Story Time

This is another story that has poetry and prose. I actually wrote this in creative writing class. I was assigned the poetry part (which is in italics), and it’s a quote by Shel Silverstein. I’ve been getting really positive feedback on my short stories so I’m going to keep posting them. This may actually be the last story I have already written to post because the others I wrote in creative writing are just way too long. I really hope you all enjoy this, and tell me what you think! I am working on more stories, but since I’ve always been more of a poetry girl, it may be a bit of a wait.

 

 

My ears popped as I shot out of the water like a bullet. “I touched the bottom! I went all the way down!” I shouted with a dopey smile on my face. No one can swim better than me. Everyone knows it too. When it comes time to pick swim buddies, every camper sprints to my side because they know I’ll take them out all the way to the edge of the deep.

She had blue skin

            “Get back from the rope!” a shrill whistle shatters my ears. Okay, maybe I went a little beyond the rope, but I was underwater, how was I supposed to know they could see me all the way out here. I don’t even know why there’s a rope, I should be allowed to swim all the way across the lake because I’m that good.

And so did he

“Buddy check!” a counselor screams. I roll my eyes back till it hurts and then do a quick spin to find Jonny. He’s the fastest kid in all the camp. Everyone wants him on their team when it’s relay day, but he isn’t the best swimmer, so I left him back in the middle area.

He kept it hid

“Jonny! Get over here, it’s buddy check time,” I said while tilting my head to the side to drain the water. “Jonny?” I looked all around and saw that everyone else had found their buddy and was standing with their arms locked and in the air like champions. I didn’t see Jonny anywhere.

And so did she

            Panic crammed its way down my throat like lake water when you dive with your mouth open. I always find my buddy. I’ve been coming to camp every year since forever, and I’ve never lost my buddy. I start frantically waving my arms in the air and screaming “Jonny! Jonny!”

They searched for blue

            Lifeguards swan dived off their tall thrones and began the search. All the kids climbed up the ladder and on to the dock. All the kids except me, I wasn’t leaving Jonny behind. I aimed my head down and blew air out of my nose as I went down to the dark bottom of the lake.

Their whole life through

            My arm smacked into something hard and cold. It’s an anchor and wrapped around the anchor was string, no not string. Jonny’s long brown hair was tangled around the chain of this old anchor. As scream bubbled out of my mouth as I finally felt his squishy arm.

Then passed right by-

            My ears popped as I shot out of the water like a bullet.

And never knew

            I stopped swimming that day, but years later and I swear there’s still water in my ear.

-AcuteAnimosity

Wow

Seven people liked my last post. That may seem so small to other people, but it’s huge to me. I’m going to post another short story because the last got a pretty good reception for a blog as small as mine. I do have to warn you though, this story can be a little triggering to anyone who has experienced abuse or have someone close to them who has experienced it. I would absolutely love to hear from you guys, so leave a comment telling me what you think about my story. Here goes nothing and everything.

Sitting in my Chair

            I am the best at not flinching in my entire school. Kids on the playground clap in my face, but I don’t move. Older kids jump at me in the hallway, but nothing can make me step back, eyes closed, scared. It’s my favorite talent.

Another slaps goes across my face. I sit as still as silence. My talent is more useful than just being a cool trick.

“What did I tell you? You just have to disobey me, don’t you?” His big hand finds my face in the dark again. My face is red and wet like the spaghetti sauce on my white cotton shirt. I only made it pink and blotchy by scrubbing at it in the sink at Olive Garden. I thought I could fix it. I always think it’s that easy, but it never is.

“All I wanted was a nice, family dinner, and you embarrassed me like this? You think that’s okay? You can’t even eat without acting like a pig.” My hands grip the bottom of my chair. I’ve worn little bumps into my chair from holding it so hard.

Little bumps pop up on daddy’s face too. I connect them with the dots in my eyes and make pictures. A red horse, a red house, a red mouse. Mama keeps reminding me about daddy’s name. The one that we all carry. We have to keep his name clean. Mama always protects daddy; she really loves him.

I start humming the song we learned in school. I love school more than tv and ice cream. Mrs. Wilson looks like the teacher from Matilda. She’s pretty and sings lightly in class-

“Shut up!” Daddy doesn’t like when I make too much noise, but I keep humming. It’s a soft song, and I memorized it so easy because it rhymes. Mrs. Wilson taught us all about rhymes. Wrong and song, Stop and plop, and No and go.

“I’ll shut you up,” he says and mama looks at me. It’s the first time all night. She used to leave the room when I had to sit in my chair, but now she stands in the corner and traces the floor with her foot. She sees me for a second, just a second, before she turns and leaves the room, always protecting daddy.

He holds my shoulders. I shake back and forth and back and forth and back. My head bobs for apples in the air, and I come up with nothing. Nothing and no one is here. There’s no daddy or mama, and there’s no me.

I don’t open my eyes, but I feel my chest go up and down. I don’t even have to move. Mommy whispers for me to just rest. I see nothing again. The long beep doesn’t touch me because I am already gone. It’s almost like I was never here.

-AcuteAnimosity

Something New

A friend has encouraged me to post a short story of mine so um, yeah, here it is. The things in italics are song lyrics.

