Any point of view and feedback from this story? thank you Genji…
Question Answered step-by-step Any point of view and feedback from this story? thank you Genji… Any point of view and feedback from this story? thank you Genji lazily stared down into his glass, stirring it’s contents in circles with the steadily dissolving paper straw, watching with half lidded eyes as the unnaturally pink liquid spun in a whirlpool down towards the bottom of the cup. He watched the bubbles of carbonation roll slowly up the side of the glass, reaching the top where they floated for just a moment before popping, bursting in an anticlimactic display. Sighing through his nose, Genji leaned further into his hand, twirling a piece of crisp blonde hair in between his fingertips. The dim lighting of the restaurant gave everything a dreamy look, as if he weren’t even here right now. The dull ringing in his ears didn’t do much to diffuse that idea for him, either. For a moment he let himself believe it- that in just a moment he’d be waking up in his bed at home after a particularly uncomfortable dream and he could let this night slip away from him like he did so many others. Genji’s date cleared his throat. “Hm…?” He glanced up at the man sitting across from him, at first not changing expression much but as quickly as he remembered that he was, in fact, not alone at this table, he straightened his posture and parted his lips just a bit, refocusing his attention back to where it should have been this entire time, “Oh- oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t, uh- did you… say something?” His date pursed his lips. “I asked what you do for fun,” The other man cocked his head to the side, quirking an eyebrow, “You’re quite the space case, aren’t you? I didn’t expect that from your profile.” Genji gave a half hearted laugh. “Uh, yeah, I guess I can be,” Genji’s eyes wandered back to count the ice cubes in his drink- there were five, “Fun? I mean- I lot of acting in my spare time but that’s… I wouldn’t call that ‘fun’.” “Oh, an actor, huh?” His date chimed, “That seems to be everyone in New York these days.” Genji bit the inside of his cheek. “Mhm.” He left it at that. The ambience that rang through the restaurant, the chatter of a hundred voices mixed with the clatter of a thousand dishes, it all seemed to get louder in that moment as Genji balled his hand into a fist around his hair, tugging as his lips pursed together. “Hey, are you alright?–” His date got less than half a sentence out before Genji began shaking his head, grabbing his purse and throwing his legs off the side of the chair and hoisting himself to standing. “N-No.” He mumbled, glancing over at the other man as he pulled his coat over onto his shoulders, “No, no, I’m- I’m sorry, I can’t Not tonight, I- It’s not that I don’t like you or anything it’s just-, sorry.” Genji could barely make out the cries of protest coming from his abandoned table as he scurried away from the situation, the sharp click of his heels against the floor contrasting with the serene classical music that faded into his memory as he pushed the front doors of the restaurant open, nearly colliding with a pair of couples as he feverishly forced his way out of the establishment. Taking in a shaky breath, he winced as the icy cold of the outdoors stung his nose. He squinted his eyes against the wind as he made his way around the building, finding a spot on the curb to sit down on before slinking his spindly fingers into his purse, feeling around until he landed on a stray cigarette which he brought up to hang loosely from his lips. Snuggling deeper into his large fur coat, he dug his hands into the pockets, pulling a lighter out and setting the cigarette ablaze. He inhaled deeply, tilting his head back and closing his eyes- he held his breath for a moment, to really let the toxins sink into his lungs before sighing them out again with a low grumble: It had been like this for a while. Ever since Genji got to New York, actually. He remembered how it felt to get on the plane two summers ago, exhilarating was the best way he could think to describe it. He’d spent 5 excruciating years at art school getting his acting degree, and he was so ready to start his career and become the big name actor he always knew he was destined to be. He was going places- or at least that’s what he’d been told. He was in New York, big name actors lived in New York, right? He was so, so, so confident that “Genji Aoika-Stephenson” would be a household name. So what had happened? Most days, Genji found himself working a dead end barista job he’d promised himself was only temporary, painfully plastering a fake smile on his face, praying silently that the next middle aged woman who came in would understand that he was a person too, and allowing himself the occasional five minutes to duck into the back to cry. He wondered if he’d ever be able to smell coffee again without anxiety bubbling up in his chest, but whatever, he was always more of a tea guy anyways. Most nights, he found himself alone watching netflix in his crappy studio apartment to try and drown out the sounds of his neighbors arguing, or cooking himself boxed mac n’ cheese for the fourth time that week as he scrolled through hundreds of audition