#Brain Curd 217

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #217 - Brain Curd NaNo #4

Brain Curds are lightly edited daily writing - usually flash fiction and sometimes terrible on purpose.

Any resemblance to real events is entirely legally coincidental. Names and locations have been changed to protect the identities of the fictional.

“‘New friends,’ huh?” My mother studied my face to see if I’d crack.

“Yeah. Lots of people use these apps to find friends.” It wasn’t a lie to say so. And it was only barely a lie to say that it was my goal here. I hadn’t kissed anyone new yet, let alone fucked them. But I knew deep down that to tell her the truth would jeopardize my delicate living situation.

After all, I lived in a conservative household. I had to move back in with her, my stepfather, and my brother after COVID derailed my apartment life in Irvine. I finished my bachelor’s degree over the internet and it had been nearly a year at this point since graduation. A year entirely fruitless in career development. All the money I had was in my savings account or tied up in stocks, and I owed most of it in student loans - not exactly poverty, but if I was forced to start paying rent someplace, it wouldn’t last long.

It wasn’t a total loss of a year, mind you - I wrote quite a lot, including taking stock of the main formative events of my life in fifty-thousand words or so. But I didn’t go out much. My main opportunities to socialize were restricted to driving back to Orange County to stay with my girlfriend for the weekend once a month or so. A soul-crushing lonely drive culminating in a good night’s insomnia on a lumpy futon. I needed more than this.

“Why don’t you see if Ocean wants to hang out?”

“Ocean?” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Ocean works a lot… I never know their schedule.”

By pure happenstance, Ocean moved to the desert a few years before I did. But I could count the number of our interactions in that time on two hands - or three fingers, if I did it in binary. They moved out here because their boyfriend had family in the area, and the two of them were practically joined at the hip. He and I got along fine enough, but the two of them had enough going on that I practically only saw Ocean when they needed to get away from him for one reason or another.

“What does his schedule have to do with anything? Just ask her when she’s available.”

“Huh? Oh, no, I was only talking about Ocean. They use singular they/them pronouns…” I shrank. “Remember?”

“Oh yeah… she’s a they. I really don’t understand all that.”

“You get used to it.”

“I could never. Well…” She turned around and started poking at a spreadsheet. “Just be safe out there, okay?”

“Yeah. Uh, I’m gonna go pick up Anorma at the bus stop now, okay?”

Anorma: A bizarre name perhaps, but she picked it herself. She was my first girlfriend. We'd been together for a few years at this point, but we were apart for most of it. I'd met her smack dab in between two occurrences I refer to, respectively, as ‘the incident.’ Which one I mean must be discerned from context. If it's about sexual trauma, it's the first one. Abandonment issues? The second. And she stuck by me through it.

I pulled up to the bus stop - which was right between a Mexican restaurant and an Autozone - and waited in the car. The bus arrived shortly afterward and passengers shuffled out. She wasn't among them. My phone rang.

“Hey, babe,” I answered. “Where are you?”

“I missed the train. My parents didn't get back soon enough to get me to the Amtrak station on time.”

I sighed.

“I'm sorry.”

“It's alright,” I reassured her. “I was really hoping you'd be able to visit me this time, but -”

“I am!”

I squinted one eye. “You missed the only train out from Orange County to La Quinta. You'd have to try again tomorrow and then we wouldn't even get a full day.”

“My parents are driving me over!”

“Right… now? That's two hours each way, on a good day.”

“They felt bad.”

I found that hard to believe. I didn't think these people ever felt bad about anything. Her father once fired a guy for following health codes in their restaurant.

“I'll… see you back at home, then. Love you.”

“I love you too! Mwah!”

I hung up. I should have learned to expect this sort of shenanigan at this point.

Please comment, reblog, like, and follow if you enjoyed - I'd love to know what you think! See you again tomorrow.