Harsh Words: by Vanessa S. Quest
Jonny sat at his desk in his 6th period English 10 Honors class. He read over a poem of a local student. Without looking at the author, he began reading it.
His day had started off with him waking up late, missing breakfast, banging his head on the door, even he didn't know how he pulled that stunt off... and then missing the bus and having to walk to school. Each period people in the classes just stared at him, the normally talkative, bright eyed, wavy haired dream boat was dull, wary, and his hair was still matted from last night's slumber.
In Social Studies, right before his English class, he had messed up his speech he had to give on the Industrial Revolution, in fact, saying he was in American History and that he had based his report on Britain's Industrial Revolution... well, needless to say it was slaughter.
He sat near the window embarassed in English class, distractedly and angrily he read the poem in a whisper to himself. "The due drops covered the grass, the grass covered the naked ground, the ground which covered the Earth." He thought to himself how much these verses sucked. "The Earth, the Water, nature's pecious gifts..." Jonny lowered the poem. "Oh Brother, does this suck." Jonny finished reading the poem that to him seemed clattered, unknown to him that it was not meant as a full story-poem like the Raven, a poem-short story they had been working on only yesterday, but a heikou, Japanese poetry that used a pattern of anywhere from 3, to 5, to 7 to 17 sillables in one line of poetry to describe nature. It was abnormal even to heikou's standards.
He began writing a review on the angry day. The pen moved in such a way that it said, "This poem sucks, it has no point... what moron wrote this?" he put the paper down, then took out another piece of paper and began writing something else.
The opened window let in a small breeze, enough to disgruntle Jonny as his papers flew across the room. One of them, his review, the poem landed on Jessie's desk and she read the short message accidentally. The harsh words were too cold even for her, she turned back to see whom had written it, and Jonny chased down the paper.
"Hey Jess..." Jonny said, taking the paper back.
Jessie did not speak until the end of the period, where she preceded to calmly state, "Fuck you Quest! That was MY poem, did you know that?" Jonny winced, thinking that was the end of it as Jessie stormed out, he leaned into a wall by the door and began to thuroughly smack himself in the head.
Later that day, actually, next period, Jonny sat in the back of the classroom thinking of what he could do after school, he was oblivious to the chatter up front until some rather loud words caught his ear. "That asshole, did you see what he wrote?! Jessie told me, he is such a jerk!"
Jonny sighed, then heard more rattle in the bird cage. "Yeah, but get this... he didn't like the poem, it was so spiritual, it was awesome." Five girls and three boys glared back at him. He sighed and slid down his chair.
"Great, what? Am I not allowed to have an opinion?" Jonny bickered, he should have known it was only fanning the fires... and with that, the wildfire grew.
"She's your best friend, you think you'd be a little more sensitive to her, god! She didn't deserve your bull shit!" Marissa said glaring at him, "You know she was in the bathroom crying about it during the period change." Marissa took Jonny's notebook and dumped it.
As if his day hadn't been bad enough, now he upsetted someone he really cared about... accidentally too. Got tormented for the rest of the day, and was beginning to blame Jessie for the assaults, it took him five minutes past too late to realize it was too late for him to apologize even though he meant no harm, but had seemingly caused irreparable damage.
He went to his room to sulk. Jessie had already been there though, he could tell because se thrashed his notebooks and wrote giant words over all his personal writing books "YOU SUCK" in pink lipstick. Jonny crawled back into himself, that really didn't help him at all, he already felt terrible and noone would believe him. Jonny took off his shoes and sat in his bed, wrapping his arms around his legs as he wept into his knees.
Jonny thought he got it all out of his system when his dad called up to him, "Jonny, someone's on the phone." He figured it had passed... jonny lifted the receiver and his father hung up.
"Quest, you suck, you prick!" And the phone went dead. He sighed and hung up the phone, a few hundred times in anger. He laid back down, another phone rang. Jonny didn't answer.
"Jonny, it's for you again." Dr. Quest called up.
Jonny sighed, he picked it up. "Hello..." Jonny said before more screaming ensued.