listings, waiting on callbacks that never came. On the off chance that he actually had something to do one night, he’d usually it up and end up… well, in the exact situation he was in now. Sitting next to a random building, sucking on a cigarette, wondering what the was doing with his life as he pretended he didn’t just storm away from a Tinder date or break down crying at a Homegoods- whatever the flavor of the week happened to be. To make a long, exhausting, and frankly embarrassing story short, Genji felt like a failure. Or maybe he was just a failure, he wouldn’t know the difference. And after all was said and done here he was: Instead of sitting across from some sleazy late night talk show host, talking about how great he was in the fifteenth Jurassic Park remake and how much he hated working at a coffee shop for so long, he was sitting on a damp sidewalk in the middle of the city, ruining his favorite pair of pants and pinching the bridge of his nose in a fruitless attempt to stop the tears from screwing up his makeup. Get. Yourself. Together. Genji’s slow melt into a puddle of self pity was interrupted by a buzzing in his left pocket. Genji sniffled, wiping his eyes as he quickly reached for his phone, a glimmer of hope sparkling in his chest for just a moment. The glow of the small rectangle blinded him for a moment, he squinted at the machine before his eyes adjusted. Swiping through an endless horde of stupid apps he’d never touch, he landed on the messages app- one new text. Genji bit his lip and held his breath as his thumb came down on the little green square, hoping to God that this was a callback. Gramma ? 12/18/20XX 9:41 pm “Hi, Genji… I know youre very busy up in new york these days but we were all wondering if you plan on coming down for a visit this christmas? We’d all love to see you very much… if you need can buy you plsne ticket Miss you xoxo Grandma” Genji let his breath go and slumped his shoulders. Oh shit, of course, how could he have forgotten? Christmas was in like, what, a week? Shit, he hadn’t even thought about that until just now. The holidays had been mostly unimportant to Genji for the last couple of years, he had been trying to make something of himself and… frankly he’d been using that as an excuse to not have to see his family. The holidays didn’t exactly… matter too much to Genji. He saw them as just another excuse to eat yourself out of house and home and buy presents for people you’d rather not be around any other time of the year. He wouldn’t really mind staying behind and missing just one more year… but he knew his grandmother would. She wouldn’t let him hear the end of it in her own weird, passive aggressive way she always did. It’d be like the time he had first come to stay with her and he in all his preteen anger wrote, you, old bitch” on her bathroom mirror in permanent marker. She wasn’t happy about that. She still brings it up, Genji sighed deeply through his nose, bringing the keyboard up on his phone with a quick tap, thumbs hovering over the letters. He hesitated, mind running through what he should say. He began typing. “Hey, gramma, I’d love to bu” Ugh. No. “Grammy, I’m sorry but somethi” Not right either. “No.” … Genji stared at it for a moment, the two little letters. His gaze shifted back and forth between the word and the send button. He pondered it, what it would be like if he sent the simple message. Such an unassuming pair of letters that could totally lift this burden off of his shoulders, albeit crushing his grandmother in the process. A morbidly curious part of himself wondered for a moment how his grandmother would react if he decided to be so hartlessly blunt. The part of him that isn’t totally devoid of empathy told him not to- just accept it, go back home for Christmas. Not like he had anything planned for this month anyways. Or next month. Or any month. He tapped the backspace key a few times before drafting out a final message. “Sure, I think I can come down this year ! I can buy my own ticket dont worry abt it haha cant wait to see you an aymee again, miss you ! xoxo :)” Send. He should probably start looking for plane tickets. ~~~ Spirit airlines suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Genji had spent the past 6 hours thinking that to himself on the plane and as he unfolded his gangly frame from the confines of the cramped seats and he lugged his suitcases off the plane and down the jet bridge, it was the cherry on top of a flurry of thoughts spiraling through his head, not too many of which being positive. As he made his way down the corridor, through the airport, and out to the car pickup, he scrolled aimlessly through his phone, switching between home screens over and over again and pretending that the time was the most interesting thing in the world- well, December 22nd 20XX actually wasn’t the least interesting date in the world, he guessed. Standing at the curb, Genji tucked the phone back into his pocket, leaning against the old suitcase and cuddling into his jacket for a moment, it was chillier than he’d expected it to be. He scanned over the cars in front of him, looking for the red subaru he was told was going to pick him up. He wasn’t sure who would be driving the car, exactly, his grandmother was never