Fiction

The Coffee Shop

One too many people

Photo by Narissa de Villiers on Unsplash

The coffee shop was more crowded than it should have been at that time of the day.

I thought for sure the lunch rush would be over, but luckily I found a spot in the corner so I slid into the chair and played on my phone while I waited for Kyle.

We met at this time every year, and had been doing so for the last twenty five years. Well, the first couple years weren’t our choice, our parents did it. But then by the time we were four we wanted to spend today together.

It was our thing.

It was also our birthday.

I was sitting pretending to have people to talk to when Kyle finally showed up.

“Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, I know I’m late,” he said, rushing to his seat. Kyle had the permanent look of someone who was always two steps behind, with his rumpled clothes and eternally tousled hair. Even indoors he looked like he was caught in a windstorm.

“Please, if you showed up on time I’d die of shock.”

“Funny. Considering the day.”

Leave it to Kyle to kill the mood.

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“Probably a good idea.”

“What’d you get?” I asked, pointing to his cup.

“I don’t know, I think it was the special. There was a lot of whipped cream though and that’s all that matters.”

“You really do love ruining coffee don’t you?”

“Not everyone is a hipster about everything.”

“I’m not a hipster.”

Kyle raised his eyebrow.

“Most of the time.”

“Besides, I hate coffee. I only come here to see you.”

“Well that’s adorable.”

“Shut up you know what I meant.”

“I do. Besides today’s the big one.”

“It really is. Have you been thinking about it at all?”

“It’s funny when we were kids we talked about this all the time. We kept making plans, and then for years I just let it go. It seemed so far off. But the last few weeks it’s all I could think about. I haven’t slept in days.”

“God me either. Shall we do it?”

I nodded and we both pulled out a red envelope that came from the government that morning. One was sent to everyone on their 25th birthday.

You see, a few years ago, someone had a brilliant idea to get the population under control.

On your 25th birthday you were assigned a person, and they got your name as well. You had a year to get the job done or you’d both be terminated. The only rule was that there couldn’t be any collateral damage. Other than that you were pretty much on your own.

The person that survived got to keep living and the government kept the population under control.

Today was the day we’d get the name.

I’d often wondered who I’d get.

We tore our envelopes open at the same time.

My heart nearly stopped.

I was looking down at Kyle’s name. My best friend. I couldn’t form words.

But that wasn’t the most shocking thing.

I looked up to see Kyle holding a gun.

“Sorry man,” was all he said.