Balconial Conversations

interlude \\ 20

I drop a dozen nectarines carefully into a long plastic bag and nearly drop half onto the sidewalk.

"Crap, crap, crappity crap." I mumble, winding the top of the bag around my wrist before checking out the cantaloupes.

My mother loves melons, but I really don't feel like carrying one several blocks back to the apartment, and I'm too broke for a cab. The bananas are completely green, so I just pay for the nectarines and step back onto the sidewalk.

I hold the thin plastic handles of the bag between my teeth and fish through my pockets for earbuds.

People walk past with purposeful strides, hopeful gaits and slouched sighs. The college kids wear Ray Bans, backpacks and stressed out expressions. High school kids stroll past with childish abandon. Adults walk home from a long day at the office or the diner with worn down smiles and long coats against the fall breeze.

My mother is probably still working; Cam is probably out with Caroline.

It surprised me how much I was affected by learning about her. The white-hot ball of restrained jealousy seared my lower belly and I was instantly curious.

Why, I couldn't say. I don't quite want him for myself. I'm not a good girlfriend, or so I'm told, and he can't possibly be a good boyfriend.

I mean, Cam Aromantic de Luca? Not a good choice.

I hear her apologetic murmur before I register the jolt. Someone walked into my shoulder; most Halifaxians would probably just keep walking. I turn to her.

She's very pretty in a vaguely soft way. Her hair is a nice, brightly natural red, gathered into a bun, and she's pleasantly curvy, so much so that she must be older than I am. A few years, at least.

"I am so sorry, I was rushing and... yeah, I talk too much, I know." She smiles while rolling her pale blue eyes (at herself, I presume), then her expression shift suddenly and her eyes are brighter. Teary, almost, beneath her delicately rimmed glasses. "I just had a really tough day."

"Oh... sorry for that." I tell her, pressing the crosswalk button again. She waits beside me, wiping beneath her mascara'd lashes with her blue sleeves.

"It's okay... I'm just dumb." She sighs and I raise my eyebrows in sympathy. A boy, probably. "I... um, fell for the wrong guy."

"Oh?" I try to summon more sympathy, but really, just about every girl knows that the wrong boys are indeed wrong. Except if he's a rapist, then he's a compete -

"Like, he's so nice as friends, you know? Then I went out with him and I thought he liked me, but... he didn't care. He's so gorgeous though, and smart and funny... when I went back to my place with him I really did think..."

"He used you?"

"No... I just didn't... understand."

"Sorry."

"Yeah."

"I'm Caroline, by the way. Caroline Armstrong."

"Um, Katherine." Then the light turns green as we separate with a smile.

Caroline with red hair and wire-rimmed glasses.

Oh, Cambriel.

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Le plot thickens

What do you think pls don't hate on cam okay bc love

I think this is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada... because i wrote Halifaxians... Idk imagine wherever