great at being specific with these sorts of things, but he was expecting something uncomfortable to usher him into this weekend, so he wasn’t really expecting much. Shifting his weight between his feet, he glanced over at his obnoxiously large bag- he hoped it would be one of the big subarus. Honk. The sudden noise startled him out of his train of thought, his eyes darted up to meet the sight of a big red subaru. Well, shit, maybe luck’s in his favor today. He let out a sigh of relief as he grabbed his bag, approaching the car, it’s window rolling down with a whirr and- Oh! Oh shit! “Edie?” Genji’s entire face lit up at the mere sight of her, his sister with her mop of curly white hair tied up in one big puff and a pair of big, white rimmed sunglasses obscuring her eyes underneath. She flashed a smile and waggled her fingers at him in a greeting. “No, who’s that? You’ve got me mistaken.” Edie teased, “Never heard of her. Cute name, though, bet she’s hot.” “Shut up,” Genji chuckled, pulling the car door open. Edie stuck her tongue out at him before directing her attention towards the road and pulling out. Genji flipped the sun visor down, opening the little mirror hidden there within and poking at his eyelashes, “I didn’t know you were allowed to drive. Aren’t you like, half blind or something? Maybe too short to reach the pedals?” “No, I’m not,” Edie responded, “I have my contacts in, anyways. Don’t worry about it, they gave me my license. And it’s not my fault I wasn’t born a human telephone pole, at least I’m proportioned right.” Genji feigned a gasp. “Human telephone pole?” Genji picked at the corners of his eyes, flicking a bit of sleep out of them, “God damn, Edith, you don’t see me for what, two years and you’re already making fun of me? Insulting me? I’m so hurt. You totally lack empathy.” Edie scoffed. “I totally lack empathy?” Edie glanced over at the seat next to her, a pinkish iris peeking just over the top of her sunglasses, “I’m not the one that left home for hella years and didn’t call his sister once.” Genji bit the inside of his cheek, peeking over to meet her gaze before averting it once again. Edie was right, he really couldn’t deny it, he hadn’t really been making an effort to call home unless someone had called him first. Once again it all boiled down to that failure thing. He felt a prickling sensation creep its way up his neck. He scratched. “Uh… yeah.” He mumbled, flipping the sun visor back up, “Sorry.” Edie shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.” She sighed, “Just happy I’m seeing you now, y’know?” Genji paused. “You’re happy to see me?” “Yeah? Duh.” Edie smirked, “Am I not allowed to miss my little brother or something? We’re not 13 anymore, we can say we’re happy to see each other.”Genji nodded and let out a half hearted chuckle.The two sat in silence together, the whirr of the engine and shitty pop song on the radio complementing each other nicely. Typically Edie would’ve given him like, a lot more shit than that. It was very strange to hear her seem genuinely happy to see him, weird to hear her say she missed him. Maybe it’s because they were damn near attached at the hip throughout their childhood, she hadn’t had a chance to properly miss him. They’d spent every single day together for years, the last two had been the first they’d been apart in ages.Genji took to staring out the window at the redwoods as they drove past to try and stuff down the growing feeling of guilt pooling in his chest. He scratched his neck again. ~~~ Edie hadn’t bothered to help Genji with his luggage when they reached their destination, opting instead to skitter up the porch stairs and into the house. Genji grunted as he lugged the bags up the stairs and mentally cursed his grandmother for not making the stupid stairs a little less steep when she was remodeling the house. He struggled against his feet until he reached the top of the stairs and his feet landed on solid, unwavering ground. Back turned away from the door, he hadn’t noticed the little old lady pushing said door open. “Oh!” A voice cracked with age exclaimed, genuine happiness lining the edges of her tone, “Oh, Genji, I’m so glad you came!” Genji froze up when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist, breath hitching as he glanced down at the pair of weathered hands. He had never liked being touched. Especially without warning. “Ah-” Genji cleared his throat, “Hi- Hi Gramma.” He pursed his lips together in a smile as he turned towards the smaller woman. She let him go, thank god. “You’re still wearing your funny outfits?” Grandma questioned, tapping the top of Genji’s boot with her socked foot, “I don’t even know where you find boots that go up that high. How long is it going to take you to get them off? Nevermind, come in, you’ll catch a cold out here.” Grandma walked back inside, gesturing to Genji to follow her. He bit the inside of his cheek, saying nothing but following behind nonetheless. It was exactly how he remembered it. Hideous. He scrunched his nose as he scanned over the living room, painted a familiar yet repulsive shade of brown, decorated floor to ceiling with antique cuckoo clocks, gaudy crucifixes, and old school photos of him and Edie. He scoffed at one particular photo of