Words of Comfort

Words of Comfort

Sketchbooks and writings. That’s exactly how they conversed.

Of course, his room is directly in front of her window was the reason of their unique way of conversing. And fate had it, his window faced hers too.

She’d start the conversation. Always. But the initial message will almost always lead to hour-long chats.

“How was your day today?” she wrote.

He would always grin at her, wave, then wrote his answer. Always.

But not that day. He scowled at her as if she had wrote some disgusting insult. With a last leering glare, he drew the curtains and then the lights were turned off.

.

The next night, she expected the same treatment. But what she expected and what she got were two very different things.

He initiated the conversation.

“Sorry about last night.”

She wrote down her answer and added purple stars around her words. “S’okay.”

“Yesterday was terrible,” he wrote.

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really, I don’t wanna get irritated again.”

“When you want to, I’m always here,” she wrote.

She smiled at him through her window. A sweet smile, with her lips turned upwards that made her cheeks colour pink and her light blue eyes sparkle with childlike innocence.

She smiled at me.

And there was only one thought that ran through my mind: No matter how bad things get, whenever I see your smile things seemed to feel so much better already.

I drew my answer back at her.

“ツ     Thanks.”

 - Aug 2010

Passing Permanent Ache

She awoke.

Headache,

Throbbing against her skull like a rhythmic tribal drumbeat.

It will soon pass.

-

She sat up, her hand to her head.

She shut her eyes.

Waves of pain,

Everywhere.

A champagne bottle lay on the foot of her bed.

Empty, except for a single drop on the mouth.

Hungover?

Most probably.

-

She staggered to her feet.

Headed towards the toilet.

Looked at herself in the mirror.

Just as she expected.

Disheveled hair,

Blotched skin,

Dry lips,

Puffy eyes.

She had been crying.

She struggled to remember what happened.

The champagne’s effect was working

Her mind was blank.

A clean empty state.

-

Until she remembered him.

The tears came

Slowly

Forming in her eyes

And rolling down her cheeks.

She clasped her hands to her mouth.

Everything came back

And her tears kept falling.

She wanted to forget.

But the memories were there

To stay.

-

Headache,

Throbbing against her skull like a rhythmic tribal drumbeat.

It will soon pass.

Heartache,

Crushing her weakened heart into a million pieces.

That will stay.

 -2010

Spring’s Warmth and Winter’s Chill

Spring’s Warmth and Winter’s Chill

Winters, in Haruki’s opinion were anything but comfortable—all the cold harsh snow; all the rough blizzards that were more frequent than the delicate snowfall; all those sunless and gloomy days.

This year’s winter was nothing special. In fact there were winds up to 90kph and frozen rain pelting the cold pavements.

Haruki didn’t like it.

But there was always her Tatsuya and there was hot chocolate and that made her ice cold winters as warm and as pleasing as spring.

And those reasons are good enough to make Haruki bear the icy weather. 

-4 Dec 2009

Being Just Alright

 Bits Before: Wrote this for a friend, Ai, who told me about her crush.

Being Just Alright

It was supposed to be a simple Saturday, where we celebrate the homecoming of our old friend, Nae. It was supposed to be just the six of us at our favourite hang out, The Cube. It was supposed to be just us.

But then I saw you.

When we were kids, I frequented to your house, much too regularly. You were my neighbor—living right beside my house. I would climb up the fence and scream hi to you from above. You would grin back and invite me to come in to your house.

We played PlayStation together, always. Each week, at least four times. You and I would work together, jumping over deep caverns and shooting evil turtles with a fireball. Then I would just watch while you shoot shuffling zombies with unrivaled skill and incomparable accuracy.

You called me Mee, just to irk me; even if I screamed that I hated that name. You grinned and continued chanting it until I burst into tears and ran off to my house. Tomorrow, you would always come over with a sheepish smile on your face, saying you needed a zombie-killing partner. I would forgive you at that moment itself and rush off to your house.

We were six at that time.

I wonder if you’d call me Amelia now for once.

I wonder if you remember any of that silly nonsense we did?

I wonder even if you remember me?

Our eyes met.

You smiled.

My heart melted.

You shuffled towards me. My friends were around me, nudging, whispering, giggling. I was unsure what to do.  What did they say about long distance relationships? That it won’t ever last, right? And this time, it’s not only long distance, it’s been a long, long time too.

But they also said that love conquered all, right?

So would we? Would we be okay?

“Hi Mee, long time no see,” your voice resonated in my ear. I smiled up at you—it’s been a while, I wanted to say, but my tongue was taken by an imaginary feline and was brought far, far away.

