Short Story

Sam Leidholt

Lit – Short Story

To Go or Not to Go

                “I know it wasn’t supposed to happen this way, but it did. And I’m done. I can’t even look at you anymore without getting pissed off about the whole thing.” The words ripped Kasey’s heart apart as he read them. The girl he was ready to propose to was giving up on their relationship because he’d made a stupid mistake. One that he never thought would alter his life as much as it did. And now, he felt like he was having an out of mind experience as he sat on his unmade bed, staring at his iPhone in his suddenly dark bedroom as rain drops pelted the window pane. He laid down to try to get a grip on everything that had happened. The long nights on fighting and late night texts were catching up to him. For the first time in the past three days, he realized how exhausted he was, and before he knew it, he was overcome by sleep.

                He woke up to the familiar tri-tone dinging on his phone. Foggy eyed from his dried contacts and clueless as to the time, he saw one new message. “I’m not going to Florence anymore either. I don’t care what you do, but I’m not.” “Talk about kicking me when I’m down,” Kasey muttered, barely audibly. Italy had been his idea, mainly because he intended to propose to her there. He instantly shut the idea out, laughing at how pathetic it would be of him to make the journey alone. The alarm on his phone brought him back to reality. Mornings usually were the worst time of day, but especially this morning. After a long debate, he finally mustered the strength to roll out of bed and head for the bathroom. Twenty-five minutes later, he was running late for class as usual. Tuesdays were normally his longest days, but today took the cake – apparently, his newly single girlfriend decided to announce it to the entire school while he was caged up alone in his apartment. The constant drilling of questions and nasty looks from her friends made the day feel as if it was never going to end. After his third class of the day, he’d had enough. The list of effects of skipping his last class and two meetings that night was growing longer and longer as he breathed the sigh of relief once he finally made it back to his apartment. Although he knew he’d hear about it from his roommates who had the same Tuesday night schedule, he was glad he could finally be alone.

                As he sat down on his bed, he caught a glimpse of the Florence info session sheets again. He knew them line by line, but decided to pull them out and look them over again for probably the hundredth time. “Hurry and book your flight at this guaranteed low price! Book before October 15^th and receive a free upgrade to Economy Comfort Seating!” He threw the sheet on the floor and his head found his pillow in record time. He hadn’t even given thought to Florence since he woke up to the text this morning. He started to think about everything he dreamt it was going to be. Part of him still wanted to go, but the part that didn’t put up the more convincing debate. All of a sudden, and almost to spite the part of him that didn’t want to go, he had his computer up and was reviewing costs online again. He had the number memorized, and had even worked enough during the summer to be able to do it comfortably. He was back to another out of mind experience as he clicked “Submit Payment” after typing in all his credit card information. “Thank you for your order! You will receive an email with your flight plans momentarily!”

                “Oh, shit,” Kasey thought to himself, “did I really just do that?” In a matter of two minutes, he had decided he was still going to go to Florence. As sleep overcame him so quickly yet again, he realized just how excited he was to see it all. “Plus,” he thought as he fell into his sleep cycle, “maybe a semester away from this place wouldn’t be all that bad.”