Misunderstanding

“Movie 2nite?”

“IDK,” I replied.

“Y” the inevitable response flashed onto my screen. 

Coughing into my handkerchief I looked around the office.  It was ten degrees outside and I had the headache of the century.  The last thing I wanted was to sit in a dark theater with a bunch of potentially cold and flu infected strangers with music and sound effects assaulting my senses while my boyfriend munched greasy popcorn in my ear, but how could I put all of that in a text message he would understand?  Not tonight, I’ve got a headache is so cliché.

I looked at my phone, the screen still flashing, persistently begging for an answer.

Mark and I had been together for a year but sometimes he just didn’t understand.   

“Jen?” my phone beeped to life again.

I sighed, not knowing what to say.  My thoughts were interrupted by the jingling melody of my cell phone.  “Hello?” I asked, knowing it was Mark.

“Hey, hon,” he began.  “Get my message?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“Baby, I’m not feeling well today.  My head is throbbing and I’ve got this…I cleared my throat…this cough.”

“Anything I can do?”

“Not really, babe.  I think I just have to rest...and sleep.”

“Ok,” he said, disappointed.  “I’ll call later and see how you’re doing.”

“Ok,” I replied.

I felt worse and worse as the afternoon wore on.  As I felt myself dozing off around 4:30 my phone jingled to life.  My bleary eyes tried to focus on the screen as successive messages appeared.

“My dearest Jen…”

“Remember when…”

“We said we’d love forever?”

“The day we met…”

“I can’t forget…”

“We talked about the weather.”

“But now…”

The text messages stopped abruptly.  How can this be happening? I wondered through my grogginess.

“Carol,” I called over the cubicle wall.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Tell me what this sounds like to you.”  I handed her my phone and she read the messages quickly.

“That’s all he wrote?  Do you think he’s breaking up with you?”

“That’s what I'm wondering,” I replied, the clearing fog being replaced with the numbness of shock.  “I can’t believe he’d break up with me just because I don’t feel well enough to go to the movies tonight!”

Tears were stinging my eyes as the phone alerted me of another text message:

“I see that you don’t want me…”

“What?” I shrieked!  “I don’t want him?  What is he saying?”

Carol’s brow furrowed as the next message came through:

“Standing beside you…”

“Sometimes it hurts deep in my heart…”

“OMG,” I typed, hitting ‘send’ immediately.  I can’t believe he thinks I don’t want to be with him!

“What R U saying?”  I clicked out quickly.

“U think I DNT LV U?”  My breaths came in quick succession as I hit the buttons.

I flopped into my desk chair, exhausted and anguished.  My head was spinning; I loved Mark with all my heart.  I was hoping he’d ask me to marry him soon and I would cry and say ‘Yes’.  But now…what was I going to do without him?  How could he break up with me because I don’t feel well?

I put my head in the crook of my arm and rested on my desk.  Tears splattered on the smooth surface but I didn’t care.

“Hey, look here,” Carol said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I sniffed and looked up.  There was Mark, kneeling beside me with a dozen roses and a tiny box supported on his palm.

“Marry me?” he said, tears brimming in his eyes.

“Yes.  Oh, yes!” I cried, falling into his arms and sobbing.  “Oh, yes!”

605 words

Your task for today is to write a DRAMA STORY that includes a sprinkling of COMEDY within it. Prompt:  Your significant other (you've been together for a year) breaks up with you via your cell phone in a text message. Write the story ....