I used to throw it around without a care because, to me, it was just a word. At least, that’s what I told myself.
Then, one day, I fell in love.
It was the strongest emotion I had ever felt. It was like when you’re a kid and you got to sleepover at your best friend’s house on a school night. I felt like I was flying. Nothing could ever break me down.
Then, he ripped me to shreds. He tore my heart out and stomped on it without ever looking back.
That four letter word lifted me higher than I had ever been. Then, tore me down faster than I fell for his lies. It was the strongest emotion I had ever felt. Then, I felt the aftermath of it: heartbreak.
Now, I wonder how anyone could ever say that word in the first place.
Not for even one second did the boy break eye contact with the girl until he collapsed in front of the praying people. The girl carefully lowered her glare to the wound that was slowly growing on the boy’s front; without disturbing the rest of the group she carefully picked up the feather-light boy and brought him to an empty building.
She left shortly after, only to return with singed medical supplies. She quickly and deftly removed the tooth from the long gash, and then with a large amount of rubbing alcohol cleansed his grimy wound.
The boys eyes stayed closed the entire time; she spared a quick glance at his face before starting to stitch him closed, he was awake she knew but she also knew that he would not show any sign of it. Once the stitching was done she left the boy in the ruins of the building, to come out on his own terms, but she took the tooth with her.
She held the tooth in her left hand and strange weight settled in her stomach. For some reason she knew what this meant, but at the time she was unsure; eventually she would know what to do, more specifically in one days’ time. Minutes later the boy came out of the building and sat himself next to her. The last crowd on earth stared at the two of them from afar.
The girl started the conversation: I’m not sure who you are, where you came from, why you’re here; but I can tell you this you’re not on earth anymore, no, I’d like to personally welcome you to Tartarus. He looked down, at his hands: yes, I know. Her head whipped toward him her hair flying into her face: then why do I see hope in your eyes? He looks away from the searing stare of the girl: redemption?Redemption, is that a joke? He sighed through his nose: no.
Then what is it? She snaps. The world’s screwed up enough as it is without some cracked up looney with a superhero complex trying to tell anyone left that it gets better.Honestly I don’t know why I’m here, alright? It’s the only civilization for countries and I was about to die of blood loss. She stared at him for a long time, the weight in her stomach growing: rest for the night. She sighed: there’s – there’s something important that I would like to show you tomorrow.
When the boy found her in the morning she was turning the tooth around in her hand, as if comforting herself. What was it you wanted to show me?Follow me, she stood up quickly. Her short figure moving more gracefully and quickly than the boy’s ever would. They traveled in silence for the entire journey out of the city.
The tear and dust stained people disappearing into minuscule figures behind them; at the edge of the city the girl looked back to see the people who survived, only those too afraid to live left to live out the rest of earth’s days, she shook her head. She turned back toward the road: this is going to be a long walk, try not to tear your stitches. She turned off the road and began trudging into the woods that were at a steady decline toward the south bay.
Would you mind telling me what this is about? She stopped abruptly causing him to run into her back. The forest had been one of the few places not damaged in the waves of radiation; for some unexplained reason it had remained immutable, unchanging. The thick green was almost suffocating, the damp moss-y-ness in the air sickening.
Never has a new person ever wander into this city of dead; never have we seen anyone dragging hope like a heavy flag behind them. Is it coincidence that three days after the human race got down on its knees to pray for their savior, to pray for hope, a wayward traveler with hope alight in his eyes shows up on the door step of the one city that holds what’s left of God’s will? He stumbles back from her, lightning dancing through his brain: you don’t think I’m the messiah do you? She looks down and swallows: We still have four miles, let’s continue moving.
When they reached the south bay the girl smoothly dragged a decrepit kayak from under a dense covering of foliage. She calmly lowered herself into the back, ready to push off from shore but he, the unlikely savior, was cemented to the higher, dry sand. The girls tawny eyes were cast downward, unwilling to meet his pale green ones: messiah or not, the last of the humans the rest of the world needs a savior right now and I – it all comes down to you, are you getting in the kayak or not?
In that moment something unknown spurred the boy on, he unceremoniously dropped himself into the front of the kayak and took the paddle and handed it to the girl. As they pushed off the boy let a question tumble from his mouth: why aren’t you the savior? The girl continued to paddle, with all the force of two people: I have my reasons. There was a pause: It’s…a story for another time.
It was not long after the nuclear wipe out took place, a monumental event known as The Great Purge. All that was left were just scraps of the human race, the vagabonds, the cowards, the rats from the very darkest corners of grime.
How ironic, only the people too afraid to live were the last one’s left on the earth. The meek shall inherit the earth – it was foretold eons ago, well it seems that prophecy had finally come to pass, and the world had gone to spiraling out of control for it.
In the days before Act III of Humanity came to pass, the people left to breathe in the ashes of their loved ones sank to their knees.
Religion had long since faded from the lips of those whose God was so seemingly absent; it had turned into a simple words used to describe The Great Purge. But even so, with lungs clouded with ash, the people looked to hazy orange skies, with blood-shot eyes and veins bulging painfully from beneath sickly and wan skin.
They looked up at the unmerciful smog and smoke-filled sky as oil slicked tears fell from shattered souls, the meek prayed for the absent, so-called, messiah.
