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REED CHERIE
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ABOUT THE ANNIVERSARY
HE ROLLED over only to stare up at the ceiling and glare, narrowing his eyes to tiny slits. His phone rang beside him, loud and obnoxious, waking him up when the morning sunlight hadn't even started beaming into the room yet. Who could be calling at this fucking hour?
Reed felt like a grumpy old man with large, noticeable and dark bags under his blue eyes, red and irritated in the sclera of his orbs, like he had rubbed them with the backs of his hands for hours. He laid there, fingers tapping on the soft blanket beside him as he waited for the ringing of his phone to turn off. He could just put it on silent but that would mean he would have to look at the caller ID, so he just didn't do it. He didn't want to know who he needed to strangle.
When the annoying sounds of his generic ringtone stopped, he closed his eyes and sighed out heavily, his breath shaking as it left his lungs. It was his best efforts to release the tension in his shoulders as he sunk into the cloud-like mattress, finally at peace after a minute.
But it rang again!
"For fuck's sake," Reed grumbled, turning over and snatching his phone off charge on the bedside table, staring at the caller ID. He now had a sudden urge to murder his little cousin through the phone as he accepted the call. "What do you fucking want?" Pulling the phone away from his ear, he looked at the time. "Its fucking fifteen minutes past five, Coal!" he said, putting the phone back to his ear.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Coal muttered. "I wanted to make sure you were okay before you start your internship today, is that so wrong of me?"
Grumbling profanities under his breath, Reed rolled on his back, staring up at the boring ceiling again as he thought of all the ways he could murder him. "Not when you woke me up and it's so early in the morning. Couldn't you have called me at like eight?"
"No, because I gotta get ready for work," Coal said. "Barista, remember? Gotta start early for those wanting their early morning caffeine fix. I have a very important role in this society."
Reed scoffed at his little cousin's words. "Sure."
Coal, aka Hudson Coal II, was Reed's little cousin. They were so close that they considered each other siblings. They've been hanging out together since Reed was like two and Coal was just a baby, who was just as annoying as he is now. Coal is twenty-five, a barista during the day and a bartender during the night — even though the bartender thing made Reed's gut sink with anxiety and concern, knowing Coal has struggled with alcohol addictions in the past year. He just hoped Coal is still holding his sober streak.
It's just been a rough past year for them.
"So, how do you feel?" Coal asked.
"Tired. Annoyed."
"Why?"
"Because of you," Reed said.
"That's not nice, I'm family," Coal objected, and Reed could hear the pout on his cousin's lips through the phone. "I should be the ray of sunshine in your life, my dear cousin. Have you been eating, though?"
Reed laid there, his blue eyes still darting around the ceiling as he scrolled through things in his mind to say. Finding a good way to lie to his little cousin and get him off his back. He wasn't one to eat, yet his mum and Coal grew concerned about his eating patterns for the past year. He wasn't sure why they were so concerned, he just wasn't hungry and didn't feel like eating anything other than — maybe — lunch.
"Yes, last night." Lies. Complete and utter lies that somehow left a horrible taste in his mouth the second the words fell from his tongue. He didn't eat anything for dinner, he was just sitting around in the hotel room with his reading glasses on his nose and reading Wuthering Heights. Until his eyes got sore and he wasn't reading the words on the page properly, deciding to go to sleep.
"Okay, make sure you eat breakfast so you have big and strong muscles. So, all the girls will have hearts in their eyes when they see you." Coal laughed, his voice anything but serious.
"So gross," Reed laughed lightly along with him, his lips curling into a smile. It was knowing his attractiveness was only defined by his body mass that made it gross to him. He didn't want to be called attractive because of his pretty face or how his body looked. He wanted to be titled as attractive for his laugh or his personality or something that was unique to him. Not a stupid "social construct".
"So gross," Coal agreed. "Um, your mum actually texted me to call you because you weren't answering her texts. . . You shouldn't be leaving your own mother on read, Reed. That's a slap to her face. I'm hurt that Aunt Leah is hurt."
"Oh, fuck off Coal." He was back to being a grumpy old man with zero sleep and getting angry at kids stepping on his lawn. He didn't want to talk about it, not with his mother and certainly not with Hudson Coal.
"Is it about the anniversary?" Coal's voice was soft and held a tightness in it, Reed had to strain to even hear it. There was a tightness in his throat now, too.
"Yeah."
"Well, Aunt Leah mentioned that in one of her texts — there were many texts, by the way" he said, sounding dumbfounded at his Aunt's ability to text so much. "She said—"
"Hey, Coal? I gotta go right now, okay? Talk later?" Reed interrupted as he rushed to get the words out in less than a second before ending the call. He swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the spiky ball stuck in his throat. Dropping his hand beside him, his phone still in his grasp, he tried to calm the rapidly flying thoughts in his mind. There were so many of them, coming left and right, above him and below him. He started to feel cornered.
He wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to talk to his mother and tell her it's all too much for him.
Sighing, Reed decided to go on his early morning run earlier than usual. It would probably help him rid his wild thoughts about the anniversary, and everyone trying to get him to open up about it and move on. But what if he didn't want to move on? What if he didn't want to believe it? What if he just wanted to go back in time? Then what?
Rolling out of bed, he changed into some comfortable clothes, putting on his running shoes and leaving the hotel room with his earphones blasting music, silencing his thoughts. He didn't want to spiral back down.
ＡＵＴＨＯＲ'Ｓ ＮＯＴＥ
Word Count: 1200+
I wanted this chapter to be longer, but whatever I wanted for the second half of this chapter didn't feel right to me. However, I'm okay with this chapter being short because it has what I wanted in it, and that is all that matters right now. :) Merry Christmas even tho today is boxing day (wasn't posted during that time, lol).
See you next Tuesday! Love you guys 🤍
— DYLAN.