"Whoa whoa what? Hold on. Backup. What?" I asked with a new found interest.

"What?" My coworker asked, seeing my face.

"Something about screaming. What's going on?"

"I n-n-need yo-you to come out h-h-here right um um now."

"I can't, I'm at work. What happened?"

"I c-c-cra-crashed the car. I-I-I-I um I f-f-f-flippe-d it. I-I-I th-thought it was t-t-the road."

"What?! You don't have a license." I recalled the one time I let him drive my car in my subdivision and he backed it immediately into a snowbank after narrowly missing my neighbor leaving for work. Can't say I'm all that surprised but why the fuck was he driving?

"M-mom didn't want to um um uh um dr-drive. Sh-she felt s-s-sick."

"Ok."

"I-I-I thought I w-w-was on um um the road. But it w-w-was an exit a-a-a-and the curve I-I-I lost c-control. Th-th-they all w-w-were in the car. I-I-I c-can't um um get th-th-their screams out of my head. Th-th-they were so scared."

"Shit..." I mumbled more to myself than to him. "Is everyone ok?"

"Y-y-yeah, b-b-but the car is t-t-t-totaled."

"Why were you even driving? Are the police there? Isn't that the rental from when the bank repossessed everything?" I asked. They moved out there in the first place because the bank repoed everything right? Aren't they in a hotel right now? How does he not know what an exit ramp looks like? Isn't this just out of Auburn hills? All of those exits are obvious. How the fuck did he... I mean it is him though. I rolled my eyes asking. "What's going on now?"

"Y-y-yeah... I-I-I don't k-know how we're g-g-gonna pay for it. The po-po-police came by um um m-m-my moms in a l-l-lot of trouble. W-w-we talked to the l-l-lawyer a-and they have t-to s-sue me to avoid a-any legal. F-f-from the bank." He explained.

"Well I mean you shouldn't have been driving."

"W-w-well sh-she had a stomach ache."

"No, you shouldn't have been driving. I've seen you drive, she should know. I gotta go."

"O-o-ok."

"Bye." I hung up with a loud sigh.

"What's up with him?" My coworker asked after a minute of watching me angrily scrub the table in front of me.