He Decided to Leave

For others, they were just useless drug addicts, but to him, they were his beloved parents. Although they were wrong to get involved in such an immoral activity like drug addiction, they were never irresponsible towards him. They made sure he got shelter, food and education despite having to work hard to make ends meet while doing their expensive useless activity.

Hans was fifteen, a Form Three student in an ordinary daily school situated near his house. The people around knew about his parents being drug addicts and they treated him like he was rubbish. His classmates ignored him; even the teachers were prejudiced towards him. No matter how well he did in school, all they saw was the fact that him being the son of some useless drug addicts.

It was an ordinary day like any other day and Hans sat quietly at his desk. The day had been particularly good for him as no one mocked him or bullied him and he was happy that they ignored him completely. It was better being treated like a shadow than being the subject of humiliation by the people around him.

However, the day didn’t go as well as he had hoped it would be. Suddenly, a prefect, his senior by two years, a Form Five student came to him and grabbed him by the collar and forcefully motioned him to follow him. He went without putting a fight as he was curious to what else did he do now.

Whenever something bad happened; someone’s money was stolen, someone’s new bag was missing, or even someone’s shoes were gone; he was the first suspect to be interrogated by the disciplined teacher like a criminal. They’d take him to the counsellor’s room and asked him questions and won’t even believe even if he answered them truthfully. Everything was getting tiring and Hans didn’t know for how much longer he could swallow the oppression.

‘Why don’t they trust me? No matter what I said, they just pretended to be deaf. What? Am I so wrong to have drug addicts as parents?’

Hans was frustrated and angry at people around him. They were judging him so easily without even listening to his explanation. No matter what he said, they just won’t listen.

‘You’re home! Do you want to eat? I cooked your favourite dishes today.’

Hans went to his mother and hugged her, burying his sullen face into her chest. She returned the hug and caressed the boy’s back affectionately as if knowing that the boy was troubled over something.

‘What’s wrong, sweetheart? Did something happen at school?’

Hans didn’t answer. He kept quiet and just listened to his mother’s heartbeats. He loved that sound, the sound of her heart beating that made him felt safe because he was at home.

‘Nothing, mom. It’s just that I’m tired. I’ve eaten already. I want to go and sleep.’

Nicole kissed his cheek and cupped his face and stared into his eyes. She knew he was troubled, but she didn’t want to force him to tell her about it. If he wanted to tell her, he’ll open up sooner or later.

‘Okay. Rest well, honey.’

Hans was lying on his bed, eyes scanning the white ceiling and walls like they were the most interesting things on earth. He felt weaker as time passed. He could see blood dripping from his wrist and stained the floor. As his eyes turned to darkness, he could see his mom running to him, screaming and wailing wildly to urge him to stay, but he had decided to leave.

Ken's Good Friend

Love was never fated to be his. He knew that fact for sure when his adoptive parents revealed the secret of his birth. They found him at a dumpster and didn’t have the heart to leave him to die. So, they took him in and raised him. 

No wonder they had always been so cold, so indifferent towards him. They were never the good, loving parents for him, but they made sure he got shelter, food and education and he knew that there was nothing for him to complain about. He should be grateful that they took him in despite having to live in such a loveless home. He was fine with it.

Ken’s life was dull and boring and meaningless until the fated meeting with a new friend named Eric happened. The boy was just so stubborn that it made Ken felt intrigued to know more about him; to finally reach out to one soul after so long of being alone.

‘Why are you always so cold?’

The boy was the first one to continuously talk to him at that school. For nearly three years he attended that school, no one was ever so determined to speak to him because he always dismissed them with the meanest words he could utter. He had lived like a shadow and he was fine with it.

However, his peaceful days were gone as soon as Eric stepped into his life. Eric was one hell of a talkative person and ridiculously stubborn! That chap just wouldn’t accept NO as an answer. No matter how mean the words he threw at him, no matter how cold he rejected him, Eric would always harassed him with questions about things and sometimes irritated him more with his attempts to share jokes with him. He was confused with his persistence and didn’t know how to dismiss such a guy.

‘Ken, do you want to eat together?’

