Zeroes (Super Short Story)

'It's just, I've heard you repeat this issue for the like, tenth squillion kajillionth time,' she said exasperatedly, throwing her hands up in a helpless gesture.

Whenever Stacey started adding mathematical amount descriptives into her sentences, I always took the first number spoken as the safe guide and subtracted all the zeros at the back.

For some reason or another, she loved to make her emphasis known through numbers. The nastier side of me would sometimes wonder if she was just trying to make herself sound more intellectual.

'It makes me feel like, alot richer you know,' she would say, half-joking and half-dead serious, 'Like if I said I have a bazillion gadzillion dresses, it would sound like I really do have a lot more than I actually have ...'

Then her voice would turn all wistful and she'd start squinting at her cupboard painfully hard; as though staring long enough would magically produce countless of dresses.

Still, zeros or no zeros, ten times was still quite a high number. I did not intend on repeating myself like a broken down radio to my best friend.

Sighing dramatically, more for her benefit than mine, I agreed with her.


Problems like these are best left in my mind to fester.