Rising Stars Blog

Persuasive Dialogue

“Give me your phone.”

“No. Nope, absolutely not. Never in a thousand years.”

She looked at me, skepticism written all over her face.

“Look. I need to call my brother. Can I please just use your phone?”

“Hmm. Well, you do have to call your brother somehow...better find another way.”

I groan, sliding down the wall before hitting the ground. I’ve got to get to my brother. I’ve got to let him know what happened.

“Why exactly do you need to call him anyway?”

“It’s not your business!” I shout, before immediately feeling guilty. I need her help if I want to tell my brother anything. “I’m sorry. Really. But I just can’t talk about it.”

She slides down beside me, resting her hand on my knee. “You can tell me.”

I sigh, leaning back and closing my eyes. “It’s a long story. You don’t want to hear it, I promise.”

“Try me. We’ve got time.”

I push myself up, starting to pace. My footsteps echo weirdly loud on the tiled linoleum. She’s still on the floor, fidgeting with the rings on her fingers.

“Caleb? What happened?”

Her words hit me like a slap in the face. She knows my name. How?

“How do you know my name?” I ask abruptly. “Who are you?”

“What’d you mean?”

“I mean what I said. How. Do. You. Know. Me.” I say dragging each syllable out.

“I don’t.”

“You do. You called me Caleb.”

“Did I?” She comes to stand beside me, eyebrows raised. “Sorry.”

“Answer the question.”

“Answer mine first.”

“Fine. I need to call my brother because I’m concerned about him. He wasn’t doing well when I last checked in on him. Nothing really happened, I just needed to call him to check in. Happy?”

“Alrighty then.” She tosses her phone over to me, the calling app already waiting for number input.

“Can you answer my question now?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“I already gave you my phone. Isn’t that answer enough?”