Mute Dating (Not dating between mutes)

They spoke through text messages, discussing everything about their lives, guilty pleasures and preferences.

As it was bound to happen, they fell for one another and decided to meet face to face, for the first time, and see if they actually got along as well as through phone messaging. 

They met during a jovial evening, where fireworks were lit and sprung up in the sky, where kids and grandparents were laughing out loud, eating sweets and getting into rides, and all that warmth transposed itself unto them, unto their eyes and lips and gestures, yet, despite knowing what to say, they lacked to courage to do so.

In a spontaneous moment, he grabbed his cell phone from his pants pocket, opened it and texted her a message "Want to hold hands and go inside the fun park?" She smiled -a pretty smile, one that brightens your mood in an instant- and nodded, then came toward him and grabbed his hand; they were both smiling.

Once inside, the multitude of items they could buy or win, the multitude of rides they could enjoy, the multitude of... well, it overwhelmed them, so much so that she texted him a message, "Let's go to the horror house," he turned to her and  nodded.

Inside the spooky place they were both afraid -one of the dark, the other of the ghastly noises- and texted each other at the same time, using the other hand, then, upon reading the messages, they looked into each other's eyes and... they kissed; the tense situation was relieved from their bodies, and they were, once more, only smiles, with some giggles this time -"Thank you," she said, "You're welcome," he replied.

Extremely Bullied #4

Despite being a dweeb for most of his teenage life, Jackson decided to change his appearance during the summer, new clothes, hairstyle and overall look, but something was missing from his supposed greatness, a frat club.

When he stepped foot inside the college campus, he passed by a table of a fraternity that wanted new pledges, called "Marco Polo."

The name beckoned him and he signed on the file; later that night, he and several others were inside the house, waiting to get instructed on their chore.

Jackson followed the leader -who gestured to them- and arrived at the pool; they were told to strip to their underwear, which they obeyed.

Several seconds later, the members gave them paper cuts all over their body -some even fell to the ground because of the sudden pain- and pushed them in the pool; which contained water, lemon juice and salt.

The whimpers came in an instant and some of them said they quit, but not Jackson, who -despite his lanky body- stood there with a smile on his face and when the leader saw this "act of impudence" as he put it, he forced him to stay in there for the next three hours, unsupervised; when they returned, Jackson was dead. 

Extremely Bullied #3

A flyer was scurrying its way to him, dragged by the wind despite the paper's unwilling decision to move.

He picked it up and read "Alpha Beta Gamma Radiation wants you; if you'll eat our food, you'll be a member;" it made him giddy with delight, since his belly growled, although he ate an hour ago.

Matthew was a chubby guy of almost twenty years and loved food, so much so that his parents banned him from the house and told him to live on campus, despite living in the same city.

When he knocked on the fraternity's door, a guy came out -a chick was dangling by his neck, caressing his ear and chin- and when he heard that he wants to join, his smile rose and told the woman to go and fetch his colleagues.

Invited in the house, another member came with his meal, something that looked like things put together and burned "I call it the Gammaloaf, and it's only for those willing to join," said the guy that let him in.

Matthew didn't ask what it was made out of, instead he dug right in -without fork or spoon- and ate about half of the four-pound beast before he stopped, took a big breath, stared the guy in the eyes and passed out; five minutes later, he came to and puked all of that garbled, tasteless concoction made out of meat, veggies and a bunch of other stuff that almost poisoned his intestines.

Extremely Bullied #2

Flute, the flute, his favorite instrument in the world, and Jody became leader of his high schools band, a momentous occasion that he celebrated by drinking root beer and singing on the flute, cherishing this as it was the best thing that happened in his life, as he was always a bullied boy due to his acne and four eyes.

One morning, after P.E., he was in the shower, drenched in soap from top to bottom and humming some jingle that stuck in his head for some reason, when the water stopped, he tried to turn it on, but it did not, then he asked around; no answer came and it made him nervous, despite his calm nature.

Footsteps were heard -coming from the changing area- and they stopped at the shower entrance -a couple of feet away from Jody.

He asked the guys about water for his face, but all he heard was "69, 32, 48, hut hut hut," followed by louder footsteps, then someone picked him up by his arms; and despite moving and trying to get free, he was outmuscled by them and was content with that.

"24, 53, hoowah," sound and the next thing he knew, a sharp pain rose from his ass, followed by a whimper from him and laughter from them, and when he put his hand down there, he could sense something big; it was his flute.

His friend was stuck deep inside -giving him sharp pain- and when he pulled it out, he fell hard on the cold floor, and their sniggering became silent because blood came out from within his hole; and not one of them tried to help him.

Extremely bullied #1

Yesterday was John's birthday -13 years, unlucky as some might say- but that only made him merrier and full of life, hopeful that today, Monday, would be a great day at school, a day where he would see things with different eyes.

Although not popular in class and being picked on, he decided to bring a box of chocolates to give to his classmates and all of them took one, however, the box was so big that almost all of it was full. Not knowing what to do with the rest, he left the box on his desk and went out, on break.

Upon his return, John saw his colleagues talk and laugh loud, louder than they did during his birthday song, but it didn't affect him much; he went back to his place and sat down, looking with hungry eyes at the chocolates, as he wanted to taste one since they were bought.

They looked very tasty, but he was sad that the ones with white chocolate were gone, even so, he grabbed a bigger one from the box, put it in his mouth and closed his eyes.

Rummaging through it, the taste was nowhere near as good as he expected, then, as he opened his eyes, he saw their faces, red and black, bursting with laughter, and hearing someone say "Ewww... Johnny, you just ate doggy poo;" the laughter increased and he left in a rush -livid, almost teary eyes- with the faux chocolate still inside.