"You ASSHOLE! You're such a hypocrite, your stuff is so stupid, a typing baboon makes for better reading then YOUR CRAP!" *Click* they hung up. Jonny walked to his closet and sat down inside it. He had left the phone off hook so no one else could call and harass him. Inside the closet he thought to himself every mean thing the people had said and he agreed with the most of it. He began banging his head into the back wall, in a slow rhythm, making loud *thunk, dunk, thunk, dunk* noises. He hummed to himself how much of an asshole he was, and began to get more depressed then the day had allowed.
Realizing Jonny couldn't hide in the closet forever he got out and took out a notebook and a pen, both of which read how much he sucked and returned back to the dark closet.
"Dear Jessie, even though it's too late and you don't probably care, I'm sorry. I don't know why I wrote what I wrote, but it was wrong, and I never meant for you to see it. But that's no excuse. I was wrong and I'm a terrible human being. I hope by you reading this it hurts you less to think of how a low person couldn't understnad your angle rather than an equal. Please forgive..." he crossed out the please forgive me part about ten times, "I know forgiveness is out of the question, so please just know I'm sorry and what I did was lowly. -Jonny." With that he folded the letter a three times and stood up and stepped out of the closet. He walked out of his room, down the hall and over to Jessie's room. He slid the letter under the door as the door began to open.
Jessie yelled at him, "Bastard! What do you want." she said harsh things she thought she might soon regret. She in anger slammed the door on his turned face as he had looked away not wanting to face her eyes. His cheek red from where the door struck, Jonny walked back to his room heavy hearted. He began thinking about the pains of his life, forgetting most of his joys. He locked his door.
"What's it matter." He whispered to himself, turning his sharp, opened pocket knife into his hand. He made small nicks and scrapes as he played with the knife. "I hate myself, and everyone else does too... why would they not." Jonny's eyes welled up. "I'm such an asshole and I don't even see it..." he cut into his flesh of his hand absorbed into his thoughts. "I screw everything up... dammit, why am I such a fuck up?" he said crying in the pains of his words over the pains to his body, he looked down ashamed, then noticed the blood. He, shocked, dropped the knife and cradled his hand.
A knock sounded at his door. Jonny held a towel, a burgandy colored one, over his hand as he went to the door. He wiped his eyes then said before opening the door in his strongest, most cheery voice he could muster. "Wh-ho is it?" He said, his voice had cracked slightly.
"Jonny, we need to talk, open the door." Jessie said with a heavy voice. Jonny unlocked the door and cracked it open.
"Ye-yes? What do you want?" He said, turn to face the wall, to ashamed to face her... as if he felt her hate towards him radiate, even though most of it was really his own towards himself.
"Jonny, I read the letter. And if you think for one second that bull shit apology is going to count for anything..."
Jonny began to cry to himself facing the wall. His whole body felt heavy, he wailed to her, "I know it's not worth the paper it's written on... I knew you couldn't forgive me, I'm a bastard for even trying... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... a hundred times but it's not enough. I know you hate me so just let me be, I'll take care of what I need to do myself, don't bother dirtying your hands..." He leaned behind the bed, his words were with such power to his convictions, as he spoke with thousands of butterflies chirning in him at once...
"...you were absolutely right. Jonny?! What's wrong? I over reacted, but you were being such a... such a... JERK... and you didn't even apologize... and it hurt, a lot." Jessie said, looking down.
Jonny still behind the bed sitting facing the window depressed. "...were...?" Jonny said in a cracking whisper.
"Yeah, as in past tense, now you're still being a jerk, but not towards me, towards yourself. You're being such an asshole to yourself that I'm gonna have to beat you up if you keep picking on my amigo Jonny!"
Jonny laughed a pathetic half laugh, then wiped the snot from his nose as he cried slightly less. He covered his face. "Why stop though Jess, it's so easy... I mean just look at the loser."
"I'm not here to boost or cut your esteem, if you wanna sit in your room and feel sorry for yourself, fine... but first I'm making you suffer through my new heikou."
"Heikou? I thought it was just a regular poem... I am such an ass..."
"HURT... words so strong they break the soul. SOUL, with new resolve to make new journeys opening the mind. MIND with mind comes body with body comes friends. Friends Hurt. Friends Love... the end." Jessie smiled and kissed Jonny's forehead. "Now wash up and get ready for that movie!" Jessie snapped. A slight competitive smile etched her lips as she was truly a greater person that day.