He glared at him. Eric just grinned like an idiot and repeated the question. After a few minutes of bickering and arguing, Ken finally sighed in defeat and agreed to have lunch with Eric. He smiled triumphantly and arrogantly as Ken followed his footsteps towards the football field.

Eric took out his homemade lunch and put it in front of Ken. It was spaghetti Bolognese and Ken could feel his mouth drooling over the delicious smell from the food. Eric smiled at his friend and shoved a fork to him that Ken accepted gratefully.

‘Don’t be so cold, man. Life’s too short to live like that.’

They were just sitting and watching some students playing football after they finished the food. Eric decided to talk to Ken and shared the words of wisdom that he’d learnt throughout his life.

‘You don’t know me. Why would you care?’

Eric smiled.

‘Because I believe everyone on earth is precious and they are special just the way they are. But, you... the way you behave, dismissing people, shutting yourself off from the world; it just doesn’t feel right. I want you to see that there’s more to life than what you could feel right now.’

‘You talk too much!’

Eric laughed. Irritation was evident on his new friend’s face and he was amused.

‘I know and YOU talk too little. You should open up, loosen yourself and live your life, dude. You never know when it’s going to end.’

Ken looked at Eric’s face. Something about his spoken words felt off and he felt some strange sensations stirred in his heart. However, he was quick to shake the feelings off as he gazed towards the horizon and the blue sky that he loved so much.

‘Let’s go. Lunch time’s over.’

Ken followed Eric to their classroom. His mind was still busy thinking about Eric’s words.

Whazzup Beautiful People of Planet Earth

Yo, peepoz! Read and enjoy my stories... Comments are appreciated but please, be moderate. I like to read and write and this is an attempt, no, a journey to becoming a great short story writer or so I hope.

Daddy’s Little Girl

It was no ordinary love story; one so beautiful that it made people cry; one so mysterious that it made people curious; one so deeply charming that it made hearts flutter and people drown in the injustice of cruel fate.

‘My dad won’t allow this to happen. He loves me too much to give me to some guy he didn’t know.’

‘But, sweetheart, just for how long he wants to keep you by his side? You’re no little girl anymore. You could as well be someone’s mommy by now.’

She sighed heavily, feeling as if the man in front of her just stabbed her with his words mercilessly. But that was just because his words were so true she’d wished that they weren’t uttered at all.

He took her right hand and intertwined his fingers around it.

‘I’ll go and meet him. I’ll beg him if I have to. I’ll do anything for you.’

She was worried by his determination. She loved him, yes. But her daddy wasn’t like any other daddies. Her daddy had so much love for her that it scared her sometimes.

Her daddy didn’t like to share her love with another person what else if it was some strange man. She was her daddy’s little girl and she knew that he had made the decision to keep it that way for as long as he was still breathing on this planet earth.

‘Just be careful. Don’t cross the line and don’t do anything stupid.’

‘Well, if not being stupid is what you ask of me, then I can’t give you my words. I’ve stopped using my head the moment our eyes met and I’ll gladly be a stupid man if that was what it takes to have you in my arms.’

It was as she had expected; the meeting that was. Her daddy was so furious with this guy named Benjamin who was trying to steal his daughter away from him that his whole face was red tomato. The young lover could almost see steam coming out from his pair of ears.

‘Sir, I am not trying to take her away from you. I was just asking your permission to marry her. I love her and she loves me.’

The old man snorted in Benjamin’s face.

‘Love! What is love? I won’t allow my daughter to be heartbroken over some man’s love! What kind of love can you give her? Can you guarantee that your love would stay as it is now, in… say, ten years’ time?! Answer me, boy!’

Benjamin could feel his feet shaking uncontrollably under the table. He breathed the free air deeply, gathering his thoughts together. He was not yet to give up his love for Juliet by this man’s endless provocation.

‘I can promise you to give her my whole heart and soul. I’d die for her if I have to. I love her very much, Sir.’

Hearing this, the man went out from the living room to somewhere. Benjamin waited nervously. His foolish thoughts were that that man was touched by his sincere confession of love for his daughter, but little did he know that his time was coming to an end.

‘BANG!’

Silence.

Juliet came out from her room and sighed. She could see her daddy smiling, no, smirking watching Benjamin’s limp body that was covered with red blood. The gun was still spouting smoke in his firm grip.

