Irish pranced away, leaving Cali no time to refuse. Reluctantly, she stepped inside the booth, pleasantly surprised that it was clean with cool air blasting from the vent. There was a small counter, so she placed her purse on top.
“Why am I in here?” she whispered, rubbing her sweaty palms down her legs.
Cali sat in silence, trying to talk herself out of leaving the booth. Then, Irish’s voice replayed in her mind. She told herself that she would do it for her, so she reached for the receiver and placed it up to her ear.
“Hello?”
The tone on the other end was soothing.
“Hello?”
“Hi, how are you?”
Cali cleared her throat, pressing her lips together. This felt so strange to her; talking to a stranger about issues she had brought on herself. Yeah, she wasn’t feeling it.
“You know what? I’m sorry, this ain't for me.”
“What? Talking to someone?”
“No, just… I guess talking to a stranger about my problems.”
“Well, how about this? We introduce ourselves and share one fact about each other. That way, we won’t be considered strangers anymore. How does that sound?”
“Uhh, I guess.”
“Well, I’ll go first. My name is Carrie, and I went to an HBCU for college. Howard University to be exact.”
“Howard, huh?” She smirked. “I wanted to go to an HBCU but attended Georgetown.”
“Wow, that’s still a good school.”
“Yeah, it was cool.” Cali shrugged, looking down at her bare nails. Before the divorce, she wouldn’t have been caught without her nails done. “I didn’t have any complaints.”
“What’s your name?”
“Calia.”
“So, you're Calia and you went to Georgetown for college. What did you study?”
“I studied foundational sciences and math then spent two years at Columbia for engineering.”
“Wow, that’s impressive. I love seeing women in STEM. It’s really cool.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you a little more comfortable than you were five minutes ago?”
“Um, I’m okay. Not completely comfortable though.”
“I can’t help but notice the sadness in your tone, Calia. Do you wanna tell me about that?”
Suddenly, water flooded Cali’s eyes. She’d cried enough tears to fill an ocean.
“I’m just…” She sniffled. “I’m so mad at myself right now.”
Cali could no longer hold her cry inside. Tears dripped down her skin as she closed her eyes. The amount of hatred she possessed for herself was dangerous. This had to be what people felt before they committed suicide. She used to judge people who took their own lives. Cali foolishly thought those people were selfish but now she understood it. They just wanted the pain to cease.
“And why are you mad at yourself?” Carrie quizzed.
