Short Stories

Let's Hang

He had been acting extremely weird at the moment. At least from what I could tell. I didn’t know him that well so I shouldn’t be making way to many assumptions. He sat on the chair in front of me, sitting down in a way that was completely backwards to the way you were meant to sit on a chair.
“I really like to be around you.” He said. I frowned.
“I’m sorry, is this a confession.”
“Of the sorts. It might be a little different.” He said. It was a confession. I had noticed him staring at me in class but he could have been directing his gaze to Jade behind me. “And no, me and Jade. No way. Have you seen the clothes she wears.”
“She wears completely normal clothes.” It was a good thing this class was empty and it was only us inside.
“Exactly. Normal is boring.”
“You wear normal clothes.” I pointed out.
“Or so you think.” He wasn’t making any sense. “I am probably not making any sense.”
“It’s like you read my mind.” He stiffened a smile.
“Yeah, back to the confession then.” He said. I nodded.
“Go ahead.”
“I can hear you thinking.”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous.” What did this guy think he was up to? This was the lamest way to ask out a girl ever. He was probably about to use some tacky remark like. ‘I can hear you thinking and you want to say yes.’
“Oh, no of course not I wouldn’t do that tacky. Give me some credit.” He said out of the blue.
“Sorry?”
“I can hear you thinking and you want to say yes is just a little low of a pickup line don’t you think? Do you consider me that bad of a flirter?”
“I wasn’t thinking that.” I lied. He dropped his head on his arms.
“Yes you were, I heard you.”
“But, that’s impossible.” This was impossible. Nothing could read the minds. I didn’t believe all that crap on the media.
“Yeah, neither did I. Besides the Media is all full of fake stories that no one cares about, but they believe its their sense of duty to watch to make it seem like they are contributing and keeping up to date with things.”
“You tend to go off topic a lot.” I said. He raised his eyebrows.
“You think I go off topic. I can hear you thinking. You’re never doing your school work.” I blushed.
“Actually I do.” I pulled out my school book and flicked through the pages. Written words scribbled down. He watched each page pass by.
“Hold on.” He grabbed the book and flicked it open to a page.
“This doesn’t really look like school work to me.” He pointed toward writing on the page. Little scribbles and side notes across the page. It wasn’t school work. I frowned and snatched the book off him and buried it under my pencil case.
“Now you think I am a jerk.”
“Along those lines.” I uttered.
“Took me a few minutes to realise it was you I was hearing.” He explained. His eyes centered on me, focusing on my eyes, my reaction. “I can hear everyone actually, so in that way you’re not very special. I am glad you don’t seem to be offended. I started to hear people a few weeks ago. You might not remember but I was pretty edgy in class. I punched Caleb for it.” I remembered. He had acted so weird. He looked a lot like he had turned into an insomniac. “I had. I had to take pills to fall asleep. I got used to hearing people, as you can see.” He waved his hand in front of his face and smirked. “And eventually all the voices died down. So I can’t hear much at all, everyone’s thinking in a low whisper now. Even now I can hear everyone down at the courtyard. They are all whispering in their heads. But for some reason you’re not whispering. Got any clue about that? You’re talking, if not yelling.” What the hell was he talking about? It was impossible to hear people thinking. “Well it’s obviously not impossible since I have proved myself several times that I can hear you thinking.”
“This is the weirdest confession I have ever heard.” I admitted.
“It’s also the only confession you have ever heard and plus you have never been confessed to by someone that can read your mind.” He was right. People didn’t really like me.
“People love you.” He yelled.
“I don’t even need to talk to have this conversation do I?” I laughed.
“Yes, but talk because I enjoy it.” He said. Right go ahead with your story. He grinned at the fact that I didn’t speak to tell him that. “I asked you to talk.” I’m waiting to hear the story. “Fine. Anyway. So I can hear you think. I have been able to do this for a while and as I said before your aren’t whispering and most of all you don’t pay that much attention in class. I know what you’re doing.”
“I am sure the teacher can tell what I am doing as well.”
“I want to be completely honest and say that I don’t think you should end with killing your characters off. For one Melissa shouldn’t have to die in that circumstance. You’re not writing Romeo and Juliet, they can have a happy ending. But I do love the way you put your words into the story and I am finding it very humorous. Keep that up. The scene with Jack and Melisa and John was actually super funny and I was laughing even when I left home and thought back about it.” How was he saying these things? Nobody new about my story. “Unfortunately I am probably your first reader, though I haven’t read it and I know the future of the story already. And I urge you not to kill off your characters. That kind of stuff isn’t cool anymore. Or maybe that’s just me. Endings like that do not please me.”
“I thought this was a confession.”
“I have a lot to say.”
“I can tell.”
“Hay, you two. Get out of the class you’re not meant to be in here during breaks.” A teacher yelled from the door, noticing us as he walked up.
“Ah, yes sir, sorry. We were just talking about English.” I grabbed my book on the desk and walked to the door while Luke grabbed his books from his desk. He met up with me outside the door while the teacher locked the classroom.
“Sorry about that.” I called and then we walked toward the courtyard side by side.
“I know that you should be focusing on your work in class but keep going okay. I am really enjoying it so far. Just don’t kill them off. I am sorry for embarrassing you.” He knew I was embarrassed. I didn’t like people reading the stuff that I wrote.
“Over the past few weeks I have gotten to know you really well. I was wondering…” Here comes the confession. “Well sort of. I was wondering if you would like to get to know me well enough for me to have an actual confession were we are both feel the same.”
“Slick words you have there.”
“Why thank you. But would you like to go to a movie with me this weekend? That’s not all. I’m not a boring person.”
“I totally thought that someone that can hear people thinking is a boring person.”
“You serious?”
“Of course not.”
“Yeah I know.” He laughed. “But you have to bring your story and we need to discuss It.”
“I’m not sure if I really want you reading it.” I confessed feeling guilty about it.
“I can hear you thinking I know the whole story and the head of it and I reckon if you change the ending you could improve it. We will talk about this. Even if you reject my invitation I will get onto you somehow and we discuss it. So is it a yes?” He already knew my answer if he knew what I was thinking.
“Okay sure.” I smiled. We stopped by the stairs.
“Saturday?” he knew my answer.
“Yes, okay.”
“Cool.” He smiled and with a quick wave goodbye he ran down the stairs toward the courtyard. I turned toward the library, a hesitant smile on my lips. Hi Luke, I know you can hear me right now, thank you. I could already see him grinning in my mind.