himself- he still had his natural hair color and had just gotten braces put on, he hadn’t been sure how to smile with them on yet and was grimacing more than he was grinning. Directly under the wall of overt nastiness was a bright green plastic lined couch that clashed horribly with the rest of the room, sticking out like a sore thumb against the brownness of the rest of the room. The coffee table was new, actually, a glass top table with a plant in the middle, a few envelopes and receipts scattered about on it. It wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever seen. There was an old plastic christmas tree standing in front of the window, decorated with ornaments both new and old. The bottom of the tree was adorned with general orb ornaments while the top was full of old ones Genji and Edie had made- probably there so the cat had a harder time getting to them. “Genji, do you want some coffee, dear?” Grandma called from the kitchen, “You must be tired.” Genji’s chest tightened. “No thank you.” “Are you sure, honey?” “Yes. I’m sure.” “Don’t be snotty.” Genji chomped harder on the inside of his cheek. He hates when she says that. “I’ll try.” He hissed under his breath, “I’m going to go get settled in, ok?” His grandmother’s head poked out of the kitchen door, smiling in rosy cheeks. “Alrighty, hon, it’ll be here if you change your mind.” Genji let out an agitated ‘Mhm’ before lugging his bags up yet another flight of unforgiving stairs. He fumbled awkwardly as he tried to open the door to his childhood bedroom with full hands, he eventually settled on pushing the doorknob down with an elbow and the door open with his hip, he ducked under the doorframe and found himself standing in what used to be his bedroom. Once again, it was almost exactly how he remembered it, his side of the room was, at least. Grandma probably hadn’t touched it and he guessed Edie had enough respect for him to leave his shit alone. His old, twin bed sat on the left side of the room, blankets tucked neatly into the mattress and pillow fluffed to perfection, just the way he liked it. Above the bed was a shelf bolted into the wall, a couple miscellaneous participation trophies, stuffed animals and action figures sitting there undisturbed, accumulating dust. Right next to the large window adjacent from the door, framed with sheer, lacey curtains, was a poster for some boy band that wasn’t together anymore. His eyes drifted away from the familiarity of his side of the room and landed on Edie’s side, which stood now in stark contrast to the other half. What used to be an exact copy of his side was now almost unrecognizable. Edie was there, laying in bed flipping through a book, (of course she was, she hadn’t even tried to help him with his bag. Bitch.), on top of a very new looking purple comforter. He expected this. Edie was an adult now and obviously would want to replace the ratty old comforters Grandma had had them sleeping with, but it wasn’t that that caught his eye, no. Above Edie’s bed was a shelf much like his own, but her’s was decorated with several shiny trophies and awards- stuff he hadn’t remembered ever being there. “What are those?” Genji inquired, rolling his suitcase in the room in front of him. “What?” Edie glanced over her book, her eyes were on full display now, sunglasses having been discarded. “Those.” Genji gestured to the awards with his head, Edie followed his point. “Oh- oh, yeah, that’s just some uh,” Edie’s gaze fell back to the pages of her novel, “Blackjack tournament stuff.” “Oh yeah?” He mused, “You didn’t tell me you were competitively gambling now.” “Mhm, something like that. You never asked.” Genji’s neck started to itch again as he turned away. Yeah, okay, he hadn’t asked, but how the hell was that supposed to come up in conversation. He huffed a bit through his nose as he began unpacking his things. “Jesus, you haven’t changed a bit,” Edie commented, “Do you own clothes in any other color?” Genji’s neck was still itchy. “Nope.” He kept folding, slapping the t shirt he was holding down onto his bed with a thwap. “Seriously? I’ll have to take you shopping, or whatever. Seriously though, who’s gonna take you seriously when you wear exclusively pink? You couldn’t have chosen a less eye bleeding color?” Genji’s neck was starting to get a little unbearable. “I need to go to the bathroom.” Genji didn’t turn to face Edie before he left. “Don’t fall in.” Edie called after him. Ugh. Slamming the bathroom door behind him, Genji leaned dramatically against the porcelain sink, haphazardly turning the tap on and splashing some water in his face. He groaned lightly to himself as he stood up straight, looking at himself in the mirror. He scowled at himself. Inspecting his face a bit, he ran a hand against his jawline and- Wait. Genji squinted his eyes at his own reflection, tilting his head a little farther. His hand moved to run against the back of his neck- prickly. He tilted his head a little farther. He ran a finger against his neck. Sprouting from the back of his neck was a cascade of dark brown… things. He poked at it a bit more, involuntarily wrinkling his nose at the sight. Was that hair? Arts & Humanities Writing Creative Writing ENGLISH 1A Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)
