“we’re doing to do great,” hades said to cerby, unconvincingly. cerby looked up at him from where he was curled up beneath the seat outside the gate. he looked extremely unimpressed in his service dog vest. he usually didn’t wear it, basically because hades was embarrassed to have a service dog, even though multiple doctors were like dude trust us, you need this, even after he had a full blown panic attack on a flight to chicago and had to be escorted off the plane by an old woman who kept calling him “sweet turkey.”
cool guys didn’t have service dogs for their anxiety. they just like, ate steak and drank too much.
whatever. cerby curled up at his feet and rested his massive head on hades’ knee and hades did his breathing exercises and focused on petting cerby instead of being in a giant, fragile tin can hurtling through space toward a woman who was definitely going to see through his bullshit and dump him.
hades breathed in. he breathed out.
my moms gonna hate you lol, persephone texted. i’ll pick you up at arrivals!!
something sick turned over in hades’ stomach. he didn’t want to fly. he didn’t want to go to south carolina and pretend to be some tough guy that persephone’s mother would disapprove of. he didn’t want to watch her realize that he was just a shy nerd who happened to have broad shoulders. he didn’t want her to ever realize that’s what he was.
why was he doing the worst thing in the world just to get his heart stamped on by a girl who’d never really wanted him in the first place?
the gate lady said, “we are now inviting anyone who needs extra time to board,” and “first class passengers, you are now welcome to board,” and “all our comfort plus passengers,” and “economy class,” and “final boarding call,” and then the plane was taking off and cerby was blinking at him, slow and disappointed.
-
where are you? she texted.
is everything ok?
hades what the fuck
dude you can dump me if you want but give me a sign of life or something!! i’m worried!!
HADES
he posted a photo to instagram of cerby sitting at the bar on one of the stools. she replied in a message: wow. ok. you’re an asshole.
and that was it.
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