I Don't Do Lonely Well

It’s really good to see Alex’s face, even if it’s only over Skype. His smile just makes things suck less. “How’s work?”
I shrug. “It’s work, I guess. It’s what I want to do, and I’m happy with it. I’m just…not happy with my location still.”
“You really don’t want to be there, huh?” he questions, as if he didn’t quite understand that I left LA with the intentions of never coming back.
I shake my head in response. “I want to go home, and I’ve only been here for two weeks.” I feel myself choke up. “Fuck,” I groan, looking up to try and stop the tears.
“Babe, it’s just me.” I reach for the pillow to my left and hug it against my chest.
“So, when do you leave for tour again?”
“Tomorrow morning. Flyzik gave us two days off after our LA show.” His lips pull into an excited smile. “I wanted to try and surprise you, but I can’t wait to see you.”
“He did? God, he’s a great guy.” Alex laughs and nods in agreement. I just stay silent and watch him. After all, he’s the man I fell in love with, and the way he smiles and looks down when he laughs is one of the reasons why.
“What’s the matter?” he questions, trying to figure out what I’m looking at.
“I just never knew I could be so in love with someone before.” I shrug and hold the pillow a little closer. His lips stay in that perfect smile. I flop down onto my stomach, and Alex starts laughing. “What?” I whine.
“This is an awesome boob shot.” I scoff and cover the camera of my laptop. Not that I care if he can see down my shirt, obviously he’s done a little more than look down my shirt before. “Hey,” he whines.
I replace my hand with the pillow to cover the camera and tug my shirt off. If he’s going to be a horny asshole, why not fuck with him a bit, right? I tug the pillow back under me and continue our conversation like nothing happened.
“Well,” Alex states, his eyebrows peaked with interest. My lips are still pulled into a smirk. “I’m sorry, but I can’t quite focus on the conversation at hand anymore.”
“I’m not sure I understand the problem.”
We share a laugh, and I reach for my shirt. “By all means, just stay where you are,” Alex encourages, still laugh.
“Fuck you,” I respond, laughing as well.
“I wish.”
I laugh once. “You and me both.” My cell phone rings, pulling my attention away from him. “Hey, Mom,” I greet.
“Hi, honey. Come over for dinner tonight!”
“Mom, it’s already seven.”
“I’ll see you in a half hour.” She hangs up. I groan and drop my phone next to my laptop. “Mom wants me over for dinner.”
“Isn’t past dinner time over there?” I nod, and Alex laughs.
“I’ll talk to you later, okay? Love you, Lex.”
“I love you, too, babe.” He smiles and waves before I click ‘end’.

“Mom,” I call, “I’m here.” Mom rushes out of the kitchen and embraces me.
“Hi, honey. Have a seat. I want to talk to you about something.” I look at her curiously and pull out the chair at the kitchen table. Mom scoops a large heap of spaghetti onto my plate.
“What’s the deal?” I twirl some noodles around my fork and scoop them into my mouth.
Mom sighs. “Your father wants to get back together with me.” I cough and cover my mouth to prevent noodles from spewing everywhere.
“What?”
“You know why he left me, right?”
“You two were fighting a lot.”
“He was cheating on me for five years,” she answers like I should know what she’s talking about. My eyebrows pinch together in confusion. “And he got the woman pregnant. So, he left me to take care of the baby.” I purse my lips tightly, gripping the edges of the table to calm myself. “The woman doesn’t want him to be a part of her life anymore.”
“Are you actually considering taking Dad back?”
“She already did,” I hear my dad’s voice say from behind me. I turn around and find him walking into the kitchen.
My immediate reaction is to rest my head in my hands to try and calm the spinning. “We saw what happened to this family when your father left, and we wanted to fix it,” Mom reasons, resting her hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I snap, shrugging away. I rise from the table and pick my keys back up from the table next to the door.
“Hear your mother out,” Dad pleads.
“No! This is bullshit, and you both know it. You destroyed Cody to the point that he ran away, which in turn sent me spiraling into anxiety because that tripled my bills that I could barely pay in the first place, and then you don’t even care about the depression it sent me into. You can’t make up your mind about Alex, you hate Cody for what he’s becoming—“
“Which is what?” Dad snaps.
“Successful. If you cared, you’d know.” Dad crosses his arms over his chest. “You just don’t take into account what your actions do to other people. When I broke up with Alex, it was because I was scared of becoming like you two. You’re trying to be this model couple, but you,” I point my finger at my mother, “don’t care enough about your children to call and ask if everything is going alright or if they need anything,” I point next at my dad, “and then you go and knock up someone else.”
“Honey,” Mom tries to reason.
I take a deep breath to calm myself. “I took this job because you wanted me to so bad. I did this for you. I turned down a job offer from TCHS, and I never told Alex about it because you wanted me to come work out here so bad.”
“You got that job offer—“
“The day before I left. I could have changed my mind, but I didn’t for you guys. Then you lay this on me?” I snatch up my car keys.
“Where are you going?” Dad demands.
“Home. Back to Baltimore.” I slam the door behind me and climb into my car. On the way back to my apartment, I’m waiting in a left turn lane, and the car before me makes the turn. I glance at the oncoming traffic and start to make my turn.
I guess I didn’t see the car coming through the intersection, but the car sure saw me. And decided that they didn’t want to slow down.
I hear the metal of the passenger side of my car crunch and feel the glass tumble over me as it shatters. Squealing tires, screaming, and more shattering glass overtake my senses. The side of my face collides with the airbag. I feel my car flipping, and the car skids upside down. Somewhere in trying to brace myself, my left arm gets caught between my leg and the steering wheel and my head bashes against the side of the car. Everything goes dark.