‘He was already the seventh, daddy.’

The man smiled to his little girl and nodded in agreement. No remorse mirrored on his face.

Tastes of Love and Loss

He was never afraid about anything. He lived life as if there was nothing to worry and was happy to live like that. He was satisfied with his current life and could ask no more because he had honey by his side now and he was happy.

‘Honey, I’m home.’

Silence. Dean quickened his pace and went from room to room in search of his honey. His sight failed to capture her image. There was no trace of her. He started feeling uneasy, but he composed himself. It was not the time to be panicked over things that could turn out to be nothing.

‘Honey? Are you playing a prank on me? Come on out, this is not funny.’

Silence invaded the air and it made Dean felt restless. It was so unlike his honey to leave home without saying a word and he was dead worried by now.

He fished for his handphone and tried reaching her just to be disappointed again by the voice of the woman in the machine. He sighed heavily, feeling defeated.

Dean crashed on the couch and lied down. He shut his eyes closed, forcing himself to calm down. He took deep breaths and savoured the blessing of free air. He could feel his tense muscles calmed a little.

If this was before honey, he’d probably be watching television or reading a Dickens’ novel or just shutting his eyes for a while, getting some rest that he always deprived of. But, this was about honey and he had no time to think or do anything else when honey was not in his embrace.

Biting his lips, crossing his fingers, he dialed her number again. Still no answer and he started to cuss himself.Honey had told him and asked him to go with her to the clinic as she was feeling unwell, but he just had to say that he was busy.

Dean smacked his own forehead hard and winced in pain. The pain travelled along his tall frame and made him felt a little bit alive.

The silence started choking the man and he felt suffocated. He didn’t like the feeling at all and it didn’t help that honey was still unreachable.

Dean pictured honey in his mind. He smiled at her beautiful figure, her lovely gaze and her warm embrace as if he could feel all that lulling him to sleep. He was quite satisfied with that little memory of her to comfort himself.

His phone suddenly rang. On the screen, it said ‘honey bunny’. Smiling, he urgently picked it up and answered it expecting it was his honey’s sweet, sugary voice to touch his hearing. However, the voice of the person on the other line made him frown in no time.

The Woman of His Life

He felt at ease in her embrace. Every time he felt troubled or lost, he’d be running to her, looking for comfort in her warm embrace and soothing words. He loved her dearly, not like a love song, baby, but more than words could describe.

She was his happiness, his satisfaction, his world, his everything. That was before she found another man to replace him.

He had felt devastated when she announced her marriage, but being an understanding person that he was, he tried to swallow the fact.

He attended the wedding though his inner self screamed in pain. He hated to see her in another man’s embrace and he despised the fact that there was nothing he could do about it.

How he wished he had some kind of supernatural powers to stop the wedding from happening, but it was not possible. He was just an ordinary person, helpless in the face of fated destiny.

It was hard and quite ridiculous to admit, but he was actually jealous. The feeling intensified every time that man touched her skin, kissed her lips and hugged her slim frame. An unfamiliar rage boiled him and drove him to the point of insanity.

He stood in a corner with his eyes fixed on the newlyweds. He watched them silently and dearly hoped to God that the sight was just a dream. Unfortunate for him, it was a rock solid reality that he could not change.

‘Dean, come here. What are you doing there all alone? Let me introduce you to the new man of my life. You guys will be friends in no time.’

Friends? Friends?! His inner self was battling a crazy war inside. He did not know what to do to her friendly calling, but he could not just ignore her. She was the most important woman in his life and no matter how unwilling he was to accept another man between them, he knew there was nothing he could do.

Hesitantly, Dean walked to the man and woman, both shone brightly in their wedding attires. He gathered his heart’s broken pieces and pulled himself together. Today was an important day for her and Dean did not want to ruin everything.

Dean took the man’s hand and shook it slightly. The man was smiling to him in a friendly way, but Dean felt like he was being stabbed with a dagger. He stared grudgingly at the tall man while trying hard to control himself from exploding in anger.

The woman linked arm with the man while smiling proudly to him. At this moment, it hit him like a slap on his face and he realized that things would never be the same again with the woman of his life.

‘Dean, don’t worry, I promise I’ll take the best care of your mom.’