Flash Fiction: Backup

This was written for Carrot Ranch’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Each week’s challenge is to write to a prompt in exactly 99 words. This week’s prompt is “backup or back up.” My mind wants to go to the sci-fi trope of backing up one’s consciousness and transferring it to a new body or the police trope of rushing into a situation without waiting for backup. I think I’m tired. I’m going to try to steer away from the tropes and find another path.

Backup

It was her smile that caught my eye. She started the conversation, which is great for a shy guy. She grabbed my phone out of my hand and typed in her number. I fell fast and hard.

The texts stopped abruptly. I tried a few more times, but she didn’t respond.

I ran into her friend a little later. She told me she’d been seeing someone.

It turns out, she never really wanted me. All along, it was him she wanted. I was just a backup.

She broke my heart and knocked me down, but I’m getting back up.