An unexpected love

Awaken because of a sturdy lamp
caught fire from an exploding bulb.
The incident terrified me and
made me wonder if I was safe,
if I could enjoy myself once 
the panic left my body completely.

But the next day I fell 
in love, with the most precious
thing I ever glanced. 
Her skin was smooth and untarnished,
while the fragrance that she wore 
made me feel the
exhilaration of something I forgot,
something very dear to me
that brought me endless 
tears of satisfaction.

As peaches blossomed, so did she.
For she was my prized possession,
She was... my daughter.

Not the night the mayor wanted

One late night, Harris was sitting at the diner counter, discussing things with the bartender when a message popped up on the TV news-band.

"Donna Paul, the mayor's daughter has been found dead. More news to follow."

- What the hell was that? said Harris.

- Blasted children smoking and abusing themselves until they die of everything and anything, said the bartender, who sounded grumpy, despite being in his 40's.

- I kinda agree with that. You make 'em, you grow 'em, then you pay for 'em. Such a S.O.B. thing to do. Can you imagine the mayor, or his wife, now, all in tears and such?

- Well, I can and can't, because I don't have children, but I lost a pet once and it tore me to shreds.

- There ya go. And I bet it took you a while before you recovered. I say we let them mourn their loss and move on with our lives.

He drank his remaining beer and left the place, saluting the bartender with his hand.

Harris knew there was something afoot with this whole shindig, so he jumped on his motorcycle that was parked in the alley next to the diner, and left to the mayor's place.

However, on the way there, he knew that the mayor was at Marin County, and the only possible route to that was through the Golden Gate Bridge; well, the fastest, at least.

Once he stepped on it, he crossed the bridge with a new personal record, especially because there were fewer cars on the track than usual, most people coming from the county toward San Francisco, and he wondered why.

He called his source on the cell phone to find out the reason.

- They're saying the mayor has a bomb, but nothing is certain and I can't see squat from my position. Where are you?

- I've crossed the bridge and people are coming at me like I'm giving them free money.

- Funny. If you've passed the bridge, that mean you can see a hospital.

- Yeah.

- Turn right after it, then a left and then another right.

The man on the phone hung up and Harris followed the instructions, arriving to the place where he was. He parked his bike and entered the building. Although with no time to spare, he wanted to preserve his energy and pressed the elevator button; it didn't work, which meant he had to go up the stairs, all the way to the top; the 8th floor.

A little out of breath when he arrived, and cussed the man for taking position in such a high place, he went in.

- That took a while, said the one in the room, who was looking out the window through his binoculars.

- The elevator's broken, man.

- Crap, I think you might go back down again.

- No.

- Yes. The car the mayor was in is moving this way. Go and get it.

That frustrated him, but he had to do what was needed.

After running the stairs, the gasps for air were bigger and it made him feel older, but that was because he hadn't trained in a month.

He heard the engine of an approaching vehicle and figured it was the one. In five seconds, the bike was started and moving in pursuit.

Harris couldn't do anything because he was too far, but was gaining speed by the mile.

The car was nearing the bridge, and the bike the automobile.

Approaching... approaching... motorcycle right in it's tail, hitting it, and he jumped on the car.

The mayor heard and panicked, while the scattered people were running away, all over, in fear of getting run over by the now reckless driven vehicle.

Harris, although almost balanced off of the trunk, he leveraged himself and punched a hole in the windshield, shattering it to pieces.

Almost cutting his hand there, he was lucky the leather gloves helped with the bits and pieces of shard. Barely climbing in, due to the off-balance driving, he began telling the mayor to stop the car.

- I can't, or my daughter's going to die.

- Isn't she dead? They announce on the news a while ago.

- That was just a hoax.

- What do you have to do?

- Blow up the bridge.

- Does the bomb have a timer?

- I don't know.

- Where is it?

- Under my chair. I found out when I sat down and I heard the first beep, that's when they called me. That was four hours ago.

- Do you know their location?

- They're in my office and have something to track me.

- Okay, listen to me. Slow down. The bomb doesn't have a timer, but it will explode if you get up from the seat, so stay there. I'll make a short phone call.

In it he explained to another partner about the circumstances and the terrorists. The other line hung up.

Five minutes later he called to say the job was finished.

Harris told the mayor to slow down even more because his daughter was safe, and that to follow his instructions in order to be free.

They went back to Marin County and the man from the building fixed it.

The mayor was going through the motions, not knowing what to do first. Harris knew what. He drew a smoke grenade and dropped it on the ground. They were gone from sight, while the mayor was in tears, in both ways.

First day, bad day

   Gabriel is starting his job today. He is excited to be a plane attendant and he gets to do it in a big company that flies across the seas. He waited for this big opportunity for the past two years, doing all sorts of menial jobs to pay for this real one.
   Everything went smooth with the passengers, he and his coworkers showed everyone to their seats and made sure they were comfortable.
   The plane took off and a state of relaxation set foot across the compartment. Gabriel was all smiles and interacted with several children who were energetic enough to tire their parents. But they annoyed the wrong people as well.
   A bearded man stood up and threatened everyone with his AK47 machine gun. Some screamed, some panicked and he approached several of them with a knife, shoving it in their faces to make sure they kept quiet.       Then, a stewardess who was having hysteria shouted "We have to get out of here," which only alarmed the hostage taker. He went to that woman and put his gun in her mouth and threatened to pull the trigger if she wouldn't stop, but she fainted instead. Then, the man went into the cockpit. While he was in there, Gabriel tried to keep to situation calm, and as expected, some shouted at him, but he said that if they weren't calm, they couldn't capture the man. They then looked at one another and decided to keep quiet until the hostage taker returned. Once he did, he liked that the people were silent and didn't think for a second that they wanted to apprehend him.
   He said that the plane was going to crash in the ocean, and that made Gabriel jump him, only to fail in saving the day.