Issue #183 : Too Many Bars

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“What are you talking about?” Brice asked. “I didn’t send you any messages.”

“Then how do you explain this?” Zelda asked, her phone shoved into his face, so close he could barely read the text on the screen. He squinted to try and focus and finally was able to read it. He shrugged as he looked it over.

“Okay, I see it’s my name but I didn’t—”

“You didn’t, what? You mean, you didn’t send me a message that said…” She paused as she glanced at the phone to get the wording. Great, here comes the whore?

“Why the hell would I send that to you?”

The strange part though was that he remembered having that exact thought as he saw her stepping down off the bus. Word for word. Had to be a coincidence though. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to send that to her in a text message, especially since she would know immediately who had sent it. She was more angry than he had ever seen though, and he knew he had to somehow make this right.

“Look,” he said. “I can’t explain why that happened or who sent it. Maybe someone cloned by phone. All I can tell you is that it wasn’t me who—”

“Hey! Brice!” Somehow, Darrel’s voice had the ability to echo, even outside. Brice turned to face him, afraid of what was about to be dropped on him.

“What?”

“You sent me this message?”

Another phone was held before his face and somehow, from the corner of his perception, he could hear the self-satisfied laugh from Zelda.

“I didn’t text you. Why, what does it say?”

She’s back working the morning shift again. Wonder if Darrel knows how much I’d like to get a piece of me inside that piece of a sister he has. 

“Uhhh…” He had no idea even what to say. It was another thought that had broadcast somehow, straight from his head. It was like once he had vocalized it in his mind, it was sent out to the last person he would want to know what he was thinking.

“Uhhh….” Darrel mocked him as he repeated his answer. “What’s the matter, you can only come up with something to say when you’re texting it?”

There had to be an explanation, but what the hell would that even be? The one thing he did know was that he had barely touched his phone over the last hour and he hadn’t sent out any messages. All they had to do was look at his phone and see that the messages didn’t come from him. As he was digging for his phone, the thought popped into his head without him even realizing it was happening.

Got to get this fat fuck to shut the hell up

“Hey!”

He heard the chiming sound of an incoming message. Brice looked up to see Darrel glaring at his phone, sparks practically flying from his ears as he looked up and drew back a meaty fist to strike.

 

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