spider

I screamed.

That’s probably not the best thing to do, at any given time. But when you’re standing there naked, it’s one of those things that tends to come easily. Dad came running, to the bathroom door.

“Katie, is everything ok?” his slightly panicked voice came thru the door. You could tell then and there he didn’t particularly want to open the door and find out if his daughter really was alright, given the chances of said teenage daughter being naked, but fatherly concern was a funny thing. I’d just screamed; I didn’t scream lightly. Female screaming drew a lot of attention, and I liked to think of myself as one of those down to earth types who don’t get too worked up. But no, I’d screamed, I was standing naked, the shower was running, my anxious father was waiting at the door and there was a big black spider crawling up the shower wall, and I had just been dumped. No, everything wasn’t alright.

“Um, yeah, Dad. A spider… just surprised me. It’s ok,” I said, trying my best to hide my anxiousness. I’d thought the shower was going to give me the perfect opportunity to relax and maybe even forget. But no, I was subjected to something like poor little Miss Muffet.

“Oh. Right. Sure honey, if you say so.” His footsteps wandered away. I hadn’t taken my eyes off Charlotte-in-the-Shower the whole time, but just for a second I did, listening as dad walked away. I looked right back the instant I realised my mistake, but no. Charlotte was gone, and so was any chance of me getting in the shower tonite. Sighing, I gingerly turned off the shower taps and went over to the bath. Clean enough. Taps on, a little bit of bubble bath mix splashed in for good measure.

Waiting for the bath to fill, I sank to the floor, hugging my legs close to my chest. No, don’t start doing that yet, the little good girl inner voice said. The bath’ll overflow. Sure enough, it was close to full. Into the bath, lying back until nose and mouth were barely above the warm water. I sighed, long and deep.

it was exactly 51 weeks, to the day. He’d called up. We were supposed to be going out, a week before the big anniversary. He hadn’t even had the balls to dump me in person. No, he called, mumbled something that I barely extracted meaning from, and hung up on me. I’d stood there for a good 15 minutes afterwards, just listening to the incessant tone left on the line after someone hung up. I was in shock. Then came the realisation. I didn’t remember the phases of people who were diagnosed with terminal diseases, but I was somewhere between anger and reluctant acceptance already. I wasn’t someone who over-reacted, remember.

No, I couldn’t let dad or mum know. Mark, my little brother, wouldn’t realise regardless. Somehow, mum and dad found out anyway. They were parents, so of course they were psychic. Dad did his best to comfort me without making it obvious, and mum just made me a little chocolate cake, in the shape of a clown with icing and all that. How did parents read their kids so well?

Mum came in, right when I was remembering that cake. she had the phone in her hand. given that I was in the bath, the door had been shut (never locked, in our house; emergencies did happen, nakedness or no nakedness), and there was a hundred reasons why I didn’t want to talk to anyone, it was probably important. Work, maybe. Mum nodded at the cordless, mouthing a word or name as I pulled myself out of water and bubbles a little, to dry my hands.

“Hello?”

“Hey Kate, did I interrupt you…?” Kyle, sweet innocent Kyle. I’d known him since primary school.

“Well I am kinda naked and wet, but no not particularly.” I could just imagine him blushing so much you couldn’t tell where his red hair stopped and his face started.

“Oh! Sorry! I’ll.. I’ll call back later.” Yeah, he was stumbling over his words. Embarrased as ever.

“Nah, nah, it’s cool. My fingers are all wrinkly anyway.”

“Well… I, well, I heard, from a friend, that Jimmy broke up with you…” My my, didn’t news travel fast.

“Yeah.” The conversation needed to be shut down, no matter where it was going. I couldn’t deal with it.

“Well.. I just wanted to say how sorry I feel for you, and, and that, if you want, if you need we could go and chat, like, over a coffee or something..” Wasn’t that sweet. Cute little Kyle, the nerd of our school who I’d befriended because I felt so sorry for him being so lonely, was trying to comfort me.

“Oh…"

“Don’t take it the wrong way!”

“No, that’s ok. Thanks. Yeah, thanks. Tomorrow some time?”