Note: This is another short story that I wrote when I was 15 for school.
“Why Do You Cry?”
We communicate through our eye contact and imaginations. We sit silently side by side. It’s just us. Together. And then…silence.
Drip, drip, drip. I sat still and silent beside my friend as he wept.
Did she make him cry again? Ever since I’ve been here, I’ve lost count of how many times my bestie has intensely sobbed for a long time because of her. It always happens when she reaches up to pat him. It’s almost like a switch is turned on, and he goes from peaceful and calm to sad and heartbroken within a matter of seconds. Some of his tears land on me, reminding me of my self-resentment for being unable to do anything. I can’t help him for several reasons. First of all, what if she makes me cry too? I’ve never been through the experience of crying before, and I don’t ever plan to. It seems too vulnerable and depressing. Second of all, I can’t even move like she can. I honestly wouldn’t even know what to do. Third of all, (if I was somehow able to stop her) what if she gets upset and decides to stop using me? I desperately need her to help me with my plan to slim down.
Recently, I’ve begun to come to the realisation that I am too fat. It has become a major insecurity of mine for the last couple of days. It all started when one of my acquaintances, “TV”, was chatting about it with her. He said, “Imagine that the weight you are losing is going to the person you hate. Surely that’ll motivate you!” That motivated me. When she cups me in her hands and hugs me, I feel as if a thin layer of my fatness is going away. As you can see, it is quite unfortunate that I dislike her so much. Anyway, I have been thinking about how to stick up for my beloved friend up there. One way or another, I will get my revenge someday. Unfortunately, every time, she takes a little piece of me away with her. Now, every single time she comes to me, I can confidently see that little layers of my body are transferring to her! I truly believe that if I am able to get just a little bit skinnier, I will finally be happy.
I turned around, and it was then that I saw him for the first time. My first impression of him was that he had terrible proportions. His body was composed of a large head, with a peculiarly thin torso. He had an abnormal amount of round eyes, all in different sizes. Honestly, our first encounter was not very positive, since it left me with a mild case of trypophobia, which, paired with the claustrophobia incident that had just happened, created a bad memory. I felt exposed and uncomfortable in the intense stare of his eyes that seemed like mysterious voids as they looked back at me. I felt like they were staring deeply into my soul, assessing my naked self. The fact that his body was smooth and silvery added a sleek vibe to his weird appearance. He was so shiny that I could catch a glimpse of myself within him. After quietly judging each other for a short while, we sat silently side by side. It was just us. Together. And then…silence.
When I saw the world for the first time, she was the only thing in it. Her giant face was just inches away from me, and she looked very upset. “You’re the ugliest, so I’ll use you first! I can’t give you to my friends anyway!” When I saw myself in the mirror for the first time, I was shocked! My body was so square! So unsmooth! So lumpy! But, there was one positive thing about me. I was covered with various different vibrant colours, and they were swirled in such a ugly and random unique pattern! I could tell that my creator did not even try when they created me.
At the beginning, I was stuck. I distinctly remember being trapped in a small, confined package. Now that I think about it, that is probably where my claustrophobia, or fear of tight spaces, originated from! The way that I came into this world has left me with a long-lasting impact that will likely never fade. It was undoubtedly traumatising for poor me. That was before she came and helped me out. My saviour. Someone who I thought was kind and sweet. Someone who helped people out of difficult situations, such as being trapped in a little square. Or at least, that’s what I thought.
Anyways, when she lifted me out, I saw that there were lots of different versions of me. It was quite frightening, to say the least. I was carried carefully inside of her hot and sticky warm hands, and transported safely to a little stage. It had lots of lines in it, and vaguely resembled a jail cell. I later heard her call it a “rack”. It was inside of a larger room that looked quite luxurious and fancy. On one side, there is a large rectangular shaped black screen, which I later learned is her friend named “TV”. She often sits down on her giant white seat and stares at it happily, while various colourful images and sounds come from it. It took me a long time, but I finally realized that it was talking to her, and that they were best friends. That explains why she was so happy. She would laugh and cry in front of him, and sometimes talk to him too. “Nooo! Whyyy? You were my favourite character; how could you do this?” I wonder why she never talks to me or my best friend. All she does is hold me and make him weep.
When she leaves, his vibrant colour depressingly fades into oblivion, and he suddenly stops speaking. He is always super dramatic, and says things like “I love you so much. Who cares if they say we can’t be together! We’ll just run away together!” Or, “Run Forrest run!” After hearing him talk, one can truly understand just how philosophical and intelligent he is.“My mama always told me that life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
After about a week of observation, here is the daily schedule: Every morning, she enters the bathroom, and gives me a quality massage with both her face and her hands. The massage is an essential portion of my weight loss journey, and is also a big mood booster. Every single time, a little piece of me goes with her. I know that one day I’ll be gone, but that’s okay. I will just live in the moment, and enjoy my short lifespan while I can. According to her, I can only last for about maybe 2 months if I’m used everyday. But I don’t regret a single thing.
