Some amount of time ago, I received a text message on my phone from a number I didn’t recognize that plainly said “where are you.” I replied, asking “who is this?” but received no answer. A week later, the same number texted me again with the same message asking where I was. Confused, I texted…
Category: Short Story
Tracks
At 14 years old, there wasn’t a lot for my friends and I to do that didn’t involve the woods near our neighborhood. We were too young to drive, and yet we felt too old to be restricted to playing sports in our parents’ yards. The woods were basically the perfect place for us to…
The Hallway
When I moved into my first rental house, I remember the feeling of being terrified at every strange noise that found its way to my ears. The ice maker in the freezer, the A/C kicking on, the house settling – it all made me nervous the first night I slept there. I was expecting it…
Connections
When I was 19, my younger brother was killed in a car wreck. Derek had just gotten his license, and the rules of the road had not yet become second nature to him. I was with him in the car, and somehow, I managed to come out of it alive, but not without some head…
Common Senses
“How do I even begin to describe these feelings?” he said. His mind raced as he tried to think of words that came anywhere close to what he felt. “It’s okay,” she said. “I understand your feelings. They’re the same ones I have.” “But people experience feelings in different ways. There is no telling that…
Stained
She told me once that there was always a cloud over her head; that she might as well carry an umbrella around just in case the downpour started when she wasn’t prepared for it. It was a poetic way for her to describe her sadness. It was a terrible thing for her to live through…
Brakes
The day her brakes failed was the day my life came to a standstill. She was rushed to the hospital, operated on, put in some care unit that had her hooked up to dozens of different beeping machines and fluid-carrying tubes. I wasn’t allowed in the room at first. Had to look at her through…
Green-gray
The world was tinted green-gray as Kale stared out from behind the polarized lenses of his sunglasses. The leaves in the trees were rustling, vocalizing wordless songs and sharing them with him, should he care to listen. Perhaps this all would’ve been beautiful enough without her, but seeing Celia on the swing, knees up against…
Don’t Say the Word
The room drowned in silence as Paul approached me. I’d known him for years since he was my girlfriend’s brother, but I didn’t understand the look on his face – the intense sorrow in his eyes, the way his lips quivered and his hands shook. “Nate.” It sounded painful for him to say. His voice…
I Will Take Time
It has been four months since I’ve last seen her, and her absence is like a crater in my heart. At night, I lay awake staring at the ceiling and feeling phantom sensations of her fingertips running across my chest and the warmth of her breath condensing on my neck. I feel like half of…