Shattering Crystals

There is nothing to do. All I have to do now is wait.

There were holes in the story. There were major, gaping holes. It probably didn’t make much sense. Most likely, she thought that I really don’t pay attention to details when I read.

“That’s… interesting. Not sure if it’s my type of story, though,” she had said. Which is a bad sign, because it is her story, in a way. Of course, that’s only if the whole thing is true. If not… I guess I’ve made a fool of myself, then.

I shrugged and told her, “I just thought you would like it. I didn’t tell it very well, so you never know if you would like it or not. Just giving you a suggestion, is all.”

“I don’t really like reading,” she said, and I had wondered if the ‘popular girls are stupid’ stereotype is true. I wondered if they even knew how to read. But Lorraine didn’t seem like the rest of them.

“I don’t either,” I lied to her. It wasn’t much of a lie, because I really don’t read all that often. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I said, “But some stories are good enough to read. This one was.”

“I’ll call you about it later today, then,” she said. “What’s your number?” She stuck out her hand, and gave me a pen. I wrote the number down, wondering if I was actually doing it.

And so, here I am, sitting on my bed, staring down at my phone. It’s silent as ever, with a vibration now and then, indicating a text. Mostly from Leilani. A few from Jesse. Strangely, she’s interested in the story. She thought it was cool. Now, if only Lorraine was this interested in it.

I text back to Leilani, telling her that I’ll get back to her on the story. I wonder what I’m going to do when she actually confronts me about it. Do I lie through my teeth? Tell her that the story was online and was taken down?

My phone vibrates again. There’s one new message, and I expect it to be from Leilani again. But it’s from Jesse, asking to hang out. My automatic response is to instantly reply ‘yes’, but I stop myself from it. I have to wait for Lorraine’s call. I can’t take it when there’s someone else around. Not if she understood the story’s true meaning.

But Jesse is just as important, my mind tells me. You spent all that time going after him, and now you finally have him. It doesn’t mean you can just rest, it means that you have to step it up. He could leave you at any time.

That logic makes sense. I can’t give it all up for nothing. But what if this ‘magic’ is all true? What if I miss my chance?

Sadly, I tell Jesse that I’m busy. Which I am, so it isn’t really lying. I can hang out with him any other day, but I can’t really do this another day. I guess I can, actually. It’s not like Lorraine is just going to disappear, and I’ll never be able to talk to her again. It’s just that I have to figure this out, and I have to figure it out now.

My phone rings, causing me to jump a little and pulling my out of my thoughts. I check the ID and see that it’s not someone that I have in my contacts. It must be Lorraine.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Is this Dana?”

“That would be correct.”

“So… that story you told me,” she says slowly.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“It wasn’t a story, was it?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, cautious.

“Well, it was. But it’s not a story you just ‘read somewhere’.”

I wait for her to go on, but she doesn’t, creating an awkward silence. After a few seconds, I answer, “Uhm… yeah?”

“What I mean to say is, it’s not a random story. It’s your story.” She doesn’t say it as a question, but rather a fact.

“And how would you know this?” I ask, knowing that it doesn’t really help. If I’m not denying it by now, she must know it’s true. Or she’s just messing with me, and I look like more of an idiot than ever.

“I looked in my diary when I got home. I knew that I had heard the name Diana Crystal somewhere before, and I found it. Right there, in my diary. I wrote about her. I wrote stories, about her, like I was her best friend. In the stories, I was her best friend.”

“I…” I didn’t expect her to actually have a connection to Diana Crystal like this. I expected her to call me, ask me for the story, and that would be that. And I would be labeled insane. I had never expected to actually get a response.

“What I’m really wondering is, is this all true? Did you tell me your life story? Or did you somehow get my diary, and now you’re just messing with my head?”

“I have never looked at your diary in my life,” I say truthfully. I’ve never even been to her house, anyways, even if we do live in the same neighborhood. “So what do you think?”

“I think it’s true. Hard to believe, but true. There’s no other explanation. But tell me, have… weird things been happening to you?”

“You have no idea,” I tell her.

Suddenly, a new voice comes onto the phone. A woman’s voice. “Lorraine?” she says, followed by some words in a language I can’t understand.

“Listen, Dana,” she says, after the voice (her mom?) is off the line. “I don’t think we should talk about this now. Let’s meet up somewhere tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I say. “See you then?”

“Yeah. Bye.”

“Bye.” I hang up the phone, and throw it on my bed. I just stare at it for a while. I have learned some things today.

I’m not crazy, but I may as well be.