R-A-B-L-O-G

“lol”

by Ryan Brosmer
Tyler’s body struggled with the transition from sleep to waking life. His eyes blinked, flashing a bloodshot red like his face was a digital clock that had lost power and then had it returned now keeping time that was precise, but not accurate.

For Tyler it felt like six in the morning, about the time he had cut power to his brain, instead of the actuality of three in the afternoon. He sat up on the edge of his bed. The afternoon sun was breaking through the dusty blinds pulled down over the windows just above his bed. The light was dim, but created a harsh buzzing inside of Tyler’s head like the alarm he had slept through earlier in the day. Tyler had managed to pull the power cord of the alarm from the wall when it began its squawking around ten-thirty. He looked over to the clock to see exactly how much time he had managed to expunge from the day. He noticed it’s blank face before recalling having unplugged it. Instead of plugging it back in he groped at his nightstand in search of his cell phone. He was relieved to find it actually in its place beside a green plastic cup and his laptop. Tyler had become somewhat accustomed to spending part of the day following a night of drinking searching for where this phone had been left, but he had spent most of the previous night right there in his bed, and the empty bottles of wine were still knocked over on his bedside floor to remind him.

Before finding the time on his phone Tyler noticed the missed calls and unread text messages. The earliest was from around nine-thirty the night before; the latest was a text message sent 30 minutes before Tyler had awoken. Most all of them were from Beth. Tyler and Beth had broken up the day before. It had been almost 24 hours since they had, Tyler believed mutually and amicably, ended their three-year relationship. Tyler listened to the newest voicemail.

“Call me Tyler, please. Now that we’ve both slept on what was said yesterday. Just, whenever you wake up, call me. Do what you need to, and then we can talk.”

Beth knew Tyler would have gone somewhere, most likely just home as he had, and begin drinking. She didn’t like that. Drinking was Tyler’s way of coping and he had been drinking more often. She thought it meant he was having to cope with their relationship. While was pretty sure that was the case, Tyler never admitted it; but, it was brought up during the break-up and Tyler found himself unable to argue against Beth’s point.
He scrolled through the text messages. Tyler thought they started out accusatory and juvenile. Beth called him an immature drunk. He took offense at being called immature, and at her assumption that he wasn’t aware of his alcoholism. In the middle of the myriad messages was one from Beth’s best friend Julia.

“Ur an ASS!!!” Julia’s message said. After that the rest of Beth’s messages were more apologetic. Julia must have told Beth that she sent that message, to stand up for her friend. Beth wouldn’t like that because she knew Tyler hated Julia and her interruptions into their relationship.

“Plz call me w/U get this,” Beth’s last message read. Tyler hated it when people used Internet shorthand. He resented Beth for doing it. He wanted to point out how he thought it made her come off as an ignorant bitch. It was something people like Julia did and Julia was without question an ignorant bitch as far as Tyler was concerned. Julia also said “lol” in actual, face-to-face conversations and Tyler swore that if he ever heard Beth say “lol” to him or to anyone within earshot of him that it would without a doubt lead to an immediate end to their relationship and he would never talk to her again. It was bad enough that Beth actually laughed out loud in public on a constant basis. Tyler hated the quick glances of attention it drew their way while in a store, or how it made her blend right in with the rest of the crowd in a movie theater. Beth was always either standing out or fitting right in. She was never anxious, never unsure.

Well, Tyler thought, she seems pretty uncertain right now was to what she wants. That made him smile a short, unconsciously crooked smile and with that he finally got out of bed and plugged his clock back in. It blinked 12:00 in glowing, disjointed numerals. He didn’t bother resetting the time. The clock ticked to 12:01. Tyler brushed the stale taste out of his mouth, showered and dressed then drove to the grocery store to buy eggs, milk, cheese and ham to make an omelette. Back home he cracked the eggs, mixed in the other ingredients and poured it into a pan on the stove top. The mixture bubbled and popped. He pulled his cell phone out and composed a next text message to Beth that he hoped would create some sort of closure and understanding.

“Fuck off LOL :p” Tyler typed out with his thumbs and then pressed “send”. He laughed out loud, alone in the kitchen, and then went back to tending to his omelette.