p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Instead of drying my tears, em'The Whale'/em by Mark Beauregard fills me with regret. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why am I so idiotic? Why am I so blind? I should have known! I should have kept my mouth shut, alike the characters that somehow thrive within these pages./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" My teary eyes fail to read the words that fill the paper, causing me to throw the overpriced book across the room, knocking over a glass on the coffee table. An inhuman noise escapes my lungs in distress; I can never talk to him again./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" 12, 1, 2, 3am... And at 9 I'm working for the same man that shunned me from his life./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Classical music, people talking, and the smell of the assortment of tea fills my senses. Surprisingly, I rolled out of bed and ran out of my apartment just in time to make it here at 9:00am on the dot... even though I don't plan to meet anyone./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "What could I get for you, sir?" The blonde lady beams at my tired, gloomy figure./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Uh, earl grey would be good." I don't even bother to look up at the menu. It's packed with teas that I had never had, let alone heard of./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Would that be cream, decaf, or regular earl grey?" I stop in the middle of the attempt of tugging my wallet out of my jeans./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Uhm, regular's fine." I frown to myself. Although it's going fine so far, his place feels a bit too fancy... especially because I was charged $4.89 for a fucking tea. Vincent picked the wrong place for me to persuade./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I get to a small square table, flip up my laptop lid, and open my email. em'63 unread messages' /emFloats at the top of my work inbox. Shit. The last thing i want to do is read all these stupid-ass messages (90% sure most of them are e-vites to shitty picnics that already passed.)/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" As a scroll through my emails, I find there's an absence of messages from my father, the CEO of Funtom co., my boss, and the very human who's now avoiding me at all costs. I'm at Oolong tea house today to work for him. I've been jumping from independent coffee shop to independent coffee shop for him. He's been telling me the time, place and details; but this time, he fails to send an email encompassing the very facts, in which I can't begin work without. Thanks, father./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I try not to scream as my hands shoot up towards my face. "shit." I mumble as my body tenses up and shrinks from an embarrassing memory that somehow floated into my mind. My trembling hands, the shitty wording, that fucking letter causes me so much damn pain. I shake my head in an attempt to get rid of my stale memories and continue to stare at my, now empty, inbox./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I sigh, take my book out of my bag, and waste my time getting lost in the story./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Well. At least I try to./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /em em'...But the old three-cornered hat,/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /ememAnd the breeches, and all that,/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /ememAre so queer!'/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" The poem stands apart from the rest of the story. And that single word stands apart of the poem like a sore thumb./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /em em'...Queer!'/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Ha, it would have been much easier to tape a simple word to my forehead instead of humiliating the shit out of myself./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Excuse me, sir." my eyes flutter open to a young red-haired boy who nudges me on the shoulder. "We're closing." His face remains placid enough for me to realize that he could give less shits for his job./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Oh, sorry." My eyes shoot open and my head darts up; my face hot and painted bright red. I look down to the table. My book is propped open as well as my laptop, which turned itself off. I stuff them into my messenger bag in a hurry; an attempt to make it out of this coffee shop without dying of embarrassment./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" The brown, wooden chairs are flipped and stacked on the tables after a not-so-thorough wipe with a beat-up cloth and a bright blue liquid that resembles Windex... for all I know it could be Gatorade. Just as my bag swings around my shoulder, the chair opposite from the one I was previously sitting on is turned and stacked by a tall man with longish black hair and a neutral expression plastered on his face. Right as my sapphire eyes meet his blood red ones, he flashes a grin then turns to the table behind him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" As I leave, the air in the room is still dead and silent, with the frequent spray of "Windex" or the chairs dragging on the hardwood floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Wet hair, a shitty microwave meal, and a bottle of red wine... but usually it's just a glass./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I pace around the small couch that casually sits inside my prestigious apartment, taking slight glances outside the ceiling-to-floor windows that gives me a view of buildings that tower over the streets, cars, and people./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" em"I don't care how you do the job,"/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I continue to pace, and pace, and pace; until my head drowns in thoughts of the call I had just /br /em "just as long as you get it done."/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /emI had always heard people telling others to come out as if it wasn't a big deal, although it is. Some people are blind to the fact that they're putting a lock on the door that leads out to happiness and freedom, because of the closed minded people that those individuals "trust"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" em"I shouldn't be anyone more than the person who pays you."/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /emI take another gulp of red wine. The bottle gets lighter and lighter, just as the sky gets darker and darker. It could have just been three words, 'I am gay.' but even then, he would have acted the same; so why did I waste my time?