“Mom.”
“Honey?! Honey, it’s past 12pm. We were dead worried about you! Your father just went out looking for you…where the Hell have you been!?”
My mom’s voice rang through my ear like church bells as my sweaty palm held tightly onto my cell phone. I stared out into the open sunset; my mind as clear as it had ever been. My hair lightly pressed against the cool air as the Fall wind swept past me. I interrupted my mother’s scolding.
“Mom. Where’s Sarah?”
One hand on the cellphone; the other gently touching the wooden stairs that led up to the highest part of the city’s one and only attraction: the city bridge that was built back in 1850.
“Wha-? Sarah? She’s upstairs, I think. Dear, are you coming home?” I could hear her screaming out my fathers name; she was probably yelling outside the front door.
“Can you give the phone to Sarah?”
Slowly, I walked towards the edge of the bridge. My eyes never left the sunset.
“She-!?”
“Yes, Harold, she’s on the phone!”
I could hear arguing on the other end.
“Sweetheart, your father wants to talk to you.”
“Okay.”
“Hello?”
“Hey Dad.”
“Baby, where in God’s heaven have you been?! Never mind…just get home this frigging instant!”
“Dad.”
“You do know that your grounded for a week. No. A month.”
“Dad. Give the phone to Sarah.”
“And your-wait. what?”
“Give the phone to Sarah.”
Silence on the other end.
I waited.
The sunset really was beautiful.
Bright. Innocent.
The water below the bridge emphasized the rocks curbing out near the edges of the surface.
The light breeze was creating small waves…
“Hello?”
“Sarah.”
“Yeah.”
“Well?”
“He…um.” Hesitation.
“What the Hell did he say?”
“Please…please don’t make me say it.” her usually hype voice faltered a second time.
“Sarah, tell me. You know I love you right? Best friend for life. This means the world to me. Tell me.”
Another silence. Her voice cracked.
“No.”
“Sarah…tell me. Goddamn it. Please tell me. Has he been lying the whole time…? Was he playing me?! Does he love me or not?!”
“No.”
“Sarah.”
“No. That’s the answer….no. He doesn’t love you.”
That was all I needed to hear.
“I’m so SO sorry…”
That’s all.
“I tried…I really thought he was a good guy…”
It’s all over.
“I mean…when he said that he loved you…the first time, it sound so real…”
Nausea.
“I…I don’t know what else to say…”
Dizzy.
“Hey…you still there?”
Sick.
Feel Sick.
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow…okay?”
I can’t take this.
“Hello?”
The phone fell out of my hand.
It fell to the floor with the lightest of thumps.
“Hello?”
My eyes never left the sunset once.
Even when I flung myself off the bridge,
Into the water,
Down into the ocean.
The phone slipped through the cracks in the bridge…
Into the ocean with me…
As I tried to drown myself…
I heard on the other end…
“Haha, April Fools!! It’s the first of April, you didn’t know that?! Omg, tell me you PLEASE saw that coming! Your still here aren’t you? Anyways, he actually does love you…you lucky, lucky girl.”
As I breathed my last breath, eyes wide with extreme shock, I thought my last three words…
Sarah says what?
My eyes never left the sunset.