A/N: Prepare for a cringe-worthy but deliberate grammar manipulation. Please put down your dictionaries and red pens (pitchforks too, if you have them). I swear on my grammar-loving forefathers, it's for the sake of staying true to the characters.
I've also had some questions about the POV which made me realize that the "first person narrative of a non-character" description on the very first author's note isn't as detailed as most my readers would like, so here's a more vivid image. Imagine your mother telling you the story about how her parents met. This type of narration is kinda like that. She, the narrator, is recounting the story to the readers from her point of view even if she wasn't a character in it. That's why she mocks and makes snide comments about the characters every once in awhile. Why this type of POV is important will make sense as we progress through the book. Trust me, you'll figure it out! :)
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❝I came alone. I've come a long
way to get here, the leaves that fall to my feet,
at home, they mean nothing to me.❞
— At Home, Crystal Fighters
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TWO
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"Fuck! Fuck! Holy fuck me, that just happened!"
As I am your narrator, I don't suppose I can escape the torture of describing his spazzing body as he recited a litany of curses that, for the sake of our younger readers, I've opted to edit out of this book. I believe this young man called this dancing — yes, dancing for joy. I sure do hope he'd stop because he just landed a spot in this morning's gossip topics among our coffee addicts. If this is how he reacted to a meet-up with a publisher, I'd hate to know how he'd take winning a Pulitzer.
"All I need is a story," Luke told himself. Good luck with that, hotshot.
"Yo, you hear another one?" Some bulked up, hooded boy asked his clearly overeager, much lankier friend, Nick.
"I swear dude," piped another from their pack. "You're obsessed with those things like my mother's obsessed with Days of Our Lives and my sister with that 50 shades shit."
"Ain't nothing wrong with that Tyrone. Shut your pipe! Tell us, Nick!"
"Some teenage mom, got pregnant but she ain't got no money to raise the baby. Somethin' about being too cold, being hungry and needing clothes. Thought she better leave her kid on the steps of a church or a hospital or somethin'."
"Man, she leave her kid behind. Ain't she a hoe?"
"Damn T, don't you know how to hush man? Imma shut your mouth myself." The biggest kid warned, clearly pissed off by the interruption.
"You done, Nick?" The gangly teenager nodded at the guy who asked him about the story in the first place, Jay.
Jay's clearly the alpha male of this group of 6 or 7 teenagers— all of whom should be in school at this time by the way. 'Tis the beauty of under budget public school education, unlimited recess.
"She be at the art center tonight, Jay," one of the other teenagers offered.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Excuse me." Luke, who had been unintentionally (at least, in the beginning) eavesdropping, stalked over to the group. He offered a hand, thinking it would be best to shake theirs and introduce himself, but they all looked at him weird. Probably because they weren't the handshake type. All he got were very confused and mildly irritated glares, with their leader giving him a stare down.
Oops.
He had been coming to this coffee shop every morning, sometimes even after his classes in the afternoon, since that coffee spill fiasco, hoping for a planned 'accidental run-in' with Mr. Savoy. The guy's turning into a stalker if you ask me, but I guess it was his way of keeping his dream alive.
Instead of Peter though, he found this rowdy bunch. He would have flipped them off the moment they started using ain't and yo in a sentence had they not been talking about this storyteller. His gut told him there's a story there, especially if some rough-looking kids found her interesting enough to talk about.
So to the rabbit hole he falls.
"Yeah?"
"I'm Luke. I was sitting there," he said, pointing over to his table a few paces from where he now stood. "And I heard something-", he continued before he was cut off.
"You gonna ask us to be quiet?" The Jay guy asked as if challenging him to do just that. His friends, although quiet, seemed ready to punch the life out of him if he said yes.
Luke quickly waved his hand around, shook his head and said, "No, of course not. I just heard you say something about a girl. I didn't mean to, but I did. You said she told you guys stories. I just thought it was interesting so I came over to ask."
For someone close to peeing himself, that was convincing. Good job Vance!
"Why'd you not say man? We was about to jump yo ass!" Some guy said, who it was I doubt Luke even noticed. The group broke into boisterous laughter with Luke laughing awkwardly with them.
"Yo! T, grab this brother a seat." A toned teenager wearing a sleeveless white tank with some heavy looking chains hanging around his neck stood up and handed him a seat. He took it, nodded his thanks and sat down.
"So you looking to date or somethin'?" Nick asked.
"Why this chica?" Jay piped in, now interested in the sudden turn of the conversation.
"No, no, no, no, no! Nothing like that. I study literature, and she seemed good with stories, at least from what I heard from you guys."
"You one of those good grade nerds like Nick!" One of the guys from the group mocked.
"Nothing wrong with bein' smart, chachi. You wish you had them grades like Nick!" Another eruption of laughter filled the room, this time with our protagonist actually enjoying himself. It seemed like these kids do understand the value of school after all. Too bad they're still victims of a highly prejudiced system that favored the few.
"You wanna meet her don't ya?" Well Nick, you are pretty quick to pick up on what he wanted to happen here.
"I guess."
"You free tonight?"
"Yeah, sure. Why? Do you know where she lives?"
"She's everywhere, man."
"You mean she has places all over the city?"
"Yeah, she has places alright!" Everyone was laughing again. There was definitely something he didn't get here. He looked to Jay who simply shook his head and laughed some more, then T who winked and turned the other way and finally, Nick who was about to fall off his stool from laughing too hard. By now, they had the attention of the entire shop. Man, these other people must think Luke's a psychopath, especially those who saw his spazzy dance a week ago.
"The hell's going on? I don't get it." Luke finally blurted out in frustration. As the laughter died down, one of the guys finally said,
"She's homeless."
YOU ARE READING
In Her Words
General Fiction"When he first heard her, he knew. She was his bestseller." Before there were great stories, there were only words. Luke's were smart and eloquent but hollow. It was nothing like Emma's story, bleak and awkward, but honest to a fault. This is a comi...
