Short Story

What did you just do?? Do you have a death wish?! What are you thinking you psychopath??!!? (Get’s into The Girl's face) The Girl: (remains neutral)

Wes 1's mom threatened that if he kept slacking off, she would send him to military school.

I sulked into the bathroom and started to get ready for school when Tiana waltzed in to brush her teeth. I scanned her outfit, and found she had on a light blue dress with plaid for the skirt of it. She wore black leggings, and as I looked closer, I find that the bottom of her leggings were scrunched up, as if they’re too long for her. I turn my head, thinking nothing of it. Then it hits me like a bus. She’s wearing my leggings!

Driving back to my Grandma's had become the norm due to the lack of wi-fi at my house and minor, yet constant disagreements between my stepfather and I. Owning a gray Jetta that sparkled once it hit sunlight, had an aux cord to play music that changed as much as my mood, and worked perfectly fine filled me with gratitude every time I started up its engine. On May 11 my dismal playlist blared from the partially rolled down windows in the car as a few humble tears rolled down my cheeks. This day pressed hard on my chest knowing my biological father should have turned another year older, not stuck at a young 32. Life happens and you have to keep going; however, I could have never predicted singing "If I die young" by The Band Perry and having

“Twenty-one! The Chief’s vote makes it twenty-one! And by God if that ain’t a majority I’ll eat my hat!” “Yippee,” Cheswick yells. The other Acutes are coming across toward me. “The meeting was closed,” she says. Her smile is still there, but the back of her neck as she walks out of the day room and into the Nurses’ Station, is red and swelling like she’ll blow apart any second.

Cosmetics was my own yellow paint. Growing up with a mole in the center of my left cheek was burdensome. With one glance, the first detail I assume others remember about me is that very mark on my cheek that is quite difficult to miss. I used to apply layers of makeup on early in the morning before school. Hours away from when school actually starts, I’m situated at my vanity with the various products of artificial beauty laid out in front of me: concealer, foundation, powder, eyeliner, eyeshadow, highlight. Because my grandmother did not believe in makeup, I would utilize my own lunch money to purchase them. This makeup was my mask, concealing my flaws and hiding my natural beauty. It didn’t do anything for my confidence because that mask only made me feel

Remus, seeing strait through the fake interest growled and let Moony take over his mind. He said nothing but instead rammed into the door. He bounced off it and went to do it again, this time he let his magic aid him and swirl around him as he came in contact with the sturdy wood.

constantly picked flies out of my milk pail and had to be careful that one wouldn’t land in my opened mouth. I once killed a fly by smashing it between my lips. I became desensitized to the tingling of their legs dashing up and down my skin. Maybe that’s how I built up an immune system that tolerated germs and made me less susceptible to getting sick. Like how a child would hold out a finger for a butterfly to land on, I would do that same with my hundreds of fly friends. The continuous buzzing sound of the flies throughout the farm almost became therapeutic to me.

There are some days when I wake up in the morning and I am upset with what I see. In the mirror, there are my ears that stick out, my eyebrows that do not have the perfect shape, my skin that isn’t as smooth anymore as it used to be. I spend at least thirty minutes to a whole hour trying to fix all the problems that I think is wrong with me. I look in the mirror, and I’m happy. Heck, I even smile a little, but not too much because I don’t want to think about how it’s not “a natural face”. I wasn’t born like this. Me, fixing my problems has one word -- Makeup. The technology of makeup enhances our other features to create an unrealistic “natural face”, but at the end of the day it all comes off, and I see who I really am -- vulnerable, insecure, scared, and hurt. In my own way, makeup is protection; protection from all of the negative words that were bestowed on me. I remember the names they called me, every detail I could explain, but I won’t. I’m not here to depress you.

“I’m sure they do, hyung! Look at me. You never, for once, called me your friend but I’m still here,” Yeah, but you’re Baekhyun, the only thing brighter than the sun, “Just go and apologize.”

Mh'ale wasn't like the other stars. He was dark, cold, with no light of own to brighten his way through life. The others, so beautiful and radiant and brimming with energy, had no love for the freakish thing that inhabited the Nothing with them. Mh'ale envied and despised them in equal measure, and would weep and wail miserably when they taunted him, the tears puddling and pooling all around. The stars paid no heed to his misery; they were too perfect to cry, and didn't understand why the ugly little star was drowning himself. He only ever felt happy when he was bathed in light, but no matter how hard he begged, the stars refused to share the gifts that came to them so naturally. They teased and taunted him, allowing slight flickers

He watches as she shivers like a leaf and keeps her smirk under shuddering lips.

“Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.” Gwyneth Paltrow touches on what life is all about, accepting your flaws, but not being afraid to rock that lipstick. I had just got done doing my daily routine of grooming and put down the mascara tube. With one more glance in the mirror to appreciate the look I had created. I headed to class. When I sat down in my seat and begin settling in, a fellow classmate leans in to passively mention how boys usually like the more natural look and how she could never waste that much time on getting ready. While my confidence about the choice to apply a smoky eye decreases fast, I look away to see the girl next to me with the same exact look. I start to realize my not so original makeup is more common than I thought. Now, most people may be fine with looking for others for approval about the way we wear clothes or apply make up, or lack there of, more Americans should experience how makeup can make you feel when you look in the mirror and not what others say. Additionally, make up is a creative way to express your-self and find it to be better in an enhanced face than a naked one.

“Sofrias must burn the dead within two days and we are too weak to do this after the last battle.”

“What, you don’t understand what I’m saying, you should’ve learned some English before coming to America, or are Asians all deaf? She laughed. “N*gga, they are probably all deaf.”