When Cellphones Go Crazy

By Jeremy Bursey

Avery Ward has had limited success with relationships in his twenty-something years on earth, and they all had ended in disaster, including his most recent engagement to the straying Allison. As a student in psychology and a counselor-in-training, he feels it's important to analyze the mistakes of his past before embarking on those same mistakes in the future; it's the reason he's careful about the chances he takes. So, when he sees Melissa, the girl of his dreams, at a fraternity party one night, he calculates the risk in talking to her, deciding if she may or may not be crazy. But his limited exposure to examples of such high-class beauty overrides any sensibility he might have about holding back, so he goes in for the conversation. And, for a solid sixty seconds, he is enraptured by her words, her voice, and her stunning physical form. Bonus: She doesn't seem the least bit out of her mind. But, like the best things he finds in life, his moment of bliss is cut short when her cellphone rings and she disappears into the night to tend to her call. He attempts to find her again before the party ends to finish their conversation, but he has no luck. His dream girl has gotten away.

Fortunately for his aching heart, serendipity has either a sense of humor or a need for answers, so many months later, fate brings Avery and Melissa back together in a new place. But will she remember him if he tries to get her attention? And will he even have the guts to talk to her again after having such ill luck with others in the past? And can they reconnect in spite of the incessant cellphone alerts causing an interruption to Avery's quest?

Thanks to a friend's advice, Avery decides to pursue his dream girl no matter the risk. But thanks to the mistakes of that same friend, Avery Ward is about to embark on a journey that could cause him to lose more than just a chance at meeting his dream girl. Once again he has to assess the risk and decide if this one's worth gambling with fate and if fate will even allow him to fulfill that second attempt at initiating love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeremy Bursey
• Release date: Jul 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310375736

Jeremy Bursey

Jeremy Bursey is the author of many short stories, essays, and poems, along with a modest number of novels and screenplays, each covering topics and genres that differ from what he had written previously. He hopes to bring many of these into the ebook generation over the course of the next few years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Central Florida and currently works at a local college as a writing tutor. He appreciates feedback for anything he offers to the public.

Book preview

When Cellphones Go Crazy

A short story

by Jeremy Bursey

Copyright © 2015 by Jeremy Bursey

All rights reserved.

zippywings.wordpress.com

Smashwords Edition

E-book edition: 1.1

ISBN: 9781310375736

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this e-book. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite e-book retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

No part of this text may be reproduced in any other work without giving credit to the author. No part of this text may be used for commercial purposes, except by reviewers or critics, without the author’s permission. The complete text is intended for personal use only and may not be used for commercial purposes, or duplicated in any other form for purposes other than personal, noncommercial use, or posted to any other site without the author’s permission.

Contents

Before You Buy

PART ONE: Veni

PART TWO: Vidi

PART THREE: Vici

Author’s Note

Ebook Version

About the Author

Other Books

Contact and Questions

Before You Buy

Thank you for checking out When Cellphones Go Crazy. Before you buy this edition, I wanted to let you know that there is a newer, more official version of the story called When Cellphones Make Us Crazy, available at all of the usual retailers.

I updated the story because I thought the original story (the one you’re looking at now) didn’t have a strong enough resolution to the main conflict and was missing some important backstory to make the characters’ motivations more sensible. The newer version addresses those issues. So, if you would rather read the whole story in its full context, then please check that one out instead.

This version still exists mainly for those readers who want a shorter story and a different ending.

PART ONE: Veni

When he briefly met Melissa at the university party last semester, Avery Ward collapsed from the wave of deep smit overpowering him. Whether those supercharged feelings surged at him through her laugh or her smile, he couldn’t tell, but they hit his stomach full force with the weight of iron, keeling him over onto the backroom sofa. Melissa was enchanting from head to handbag, like an adult-sized pixie fluttering up from the depths of a mirror-calm spring. He couldn’t avoid his eminent infatuation with her, or the punch to his gut that her telekinetic beauty had given him. And he didn’t want to.

As he prostrated across the couch, nervous of the words filling in his mind, he resolved, somehow, to speak to her again before the night ended. After a violent season of heartbreak, he needed her intoxicating face to numb his pain and her warm touch, assuming she was warm, to bring him back to the living. Although she was woman, like the beast that had mauled him in August, she was also soft. For that, he had to believe in her sensibility—that her first sixty seconds of cozy amiability, before she had gotten that call on her cellphone, were genuine.

Therefore, once he finally found the courage