Absentee

“I guess… uh… school would’ve started back by now, huh.”

Frankie and Katie were in yet another hotel room. It was dressed up like a castle this time, but it was still another hotel room.

“Yep. Aren’t you happy you’re doing this instead?” Katie flipped through a swordplay magazine on her bed, lying on her stomach, as Frankie’s eyes bore into their ceiling.

“I. Uh… guess I can’t help it, being this far out… not that I wanna go…”

“You got most of it. Not much happens in the second half of senior year.”

“Except graduation…”

Katie flipped the page. The girls both laid there for an immeasurable amount of time.

“Do you ever… feel like you’re scared of something coming, and you just don’t know what?” Frankie suddenly confided in her sister, remembering how long it’d been since something like this had happened.

“All the time.”

“I feel that way now… won’t they… the school… call our parents?”

“Our parents are on the moon.”

Another eternity without a single spoken syllable.

“Why do… I almost feel like… I’m not… getting the right human experience? Like I’m not… not “human.” Frankie darkly reflected.

“Not graduating highschool doesn’t make you less human.”

“What… would your life be like, if you never went to school?”

“It was different for me. That’s what you said to me once, right?”

“I guess…”

Silence overtook the room yet again. Frankie thought for a second this time it would be for good.

“Goodnight. Don’t worry. I love you.” Katie clicked off the bedside light rolled up in her sheets.

“Love you too.” Frankie curled up just the same, trying not to stare too hard into the darkness surrounding them.