/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" em"Goodbye."/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" And why should I still have to? /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" My teary eyes fail to read the words that fill the paper, causing me to throw the overpriced book across the room, knocking over a glass on the coffee table. An inhuman noise escapes my lungs in distress; I can never talk to him again./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" 12, 1, 2, 3am... And at 9 I'm working for the same man that shunned me from his life./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Classical music, people talking, and the smell of the assortment of tea fills my senses. Surprisingly, I rolled out of bed and ran out of my apartment just in time to make it here at 9:00am on the dot... even though I don't plan to meet anyone./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "What could I get for you, sir?" The blonde lady beams at my tired, gloomy figure./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Uh, earl grey would be good." I don't even bother to look up at the menu. It's packed with teas that I had never had, let alone heard of./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Would that be cream, decaf, or regular earl grey?" I stop in the middle of the attempt of tugging my wallet out of my jeans./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Uhm, regular's fine." I frown to myself. Although it's going fine so far, his place feels a bit too fancy... especially because I was charged $4.89 for a fucking tea. Vincent picked the wrong place for me to persuade./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I get to a small square table, flip up my laptop lid, and open my email. em'63 unread messages' /emFloats at the top of my work inbox. Shit. The last thing i want to do is read all these stupid-ass messages (90% sure most of them are e-vites to shitty picnics that already passed.)/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" As a scroll through my emails, I find there's an absence of messages from my father, the CEO of Funtom co., my boss, and the very human who's now avoiding me at all costs. I'm at Oolong tea house today to work for him. I've been jumping from independent coffee shop to independent coffee shop for him. He's been telling me the time, place and details; but this time, he fails to send an email encompassing the very facts, in which I can't begin work without. Thanks, father./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I try not to scream as my hands shoot up towards my face. "shit." I mumble as my body tenses up and shrinks from an embarrassing memory that somehow floated into my mind. My trembling hands, the shitty wording, that fucking letter causes me so much damn pain. I shake my head in an attempt to get rid of my stale memories and continue to stare at my, now empty, inbox./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I sigh, take my book out of my bag, and waste my time getting lost in the story./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Well. At least I try to./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /em em'...But the old three-cornered hat,/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /ememAnd the breeches, and all that,/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /ememAre so queer!'/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" The poem stands apart from the rest of the story. And that single word stands apart of the poem like a sore thumb./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /em em'...Queer!'/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Ha, it would have been much easier to tape a simple word to my forehead instead of humiliating the shit out of myself./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Excuse me, sir." my eyes flutter open to a young red-haired boy who nudges me on the shoulder. "We're closing." His face remains placid enough for me to realize that he could give less shits for his job./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" "Oh, sorry." My eyes shoot open and my head darts up; my face hot and painted bright red. I look down to the table. My book is propped open as well as my laptop, which turned itself off. I stuff them into my messenger bag in a hurry; an attempt to make it out of this coffee shop without dying of embarrassment./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" The brown, wooden chairs are flipped and stacked on the tables after a not-so-thorough wipe with a beat-up cloth and a bright blue liquid that resembles Windex... for all I know it could be Gatorade. Just as my bag swings around my shoulder, the chair opposite from the one I was previously sitting on is turned and stacked by a tall man with longish black hair and a neutral expression plastered on his face. Right as my sapphire eyes meet his blood red ones, he flashes a grin then turns to the table behind him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" As I leave, the air in the room is still dead and silent, with the frequent spray of "Windex" or the chairs dragging on the hardwood floor./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
hr style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" Wet hair, a shitty microwave meal, and a bottle of red wine... but usually it's just a glass./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I pace around the small couch that casually sits inside my prestigious apartment, taking slight glances outside the ceiling-to-floor windows that gives me a view of buildings that tower over the streets, cars, and people./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" em"I don't care how you do the job,"/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" I continue to pace, and pace, and pace; until my head drowns in thoughts of the call I had just /br /em "just as long as you get it done."/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /emI had always heard people telling others to come out as if it wasn't a big deal, although it is. Some people are blind to the fact that they're putting a lock on the door that leads out to happiness and freedom, because of the closed minded people that those individuals "trust"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" em"I shouldn't be anyone more than the person who pays you."/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;"em /emI take another gulp of red wine. The bottle gets lighter and lighter, just as the sky gets darker and darker. It could have just been three words, 'I am gay.' but even then, he would have acted the same; so why did I waste my time?/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" em"Goodbye."/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.8004px;" And why should I still have to? /p