Work Text:
“Try to forget her, try to forget her, try to forget her, try to forget her, try to forget her, try to forget her, try to for…”
RING RING! BEEP!
“Hey! This is Skate, can’t talk right now, bro, probably hittin’ some sick tricks at the moment! Leave a message after the beep, thanks!”
BEEP!
“Um, hey Skate, I uh… it's me, Slingshot. Just, um, w-when you see this, call me back, please… t-thanks.”
The call ended. Slingshot stared anxiously at the phone. She tapped her foot nervously, fidgeting with her hair while staring. The clock ticked, and the constant sound made her feel like her ears would burst at any moment. Her heart raced, time felt slower, and each tick of the clock echoed in her head, it was simply unbearable. She could barely keep herself together, her breath becoming irregular as she felt her throat wouldn’t allow her to breathe. Suddenly, she started coughing, choking on seemingly nothing, but as she coughed more violently, she spat something out. A flower petal. It fell to the floor slowly, landing softly by Slingshot’s feet. Confusion began swarming Slingshot, trying to think of how or when she could’ve swallowed a flower petal. She hadn’t eaten all day, nor had she been near any flower gardens, maybe Vinestaff? She kept thinking, but before long, her focus shifted back towards her phone, once again tapping her foot as she waited.
RING RING! BEEP!
“Hey! This is Skate, can’t talk right now, bro, probably hittin’ some sick tricks at the moment! Leave a message after the beep, thanks!”
BEEP!
“Hi, it's me again, uh… Slingshot. I-I don't know if you saw my message earlier but please just… call me back soon, thanks.”
Slingshot paced back and forth around her room, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. She sat down on her bed, hunched over, her insides twisting and turning themselves into knots. Everything burned, her heart, her lungs, her throat, she kept panicking silently as her mind raced. She kept staring at her phone, waiting for something. She felt a sudden twinge of pain in her finger, flinching and bringing it up to her eye to see what it was, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. Chalking it up to being a finger cramp, she wondered if she even drank any water that day. But before she could get up to get something to drink, she started coughing again, this time more hoarsely. She felt something rise in her throat, as she rushed to the bathroom and threw it up into the toilet. She tried catching her breath as she watched a bloody rose bud plop into the water. “What the hell…?” She asked herself. Was Vinestaff attacking her? Why would she do that? As Slingshot tried to process what happened, she heard her phone ring. She scrambled to collect herself, frantically searching her body before finding her phone and answering the call.
“Hey, Sling! It’s me, Shuri! Me and Vine are at the grocery store, we wanted to know if you wanted anything? I know it's not grocery day but we wanted to get some snacks!”
Slingshot slumped back to the bathroom floor. It was just Shuriken. Not… it’s not him.
“No.”
“Oh, okay! Sorry to bother then, we’ll see you ba-”
Slingshot ended the call, laying her back against the wall. She brought her hands to her face, exhaling shakingly. Vinestaff was at the store with Shuriken. And it wasn’t him who called her. She swallowed, the taste of iron still prevalent in her mouth. Her whole body trembled, she had gotten her hopes up too high, too fast.
RING RING! BEEP!
“Hey! This is Skate, can’t talk right now, bro, probably hittin’ some sick tricks at the moment! Leave a message after the beep, thanks!”
BEEP!
“Skate, uh… *cough* it's me, again. Please, call me back so- *cough**cough*...*cough*. Call me… call me back soon, thanks.”
Still slumped against the bathroom wall, Slingshot kept coughing, her body was crying out in pain as she continued to vomit blood and roses into the toilet, by now she was throwing up nearly fully grown flowers. Her muscles felt stiff, it hurt to even move her hand. Yet even so, she kept checking her phone, hoping he would call back. She panted, her throat on fire, unable to breathe normally. What was she doing? She should be rushing to the hospital, she's never heard of someone coughing up roses before. But, she didn’t do that. Instead, she sat on the bathroom floor, watching her phone, attentively waiting. As she stared weakly, she noticed her hand looked off. Taking a closer look, it turned out, a small stem was poking out her skin. Pulling it out, she observed the stem, its roots, and even the tiny premature leaves branching from it. What was happening… to her? Everything was just so weird, first him, and now these flowers. Her head hurt, and she could barely even think properly. But, despite that, she still just thought of him, and she still just stared at her phone.
RING RING! BEEP!
“Hey! This is Skate, can’t talk right now, bro, probably hittin’ some sick tricks at the moment! Leave a message after the beep, thanks!”
BEEP!
“Please… call me… p-please…”
Roses were growing all over her, covering her in green and red, branches wrapped around her limbs as she lay in the same slumped pose; motionless. Her breath was slow, blood staining her mouth. Her phone rested in her hands, facing her. The dim light of the bathroom and her phone illuminated the ghastly sight she had become. She stared at the phone, unable to move or do anything else. Her mind had started to decline, flowers and shrubbery clouding her brain; branches and leaves leaking out her ears. All she knew, as her eyes remained fixated on her phone, was that she needed him to call back. She wanted to talk to him, just once. To hear him speak to her directly, and converse with her. That was all she asked. Yet, no call came through. Her left eye burst open in a bloody pop, a flower growing in its place. She didn’t so much as flinch, for she could feel no longer, she just kept staring at her phone with her remaining eye, her thumb hovering stiffly over it. “Skate…board…” She called out his name faintly, the branches constricting even tighter around her body, as she could feel her last eye pop and get replaced with another flower. Her breath, already faint, started slowing down even more. As she started to lose herself, she felt something vibrate in her hand. And as she thought about what it could be, she took her final breath. She would never know. Her body stopped functioning altogether, now a Slingshot-shaped rose bush, a reminder of who she once was and what she’ll now always be.
RING RING! BEEP!
“Hello! Slingshot here, if you're hearing this, I'm probably busy right now, sorry! Please leave me a message after the beep, thank you!
BEEP!
“Sling, it’s me, Skate, I just heard your voicemail. Are you okay?”
“I just hope to God you saved my number, call me when you can.”