You asked again, “How are you?”

“F…fine. And you?”

You seem to be glad that I answered. Maybe you thought I would run off. I think some parts my brain thought so too.

“Great, really. Hey, I just moved around this area a few days ago. My mom’s making a party next weekend. Come?”

My friends were giggling. I ignored them and focused my eyes on your deep mahogany ones.

“Sure.”

“Then we can have a game on my Xbox later? You know… for old times’ sake.”

I grinned up at you.

“You’re not going to beat me this time,” I said.

“You’ve said that years ago—and you always lose.”

“I’ve ultimately honed my zombie killing skills, if you must know.”

“We’ll see just how much you’ve ‘honed your skills’, Mee. See you around.”

You gave a small wave, turned and left after giving me the last glimpse of your contagious grin. As I smiled at your disappearing figure, a thought was buzzing in my mind.

Maybe… just maybe the two of us would be all right.

-2010

Music Shuffle

Bits Before: Prompt: Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble.

Slight mature content for a few of the entries. It... happens when I'm writing at night.

*

7 Days – Craig David

Monday: He saw her for the first time.  She ordered the soy green tea latte. He smiled his best smile, while she merely nodded at him, rushing off in a hurry.

Tuesday: She came into the shop again, this time with her friends. She smiled back this time.

Wednesday: He bumped into her in the train. He greeted her, and she looked at him with askance in her eyes, backing away slightly.

Thursday: She said, “Oh, I saw you in the train yesterday!”

Friday: He introduced himself. She returned the gesture.

Saturday: He waited for her. She didn’t come.

Sunday: Still nothing. He sighed each time he made a soy green tea latte to other customers.

Monday: “Hello again,” she greeted, a smile on her face.

*

Your Love is My Drug— Ke$ha

She gasped loudly as he held on to her hips and pushed himself into her. Her eyes rolled back as she released a pent-up moan, and with his half-lidded eyes, he looked at her with a smirk. God, she looked so sexy, she sounded so good, she felt so perfect.

The moved, hard, pumping, not stopping, their passion filling the empty grimy public toilet.

They both needed it, they didn’t care when and where.

Addicted to it, always needing more, more, more.

*
Something Super— Yuna

She looked back at the thousands of people, an unfamiliar feeling consuming her, like a tsunami wave crashing down on a small city. When did she even imagine that she would even be in this place? To perform in front of people, thousands of people, all cheering for her.

She was nothing more than a quiet student once, with just a slight passion for songwriting. When did the singing happen? When did performing happen? But you know what? She loved this.

She picked up the microphone and grinned at the cheering crowd.

“You guys are SUPER!” she yelled.

Anyone can be super.

Even a quiet student like her.

*

It’s OK—Vanessa Hudgens

“You’ve hurt yourself again…” You didn’t sound angry, or accusing, or judgemental. You sounded sad. Why are you sad? I’m the one bleeding my life away. I’m the one who’s constantly hurting myself, breaking other people’s expectations and hope; so why the fuck are you sad?

“Hey,” you say, gently, sitting down next to me on the cold floor, “It’s gonna be okay, you know. You got me. You always have me.”

“It’s going to be alright.”

*

Carwash— Christina Aguilera

The car was gleaming when he was finished with it. He wiped his sweat with his sleeve and grinned at his work. That was two hours worth of waxing and scrubbing, and the results were nothing less than perfect.

The owner returned and that grin that instantly appeared on his face showed that he loved the job well done. He wouldn’t admit it, but as the car owner was stroking the hood of the car, he actually felt pride. The owner sat in his car seat, and paid a full payment, in cash, saying that he had an extra tip.

He beckoned him closer so he was bending near the car window.

He pulled him close and kissed him on the lips. Then he drove off.

You don’t know who’ll you meet in the carwash

*

Autumn Leaves— Ed Sheeran

Nothing’s complicated when you’re a child.

They both laid down on the ground, watching the autumn leaves float down, one by one by one. They both were tired out by jumping all over the piles of leaves and stepping onto each cracking leaf. Everything’s so simple then.

Nothing’s that simple now. Now that she and her twin had grown up. Adult life has no time for stuff like that anymore.

But then…

She opened the door, and deliberately stepped onto a leaf, listening to that satisfying crunch.

She grinned, and ran over to the pile of leaves.

And jumped into it.

She laughed and laughed as she lied down on the ground, watching the autumn leaves float down, one by one by one.

*

Bits After: Ngl, Carwash was fun to write, but unlike heterosexual-centric writings, the pronouns for that was hard.

-22 Feb 2013