End.
Jonny sat at his desk in his 6th period English 10 Honors class. He read over a poem of a local student. Without looking at the author, he began reading it.
His day had started off with him waking up late, missing breakfast, banging his head on the door, even he didn't know how he pulled that stunt off... and then missing the bus and having to walk to school. Each period people in the classes just stared at him, the normally talkative, bright eyed, wavy haired dream boat was dull, wary, and his hair was still matted from last night's slumber.
In Social Studies, right before his English class, he had messed up his speech he had to give on the Industrial Revolution, in fact, saying he was in American History and that he had based his report on Britain's Industrial Revolution... well, needless to say it was slaughter.
He sat near the window embarassed in English class, distractedly and angrily he read the poem in a whisper to himself. "The due drops covered the grass, the grass covered the naked ground, the ground which covered the Earth." He thought to himself how much these verses sucked. "The Earth, the Water, nature's pecious gifts..." Jonny lowered the poem. "Oh Brother, does this suck." Jonny finished reading the poem that to him seemed clattered, unknown to him that it was not meant as a full story-poem like the Raven, a poem-short story they had been working on only yesterday, but a heikou, Japanese poetry that used a pattern of anywhere from 3, to 5, to 7 to 17 sillables in one line of poetry to describe nature. It was abnormal even to heikou's standards.
He began writing a review on the angry day. The pen moved in such a way that it said, "This poem sucks, it has no point... what moron wrote this?" he put the paper down, then took out another piece of paper and began writing something else.
The opened window let in a small breeze, enough to disgruntle Jonny as his papers flew across the room. One of them, his review, the poem landed on Jessie's desk and she read the short message accidentally. The harsh words were too cold even for her, she turned back to see whom had written it, and Jonny chased down the paper.
"Hey Jess..." Jonny said, taking the paper back.
Jessie did not speak until the end of the period, where she preceded to calmly state, "Fuck you Quest! That was MY poem, did you know that?" Jonny winced, thinking that was the end of it as Jessie stormed out, he leaned into a wall by the door and began to thuroughly smack himself in the head.
Later that day, actually, next period, Jonny sat in the back of the classroom thinking of what he could do after school, he was oblivious to the chatter up front until some rather loud words caught his ear. "That asshole, did you see what he wrote?! Jessie told me, he is such a jerk!"
Jonny sighed, then heard more rattle in the bird cage. "Yeah, but get this... he didn't like the poem, it was so spiritual, it was awesome." Five girls and three boys glared back at him. He sighed and slid down his chair.
"Great, what? Am I not allowed to have an opinion?" Jonny bickered, he should have known it was only fanning the fires... and with that, the wildfire grew.
"She's your best friend, you think you'd be a little more sensitive to her, god! She didn't deserve your bull shit!" Marissa said glaring at him, "You know she was in the bathroom crying about it during the period change." Marissa took Jonny's notebook and dumped it.
As if his day hadn't been bad enough, now he upsetted someone he really cared about... accidentally too. Got tormented for the rest of the day, and was beginning to blame Jessie for the assaults, it took him five minutes past too late to realize it was too late for him to apologize even though he meant no harm, but had seemingly caused irreparable damage.
He went to his room to sulk. Jessie had already been there though, he could tell because se thrashed his notebooks and wrote giant words over all his personal writing books "YOU SUCK" in pink lipstick. Jonny crawled back into himself, that really didn't help him at all, he already felt terrible and noone would believe him. Jonny took off his shoes and sat in his bed, wrapping his arms around his legs as he wept into his knees.
Jonny thought he got it all out of his system when his dad called up to him, "Jonny, someone's on the phone." He figured it had passed... jonny lifted the receiver and his father hung up.
"Quest, you suck, you prick!" And the phone went dead. He sighed and hung up the phone, a few hundred times in anger. He laid back down, another phone rang. Jonny didn't answer.
"Jonny, it's for you again." Dr. Quest called up.
Jonny sighed, he picked it up. "Hello..." Jonny said before more screaming ensued.