On this particular day, I was enjoying a nice dieting massage from her when suddenly, I slipped! It was too wet! I slammed into the hard ground, and almost passed out from the pain. I think that a little part of me probably broke or cracked. I heard her mutter under her breath, and bend down to pick me up. “Thank goodness it’s not cracked”, she inspects me carefully, as I began to feel self-conscious. There are so many different questions that I want to ask her.
“Why do you look so different when you stand under his pool of tears? Why are you helping me with my dieting plans? Is it because I’m so fat that even you are feeling sorry for me?” However, I know that I will probably never get the answers to these questions, so all I can do is hope and wish that they will be answered in some way shape or form someday. As she stands in our room, she continues to massage me. The more she massages me, the smaller I get, which is a good thing, because I promised myself that I would get as small as possible. Also, my vision starts getting cloudy and fuzzy. This is probably because when my body comes into contact with my friend’s tears, it gets bubbly and foamy. I believe this is hard evidence that we are meant to be soulmates, since my body has a strange reaction when he gets emotional.
Honestly, I think that I don’t really mind the fact that I am going to be gone soon, but sometimes it hurts when I think about all of my acquaintances that I am going to leave behind. Like I mentioned earlier, besides for my several casual friends, he is my only true friend that I interact with regularly. By “interact,” I mean that we sit quietly together in silence, just enjoying the fact that we are in the presence of one another. Today, my best friend was crying again. Each and every single one of his eyes welled up with tears that my heart drowned in. Sometimes I wonder why. What did she do to make him so sad? Maybe he is lonely, and wants to be her friend. But she never pays it any attention. The only interaction that she has with him is that sometimes, she reaches up to pet him. Maybe that’s her way of saying sorry. And when she does, he cries even harder. The next thing that she does always simultaneously surprises and confuses me; she steps inside, and begins to talk in a very strange way. Maybe the crying changed her? I’m not sure. Her voice rises from high to low, and the tone changes in a peculiar way. The words that she says are also bizarre.
“ sO I PuT mY hAndS uP anD PLAY thaT soNg tHe butTeRfliEs flY AwAy! NodDiNg my heAd like YEAH!!! Movin’ mY HIps liKE yeah!!! ”
Then, she proceeds to move around in a weird way, and jumps around. The entire time, my friend continues to cry. His sadness makes me sad too. All of a sudden, just as quickly as he started, he stops crying. I am so confused. Did she do something again? She looks confused too, and begins to pat his head aggressively. At this point, I am livid.
How dare she mistreat him like that?
“Oh my goodness! It’s broken…” I heard her exclaim sadly.
“And I just got it from Amazon! It was so expensive too!” I don’t understand. What does “broken” mean? Oh, I know! Maybe she made him so sad to the point where he has been emotionally and mentally broken!
“Tsk”. With one hand, she tore off his head and stepped out of our little room. I gasped. I heard her walk away, while muttering to herself, “Now I have to get another one…And I wasn’t even done with my shower yet…”
I hate myself so much. All I could do was lay there while my soulmate was so brutally beheaded.
I need to leave this place–-no, I need to go follow after my friend right now! True friends are there for each other through thick and thin! Just then, TV started chattering excitedly. This is quite perplexing, because he never acts this way when she’s not around. I wonder what happened. “No matter how far away you are, your heart will always be close to mine.” I stopped feeling sad and listened in awe as he gave me advice. To be honest, I’ve only known my best friend for about a week, but I feel like I’ve known him for so many years that I have never even lived. As if he heard my mind, he continued on.“There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met.” He continued to ramble on and on, but my mind was already preoccupied with my newfound thoughts and desires. Just then, the pounding of feet interrupted my emotional moment. Thump Thump Thump.
“Aaaah!” I hear her running downstairs. “My package is here! Yasss! This is why I love instant delivery! Yipee!” After a chaotic commotion, the door opens, and she steps inside happily, holding up a big brown box in the air. She proceeds to tear it apart, and out comes a familiar-looking thing!
Wait, could that be? Is that my bestie? Has he truly come back? His body had gone from a luxurious and sleek silver to a bright and happy yellow. I guess that getting away from her has really done him wonders. He also has differently shaped eyes, but that’s okay. Not crying for a long time can have really dramatic effects on one’s appearance. I’m just grateful that my friend is back with me. We sit silently side by side. It’s just us. Together. And then…silence.