Writing Prompt Wednesday #17

11. Lessons From Math Class: Write about a math concept, such as “you cannot divide by zero” or never-ending irrational numbers. https://thinkwritten.com/poetry-prompts/

NOTE: I know this is a poem prompt, but I decided to write a short story instead. I know it’s a lot shorter than my usual Writing Prompt Wednesdays, but I think it’s a lot deeper too. Enjoy!

​TW: Death

You can’t divide by zero. It just isn’t possible. You can divide zero by another number, that’s easy. Think about it. If you have zero dollars and eight friends, all eight friends have zero dollars. But if you have eight dollars and no friends, that’s where it gets tricky. It’s just...impossible. So you have to get rid of those eight dollars or make some more friends. It sounds easy, but it isn’t.
Since he died, I’d shoved everyone away. My mom wouldn’t talk to me. My friends wouldn’t wave “hi”. Heck, even my dog wouldn’t come when I called him.
I couldn’t help it that I shoved them away. They all told me it was going to be okay. That I’d get better. Well, what did they know, anyways? This pain ripped a hole in my heart. If something ripped off someone’s leg, you wouldn’t just say, “Oh, it’ll get better. You’ll have a new leg in no time!” It’s crazy. So why are people saying that to me?
I could tell that they’d all gotten better. It made sense. No one was as close with him as I was. No one else went to the park with him every Wednesday to eat ice cream and talk about our lives. No one else was tutored in math by him. No one else looked at him like he was the funniest person on the planet, the only one who could make her laugh. No one else loved him like I did.
And now, I had all of this pain and sadness that I knew would break me if I didn’t do something with it. I needed someone to come in and save me from this torture, but I couldn’t give any of my pain to other people. I was completely alone. And everyone knows you can’t divide by zero.

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