"You ASSHOLE! You're such a hypocrite, your stuff is so stupid, a typing baboon makes for better reading then YOUR CRAP!" *Click* they hung up. Jonny walked to his closet and sat down inside it. He had left the phone off hook so no one else could call and harass him. Inside the closet he thought to himself every mean thing the people had said and he agreed with the most of it. He began banging his head into the back wall, in a slow rhythm, making loud *thunk, dunk, thunk, dunk* noises. He hummed to himself how much of an asshole he was, and began to get more depressed then the day had allowed.
Realizing Jonny couldn't hide in the closet forever he got out and took out a notebook and a pen, both of which read how much he sucked and returned back to the dark closet.
"Dear Jessie, even though it's too late and you don't probably care, I'm sorry. I don't know why I wrote what I wrote, but it was wrong, and I never meant for you to see it. But that's no excuse. I was wrong and I'm a terrible human being. I hope by you reading this it hurts you less to think of how a low person couldn't understnad your angle rather than an equal. Please forgive..." he crossed out the please forgive me part about ten times, "I know forgiveness is out of the question, so please just know I'm sorry and what I did was lowly. -Jonny." With that he folded the letter a three times and stood up and stepped out of the closet. He walked out of his room, down the hall and over to Jessie's room. He slid the letter under the door as the door began to open.
Jessie yelled at him, "Bastard! What do you want." she said harsh things she thought she might soon regret. She in anger slammed the door on his turned face as he had looked away not wanting to face her eyes. His cheek red from where the door struck, Jonny walked back to his room heavy hearted. He began thinking about the pains of his life, forgetting most of his joys. He locked his door.
"What's it matter." He whispered to himself, turning his sharp, opened pocket knife into his hand. He made small nicks and scrapes as he played with the knife. "I hate myself, and everyone else does too... why would they not." Jonny's eyes welled up. "I'm such an asshole and I don't even see it..." he cut into his flesh of his hand absorbed into his thoughts. "I screw everything up... dammit, why am I such a fuck up?" he said crying in the pains of his words over the pains to his body, he looked down ashamed, then noticed the blood. He, shocked, dropped the knife and cradled his hand.
A knock sounded at his door. Jonny held a towel, a burgandy colored one, over his hand as he went to the door. He wiped his eyes then said before opening the door in his strongest, most cheery voice he could muster. "Wh-ho is it?" He said, his voice had cracked slightly.
"Jonny, we need to talk, open the door." Jessie said with a heavy voice. Jonny unlocked the door and cracked it open.
"Ye-yes? What do you want?" He said, turn to face the wall, to ashamed to face her... as if he felt her hate towards him radiate, even though most of it was really his own towards himself.
"Jonny, I read the letter. And if you think for one second that bull shit apology is going to count for anything..."
Jonny began to cry to himself facing the wall. His whole body felt heavy, he wailed to her, "I know it's not worth the paper it's written on... I knew you couldn't forgive me, I'm a bastard for even trying... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... a hundred times but it's not enough. I know you hate me so just let me be, I'll take care of what I need to do myself, don't bother dirtying your hands..." He leaned behind the bed, his words were with such power to his convictions, as he spoke with thousands of butterflies chirning in him at once...
"...you were absolutely right. Jonny?! What's wrong? I over reacted, but you were being such a... such a... JERK... and you didn't even apologize... and it hurt, a lot." Jessie said, looking down.
Jonny still behind the bed sitting facing the window depressed. "...were...?" Jonny said in a cracking whisper.
"Yeah, as in past tense, now you're still being a jerk, but not towards me, towards yourself. You're being such an asshole to yourself that I'm gonna have to beat you up if you keep picking on my amigo Jonny!"
Jonny laughed a pathetic half laugh, then wiped the snot from his nose as he cried slightly less. He covered his face. "Why stop though Jess, it's so easy... I mean just look at the loser."
"I'm not here to boost or cut your esteem, if you wanna sit in your room and feel sorry for yourself, fine... but first I'm making you suffer through my new heikou."
"Heikou? I thought it was just a regular poem... I am such an ass..."
"HURT... words so strong they break the soul. SOUL, with new resolve to make new journeys opening the mind. MIND with mind comes body with body comes friends. Friends Hurt. Friends Love... the end." Jessie smiled and kissed Jonny's forehead. "Now wash up and get ready for that movie!" Jessie snapped. A slight competitive smile etched her lips as she was truly a greater person that day.
End.