Girls like Us

          The trees blur as we fly. Our headlights clear our path and protect us like the Light of God. Laughter forces its way out of my throat and it burns my liquor stained insides. My eyes can see everything that’s ever happened on this backroad. I watch the sloppy, late night make out sessions that fog the windows of high schoolers’ crappy cars and the hippies smoking pot in their RVs. He looks at me with a smile that could make a sober girl drunk and flings his hand into my direction. I grasp it with any strength I have in my loose body.

We’ve broken our mirrors

Sunday morning is every day for all I care

And I’m not scared

Light my candles in a daze

Cause I’ve found God

The radio blares, but I don’t even hear it. I’m too busy listening to the sound of our breath as it accelerates in time with the car. He hears the music because his hand leaves a gaping hole in mine as he reaches for the dial. He flips it like a quarter and it lands on heads.

Nothing to prove and I’m bulletproof and

Know what I’m doing

The way we’re movin’ like introducing

Us to a new thing

I wanna savor, save it for later

The taste of flavor, ’cause I’m a taker

‘Cause I’m a giver, it’s only nature

I live for danger

I’m not sure if he’s driving slowly or if I’m living in slow motion, but it makes me feel warm like hit of crystal. It makes me crave more, so I reach back for my piece. He rewards me with another smile, he must’ve been feeling it too. I’m handed a lighter from the glovebox, and it isn’t long before I feel the heat of a first inhale. He holds his big hand out expectantly. This time I’m the one reaching for the radio. My hip glides across the dial while I hand him the light bulb-pipe and a kiss on his cheek.

We live where the war is raging

Chasing our crazy dreams

Hoping that the bridge won’t cave in

Tonight we let it all go free

He rubs my kiss off his face. I get sloppy when I’m high. He leans his head back and so do I. My head feels too heavy to keep balanced on my thin, purple neck. I flick open my passenger mirror and wince at the sudden light that assaults my bloodshot eyes. I look like hell. My charcoal eyeliner is pasted in a watercolor river down my face. I hadn’t realized I was crying.

But I don’t care what they say

I’m in love with you

They try to pull me away

But they don’t know the truth

My heart’s crippled by the vein

That I keep on closing

You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding love

He keeps switching stations. He gets frustrated easily and the parties bring that out. Even mad, he’s my sun, and I can’t help but stare. He slurs something that sounds like “I love you babe,” and I melt. It’s the first song we listen too fully, and we croak out the lyrics, or at least the ones we remember. It’s beautiful, and everything is red and pink like the drug store discount isle on February 15th.

Feelin’ lit, feelin’ light, 2 AM summer night.

I don’t care, hand on the wheel, driving drunk, I’m doin’ my thing

Rollin the Midwest side and out livin’ my life getting’ out dreams

People told me slow my roll I’m screaming out f-

The next song starts and I slam the dial to turn it off. The silence devours the car. I hear him push the gas pedal down further. He hates the silence, especially during a high. He says people talk too much in the silence. I don’t hear it, but he’s always experienced life more fully that I have. He jerks the wheel to the left, and the car lurches in the same direction to catch up. I rush to the radio dial and give it a spin.

Gina dreams of running away

When she cries in the night

Tommy whispers,

“Baby, it’s okay, someday…”

His eyes are closed. I slap his face and in return I get a slap back. It’s only fair. I keep seeing her die. The girl at the party, but she was shooting more than we are. She was in so much pain, but I saw the smirks in her eyes. I pushed the corners of her mouth up to match. For a minute it was a mirror. Sirens stabbed the party, and I was running to the car. I never had the chance to find out her name. The sirens in my memory materialize. Our dream shatters. Red and blue blurs and melts in my vision. The colors drip down my makeup river, but we don’t slow down.

Don’t make me sad, don’t make me cry

Sometimes love is not enough and the road gets tough

I don’t know why

Keep making me laugh

Let’s go get high

The road is long, we carry on

Try to have fun in the meantime

‘Cause you and I

We were born to die

I wonder if the officer can hear the music too. I hear each note like how Beethoven would listen to his own masterpieces if he could’ve been given a cochlear implant. I know what he’s doing. I sing with Lana Del Rey and hope that I’m saying the right words. I’ve never felt a song so deeply in my bones. I reach for his hand one last time as he drags the wheel to the right. All in the same second the road vanishes. It’s replaced by Mother Nature, she sends tree roots out to catch us. She wants to bring me home. The radio still plays while we race into the woods. My heart has never worked so fast, all this time and it turns out the greatest high is the one that death brings. Glass flies past my eyes and metal crunches on all sides of me. Warm blood flows freely from our still-intertwined hands. The radio has died, but so have I. I still hear the music, the songs my mother sang to me.

The day she died the neighbors came to snicker

“Well, that’s what comes from too much pills and liquor”

But when I saw her laid out like a Queen

She was the happiest corpse, I’d ever seen

What good’s permitting some prophet of doom

To wipe every smile away

Life is a cabaret, old chum

So come to the cabaret

I wonder if they will even tell her what’s become of her daughter. I wish I could tell her what waits behind the corner of death for girls like us, but there isn’t any time left. I hold the music in my child-like hands and wait.

 

 

Lithium Nirvana, Livin on a Prayer Bon Jovi, Dangerous Woman Arianna Grande, Light it Up Major Lazer, Bleeding Love Leona Lewis, Born to Die Lana Del Rey, Cabaret Liza Minnelli

That’s a list of the songs in the story (not in order). Okay so um, please tell me what you think of it. I didn’t plan on ever putting up any short stories, but if you guys like them, I have more that I can share.

-AcuteAnimosity