“Mind if I join you?” the girl from across the bar hollered. She had arrived alone. Kevin had watched her sitting at the bar, trying to catch the bartender in a conversation.
“Seat’s all yours,” replied Kevin, gesturing. They’d been collecting strays all day at their table, what was one more.
She made her way over. “I’m Violet, ” she said, sitting down. She was cute with her dark eyes and short hair. Her clothes were simple but hugged her figure in a pleasing way.
“I’m Kev, these are my buddies Andrew and Len. That’s...” he began, pointing to the girl across the table. Shit, he couldn’t remember her name.
“I’m Kelly,” she said, saving him with a playful look.
“Sorry, that’s Kelly.”
The two girls at the end introduced themselves, letting Kevin off the hook.
“Are you all in the same program?” she asked.
“We are,” Kevin said, flicking a hand between himself, Len and Andrew.
“I’m in economics,” Kelly said and rolled her eyes. Kevin barely knew her name but already had a thorough understanding of her distain for her program.
“You’re in bio-med right?” Andrew asked the two girls at the end, showing them that they weren’t forgotten. Not by him.
They nodded and whispered behind the backs of their hands.
“And how’re you guys gonna die?” she asked, looking around the table.
Kevin was slightly taken aback by the question. It wasn’t unheard of, but they’d just met this woman. It was a bit sudden. Len put down his drink for the first time and the girls at the end stopped talking.
“I just found out. Yesterday,” she said, cheerfully oblivious to the rest of the table.
Kevin shifted forward in his seat. “Yesterday? How old are you?” Her abruptness made more sense.
“21. I’m a late bloomer,” she said with a smirk and shrug.
“Jesus,” said Len. “All this time you had no idea?”
“Nope. So come on, I showed you mine. How will you die?” she asked looking into Len’s eyes.
“Heart attack,” he gave up.
Her eyes moved to the guy sitting beside him.
“I get shot,” he said.
“Wow, that’s dramatic,” Kelly said.
“And you,” Violet asked the next person. They went through the rest of the table, learning all their deaths. It was Violet’s turn, “I’m going to drown.”
Andrew shifted in his seat. Len and Kelly looked away. The two friends at the end of the table exchanged a look. Only Kevin spoke. “Shit....that’s-”
“Yea, I know right?” she said, all the humour gone from her face. “Do you guys ever wonder if maybe it would be better...easier at least, if we didn’t know.”
“Never knowing how you’re going to die?” Len asked.
“Yea, leaving it a mystery,” she said.
“And spending your whole life wondering how it would happen. Worrying every time you jumped out a plane or raced a car, smoked a fucking cigarette?
“Or whenever you got in the car or walked through a dark alley? Sounds fucking awful.”
“I wouldn’t want to live like that. Christ, could you imagine?” Kelly asked. No one spoke for a moment.
“I don’t know,” Kevin finally said.
“Don’t know what?” Len asked.
“How I’ll die. I still don’t know.”
“What? You never told me that.”
“You never asked.” The truth was, he’d never told anyone that he didn’t know. His dirty little secret.
“Cause I assumed...I mean, you’re so much older. How do you not know?”
“How do you know?” Kevin said, defensively turning the question around. No one wanted to be the one to explain it to him.
Violet took a deep breath. “You just...feel it,” she said, looking off somewhere. “When I close my eyes, as I’m falling asleep, I imagine the water all around me, filling me. I suck it into my lungs. It’s there every night. Like an old blanket.”
“But it’s itchy,” one of the girls added.
The rest of them had stopped shifting in their seats. They looked down into their beers or over to the wall. Anywhere but at Kevin while they nodded.
Violet turned her attention back to him. “So what does that mean, then? That you don’t know. Are you lucky?”
“Maybe I’m just a late bloomer too.”
“Maybe it’ll be a surprise.”
“Maybe you’ll live forever,” Violet said sadly.
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