Perspective

Exert from a not so short story.

(Explanation before we begin: This is an exert from a book, well more like a long story, about Charlie, alias Shift. A goth who recently went on an adventure with a jock named Kie.  They set fire to "vampires" -not actually vamps, hard to explain- and Charlie has recently gone unconscious. His gothic allies are visiting him in this dreamworld to help him wake up, since he's in refusal to. That's all. Everything else you can infer.)

Netta calmly heads towards me, umbrella twirling behind her in an elegant fashion. She's gotten skinnier since middle school, but her pear hips give her a motherly fashion. Don't tell her this, but that's what I thought of her. The mother of the group. She kneels down to me, and brushes a piece of hair out of my face.

"You look like s**t, Charlie."

"Don't call me that."

"Too bad. That's who you are now."

"But I want to be goth."

She gives me one of her rare, small, closed-lips smiles. "You still are, Charlie. But you've got a new identity."

"As?"

"As you. You'll still be Midget. You'll still be the small little smartass you were way back when, no matter how huge your muscles are. You'll still be the kid of the group. We'll still feel obligated to treat you as such."

"I don't need to taken care of anymore. I can survive on my own."

"You've shown that. You went after the vampires without us. You took initiative even when we weren't there to guide you. I'm proud of you."

That makes me feel good, in a way. Like I haven't failed them.

"I don't want to face the outside yet, though," I admit. "I want to stay in this dreamworld and not have responsibilities."

"That's not like you, Charlie. You're the guy who's brave. Who is ready to face the world when it needs him. And, Charlie, the world is calling. Answer." She pats my shoulder, and leaves. I bite my lip. I'm not ready.

Parker comes. His curly hair is even wilder than it was when he was a senior. He's wearing a black victorian cape, and has his ever ready cane. He examines me quickly.

"Your purple lipstick has been wiped off. Why is that?" he asks. My lips tilt upward.

"Not exactly wiped off. Kissed off, perhaps," I say. He chuckles.

"You've always been the risk taker."

"Hey, Parker? Explain to me what's going on."

"This isn't your subconscious speaking," he says. "It's actually us. Netta knew you were in trouble, and in an unconscious state, so we got together. A bit of gothic magic, and here I am."

"Whoa."

"Yeah. And, Charlie, I think you're wild and crazy and it was hard to restrain you. You still are. But now with a bit of knowledge, you've put it to good use. You drove all the way to Middle County with that Canadian boy-"

"Ike, his name is Kie," I interrupt.

"-Yeah, Kie. Anyways, you went to therec, and acted on instincts. You acted on passion. You acted right. All of those years coaching you paid off. Teaching you to read, to put on makeup, to ignore the mainstream, to believe in what you thinks right, and to write some deep poetry while you're doing it. It's more than we could've asked for you to do all of this."

...I'm not crying. Totally not.

"Thanks."

"I can only praise you in dreamworld, Charlie. But I do hope you know how much everything we've done...is...well...important. In a way. But you still need to finish this."

"I know." I lower my head, hair covering my eyes.

Parker lifts my chin with his cane. "Hey, perk up. You're a hero in the goth community, and a plus: you're in love."

I laugh. He laughs too; the first time I've heard. "Thanks, Parker."

"Go save the world," he says. "But remember all of the goth inside you!" Then he's gone.

I'm considering waking up. But...I can't peg exactly why I can't.

Scar, or Red, as I'll call him, approaches me. Breathing through his mouth. His hair is still a splash of red on black, but it's smoother. Like he actually brushed it. He flips it out of his eyes, and it goes to the exact same place. I reach out to him.

"Red..." I whine.

"Jesus, midget. Stop being a p***y."

"Hi, Red."

He smirks. "Hey." He gets down to my level on the ground. "Missed you."

"That's not very goth of you to say."

Red sits next to me then, getting out a clove cigarette. He looks off to the full moon. "Maybe not. But, I've been thinking. This goth image we have? It's not us, man. I think after a while, we formed our own kind of goth. The deeper thinking kind. The one who is more in tuned to what they actually believe; other than what we're supposed to think. Most goths just mindlessly worship s**t bands and black. Us? Our group? Knew exactly what we liked about the world, and what was fucked up. You? You, are better than all of us. Because you realized that first. That it's okay to write awesome poetry and hate pink, all while embracing your laughter and love."

"Love?" I ask.

"Yeah, man. Love. I think that's what's so non-goth about me. I think love is beautiful. F**k the guys who are too wuss to admit it. Romantic or platonic, everyone falls in love. With Parker? We were in love, no matter how much we like to deny it. Maybe it was purely friendship and experimenting. But really? I got manic, insane butterflies inside my stomach with every kiss. Even Netta knew the beauty of that. Now you know. You've been through it now. The love. How was your first kiss?"

"Mind blowing. Amazing. Confusing. But...gorgeous." I realize that now.

"I thought so. We would wonder about you, Charlie. In elementary, you were f*****g hardcore. Slitting yourself and confessing your love to Satan and s**t. We always knew that wasn't the real you. You were so naïve. But now? You're one of the lovelies, man. You finally figured it out."

"Figured out what?"

"That sometimes it's what you think is beautiful that makes it so."

Author's Note

Hm, maybe it's a bit cheesy.
But the rest of the story is complete humor and badassery, so...

Reviews

[Bella-Marie]

Yes, very cheesy. And I'd love to read the rest of the book to see if it is better than this excerpt! Sorry, it seems to be a jumble of cheesy lines and thoughts. But it has a good writer behind it so I suppose it'll turn out to be ok.