Acomist
should care
You can here Joel outside - smoking, coughing.
"I'm dying."
He looks worse than Cathy; like something's eating him from the inside out. Even the pads of his fingers are skeletal thin, now, and his knees appear to protrude grotesquely. Every night he turns and turns and you hear his labored breathing till the sun is up and he's gone once more to his empty kitchen.
You hear him whispering things to Cathy and it becomes routine to listen in. 'Time' he says, 'I'm running out of time' and then you bang your wrist against the banister and he's smiling with a coffee and the fruit bowl's been empty for days. You bought a chocolate bar after work yesterday and it melted on the radiator in your room. You couldn't eat it.
You're so hungry.
Sweet cakes adorn the inside of cavernous cupboards and the wrapping is pristine and clear and Cathy smiles like it's okay (it really is) and she quit her job and you don't make enough for the rent but Joel says 'It's ok, I've got this' and you don't know how but he does.
He never tells you what he does when he goes out; but each time he's a shade less than the last. He's fading out bit by bit but his eyes get bluer and his lips get sadder and all he does is laugh and smile til he won't stop crying and he feels like the petals you couldn't catch when you were six.
The petals drowned in a stagnant pond.
"I'm dying."
He looks worse than Cathy; like something's eating him from the inside out. Even the pads of his fingers are skeletal thin, now, and his knees appear to protrude grotesquely. Every night he turns and turns and you hear his labored breathing till the sun is up and he's gone once more to his empty kitchen.
You hear him whispering things to Cathy and it becomes routine to listen in. 'Time' he says, 'I'm running out of time' and then you bang your wrist against the banister and he's smiling with a coffee and the fruit bowl's been empty for days. You bought a chocolate bar after work yesterday and it melted on the radiator in your room. You couldn't eat it.
You're so hungry.
Sweet cakes adorn the inside of cavernous cupboards and the wrapping is pristine and clear and Cathy smiles like it's okay (it really is) and she quit her job and you don't make enough for the rent but Joel says 'It's ok, I've got this' and you don't know how but he does.
He never tells you what he does when he goes out; but each time he's a shade less than the last. He's fading out bit by bit but his eyes get bluer and his lips get sadder and all he does is laugh and smile til he won't stop crying and he feels like the petals you couldn't catch when you were six.
The petals drowned in a stagnant pond.