Blurryface: Fourteen Short Stories (twenty one pilots)

Heavydirtysoul - Calvin

"It's funny, he thinks he's a rapper."

"It's pitiful, really."

Calvin walks through the halls of Jefferson High School with his hood pulled down over his eyes, limping slightly and pretending not to hear the whispers of his classmates on repeat in his head.

"Did you hear his sister came to school crying the other day? I wonder if it's because he chewed her out for posting the video?"

"Doubt it. I mean, think. Have you ever heard the guy say more than two words at a time?"

He closes his eyes tight to try to clear his head, but tears start leaking out instead. He ducks into the bathroom; there's no way he'll let anyone see him cry.

"But I mean, did you listen to what he was saying? Something about the voices in his head or some crap."

"Yeah, it was all like, 'my mind is infested' or something. That kid is so weird. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up killing himself. Or somebody else."

He rushes to the last stall and locks the door almost frantically. Slowly, he shrugs his backpack off his shoulders and backs up until his back hits the wall. Then he sinks slowly to the floor, trying to slow his jackhammer heart. His shaking hands remove his hood and tremble through his hair.

"I heard Justin and Aaron are gonna go up to him after school on Friday. I honestly hope there's a fight; there hasn't been a fight here in so long."

"I just hope his soul is straightened out, because if Justin and Aaron really get hold of him, he sure won't be leaving on his bicycle."

His soul... Something he never considered until his brush with death this morning. Nobody in a car ever sees bicycles anymore. Now he's going to have to walk home and pay for a new bike. There goes the money he was saving for actual recording equipment and software.

His soul... Calvin knew it was tired. Tired of the abuse of his classmates, and the neglect from his absent father. Tired of this school, tired of this town, tired of this life.

But somehow, through all the exhaustion, he'd still found the strength to carry his bike the remaining four blocks to school at a run after the car clipped him and sent him spinning. He supposed it was the adrenaline, something akin to the way a rabbit can run for ages if being chased by a dog. That was it. Death was to a dog as Calvin was to a rabbit.

He knew he couldn't go on much longer. Not here, not like this.

"Save it, please. For me," he whispers. He has no clue who or what he's calling out to. Maybe it's God, maybe it's the music, maybe it's something else entirely.

The first bell rings, and he takes a few moments to compose himself before walking with that same slight limp out of the bathroom. He sneaks past the sideways glances and the muffled whispers to his first class of the day. Slinking down in his seat, he can already sense that it's going to be another long and miserable day.

"Calvin."

The whisper is so faint that he almost doesn't hear it. He turns his head slightly, preparing himself to be ridiculed.

"Hey, I've heard what people have been saying about you, and I know we don't really know each other, but I don't think you're weird, or crazy. I get it. The stuff you were saying, in the video. And I'm sorry that so many people don't get it," the girl speaks softly, "I'm Kris, by the way."

Calvin opens his mouth to speak, but his words are interrupted by the start of class. He sits back in a sort of dizzy awe that someone actually gets it. She... She does get it, right? She couldn't have been just saying that if she didn't mean it. By the end of class he realizes he's been able to ignore the stares of his other classmates.

Back in the hallway, however, is a different story. Conversations halt as he passes. He even sees a group of freshmen girls scatter just at a turn of his head. Everyone is either afraid of him or disgusted by him, and they're doing a pitiful job of hiding it. If Calvin didn't know better, he would think they were already dead. All of them. Mindless, spineless, like zombies they followed one another. He passes a boy his age with a print on his shirt that reads "#YOLO". You Only Live Once. When Calvin really thinks about it, there really is only one life to live. One time to figure it all out. One time to really think. Why, at almost adulthood, is nobody thinking for themselves?

His mind jumps again to the girl in his class. Kris. He'd never met her before today, but now he can't seem to get her words off his mind: "I get it."

He feels the plea begin to rise up from within him again: Save my soul, please. He still can't pin where exactly he's sending this prayer. All he knows is he needs to find something that can save this weary, dark, heavy, dirty soul inside of him. And for the first time, he feels that not only is he something that might be worth saving, but that maybe, just maybe, it might be even likely.

|-/

Hi, everyone! My name is Bethany, and I want to thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for reading my short story inspired by the song Heavydirtysoul by my all-time favorite band, twenty one pilots. This is the first installment of a fourteen-part series of short stories that are inspired by each of the songs from twenty one pilots' album entitled Blurryface. I hope you enjoyed this short story, and if you want to be notified whenever I update, you can add this entire collection to your library! Also, if you'd like, feel absolutely free to leave a comment or a vote on this short story, it would mean the world to me! If you'd like to see what I'm up to on a (mostly) daily basis, you can check out my page on Instagram, @i_i_i_ive_got_a_fanpage.  Again, thank you so much for reading!

Let's stay alive together, clique.

- Bethany |-/