Short Stories
Drinks on Me
Outside, my phone buzzed relentlessly. Text after frantic text, voicemail apologies that spiraled from remorseful confusion into wounded indignation. Later, I heard the bar staff had asked her to leave: "We don’t serve people like that," they’d said, taking pity on me by proxy.
The Bathroom Ultimatum
That weekend, my brother was coming to town. We hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and we made plans for a concert. Just the two of us. I mentioned it to her casually. It wasn’t a rejection. But it wasn’t an invitation either.
The Getaway Glitch
We went anyway. I wanted to make it work. But something didn’t come with us. The flow. The ease. The in-jokes. The us. The conversations grew quieter, colder. She noticed.
The Room Next Door
A neighbor showed up at the top of the stairs. Baseball bat in hand. His expression said it all: I don’t want to be part of this. Neither did I.