The last of humankind had gathered in small groups of tired and hopeless people, scattered throughout the world; but, the only ones that matter were gathered in the center of what had once been called the city of the future.
It was on that day, one day till night officially fell, that a scruffy teenager barely sixteen dragged himself through the streets of the burnt city.
He had the eyes of days past; clear and pale green; offsetting, in a face caked with death and heartache; hopeful and optimistic, set into the face of someone forced to grow up to quickly.
He had the tooth of a long starved animal buried in his abdomen and he was quickly running out of blood to spare.
The surviving meek where huddled at the very tip of the city near the, now poison, ocean; as the boy stumbled down the road toward them, his eyes met with the eyes of a girl standing at the front of all the survivors.
The girl stared at the boy who was slowly making his way toward her. She was short with even shorter hair, it was cut into a choppy bob that fell midway down her neck. She was distinctly Asian in heritage, Singapore, this city had once been Singapore.
She was pale, powdery, with dark jet black hair and they eyes of a bird of prey. Her eyes though, that is what truly set her apart from the rest of the meek.
They were tawny and gold like a lion, rimmed in a thick layer of dark lashes. Although warm in color, her eyes had the cold, impersonal, precision of a microscope, they were like ice and fire in one person.
She did not strike one, outright as meek, but what had grouped her in with the cowards and vagrants was not that she was cowardly, but she had never tried to live.
I have been thinking a lot lately about what my future is going to be like.
Not as a grown adult, but where I want to go to college, what I want to study, and what about sports?
Thinking about what’s going to go into getting in to the schools I want to go to, and if I will be able to do it.
It’s a lot to be thinking about, there are so many choices we have to make even at the young age of 16, but I have realized the future is really up to me and how hard I want to work.
I have always been the kid who doesn’t put in the effort, and I come out with a few As and a few Bs.
I have realized I need to start actually trying to put in more effort to make it all As, instead of sitting on my butt when I have free time, maybe I should study more, and get work done before sunday night.
Maybe that means I can sleep more seeing as my schedule right now is crazy.
That brings me to the other thing I have been thinking about.
It was just last year that sports started to mean something to me again.
Who the hell do you think you are to deny an innocent American citizen their rights?
Obviously you think you are doing the “right” thing, the “better” thing.
You are not.
The only difference between LGBT and heterosexuals is who they are attracted to, oh and that LGBT on average have a higher IQ and are much less likely to commit a felony.
So why are LGBT peoplelooked down upon so much in our country? It really baffles me that so many people could have a hatred towards people who are just attracted to the same sex as themselves, I really cannot understand.
Homophobia is one thing. I for one do not have it but one cannot be fully criticized simply for their irrational feelings. That being said, even if there are many homophobes, that is no reason for LGBT to be denied the rights that heterosexual people have.
We have come a long way in our country in respect to the rights of minorities. African Americans and women received the right to vote and discrimination laws swept the country.
Yet, we are still living in the distant past when it comes to our county’s feelings regarding homosexuality. We need to grow up.
I was recently reading a story about the suicide rates among teens in an area of Minnesota who have been taunted for being gay and lesbian.
Throughout the country we see an absurdly high suicide rate among young LGBT people. This is unacceptable and it needs to stop.
No one, and especially young people, should be teased for their sexuality. I don’t care what your beliefs are regarding homosexuality, no one deserves to be teased and bullied and pushed to the point of having suicidal tendencies.
It makes me sick to hear that so many kids across our supposedly accepting country are facing the horrors of being bullied for their sexuality. It appalls me that more has not been done to cease this unacceptable behavior.
I want to see a country where people are not frowned upon for what attracts them, where we can accept people who are living their lives and not trying to harm anyone around them. I want us to move forward and banish our misconceptions about homosexuality to the pages of history where I am sure we will be mocked for the injustices we have committed.
When looked upon, the average person makes a quick judgment; their eyes, their hair, their teeth, the way they walk. In a matter of seconds a person can be perceived as everything that they are, and a person can be perceived as something completely opposite of who they really are. All of the observations made over time create a deep pool in which the person can only skim the surface of, where the strange and memorable rise up.
A single glance, a slight observation, can create the greatest of labels and accusations. It is simply because of human nature that we do this, but is it avoidable?
Recently there have been some strange accusations made by both students and faculty of the school that involve students. I have been aware of the situation since freshman year, as has everyone who has attended this school within those years. Never once has anyone spoken out claiming to feel uncomfortable about it. Why would they?
As adolescents, we don’t know who we are. Throughout high school we all partake in a trial and error style of determining and hardening who we are and who we want to be. Body-type, personality, and sexuality are somethings that don’t even come to a stand-still until further into life, if ever. Who are the faculty and students to determine who we are for us?
It’s not far to say that making judgements isn’t a part of living. In order to survive we need to come to conclusions about people and situations, literally. As a person who has also been a victim in being told who I am because of my behaviors, I know that it really isn’t fair to those who are in that place now.
I really shouldn’t and won’t get into specifics, but I just hope that those who think they are so correct in their accusations second check their facts, because last time I checked there weren’t any. It’s strange to see adults target students, stereotyping them, but here’s an awesome article on what could happen. Link.
OVS Journalism Blog 