Short Story Tag: The Gift

So HallyuFangirl nominated me to do this short story post. Thank you for putting labor on to me where I’m forced to think a little harder for a post. 😛 It was fun actually. So thanks again for the nomination! And if you haven’t already, check out HallyuFangirl’s blog!

This is the first time, I think, that you will see how horrible my creative writing is. And when I mean, “horrible,” I mean that I haven’t shown people my creative work (until now). I wrote stuff, but I haven’t really shown anyone. So I have no idea how this will go…

Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you.
• Create a short story containing the words the person who nominated you provided.
• Nominate one person and give them twelve words to create their own story with.
• Tell the person who created the tag.

My Words:

1. Japan
2. Naruto Shippuden
3. Anime
4. Infires
5. Jams
6. Fanfiction
7. Fangirl
8. Algebra
9. Discombobulated
10. *Gwiyomi
11. Taekwondo
12. Something

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“The Gift” (2015)

By LynLynSays

Staring at a blank page on my Macbook. My boss is so gonna yell at me for not having a story again. I’m about to miss another deadline. The third one this month. Will I get paid? Highly doubt it.

My phone vibrated.  A text message from Tadashi.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Trying to write something,” I responded.

“Screw that. Come out. There is a fight going to happen at Middletown.”

Middletown is the hot spot for all the university students. It is more of a red light district as oppose to an actually city-town. A sin city, you can call it. The most popular attraction of it all: the fights.

As college tuition keeps getting more and more expensive,  students volunteer for these fights, where he or she gets in a brawl with another student. It is an easy, but deadly way to make cash. The winner gets enough money to pay for tuition for a semester. The loser, well he or she should be lucky that they are alive. Well, some people would prefer to be dead than to be alive. Sometimes, students just join these fights just to get “accidentally” killed as oppose to doing it themselves in a suicide act. As for the audience members, like me, we can bet against fighters or you can just watch.

I like to watch as oppose to betting. I’m not much of a gambler. My friend, Tadashi, though. He bets. And he loses. A lot.

We arrived at the fight arena in Middletown. “You gonna bet?” I asked Tadashi.

“Naw, not tonight. Just gonna check out the scene. Rumor has it, there is a new kid in town. Apparently, he has been smoking all his opponents.”

“No way,” I said in disbelief.

“Yes, way. He has a lot of money, but now he does it for charity.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“He makes money for college students. If someone is in need of tuition money, he would voluntarily put himself as a fighter, and try to win money for that student,” Tadashi explains.

“Oh wow.”

“Yeah, he is willing to put his life on the line for another student,” Tadashi said admiringly.

Before I could say anything else, the lights darken around us except for the boxing cage on center stage. The spotlight is on the referee. “Now for tonight’s match up…” the referee said.

“On the left corner, we have the ten-time champion, the Hammer!” Everyone cheered. “And on the right corner, we have our new fighter that has been on the radar lately for winning, the Maverick!” An even louder uproar was shown by the audience.

The referee went on, explaining the rules. And soon after the referee was done, the bell rang, indicating the start of the match.

With all the jams and punches we saw, it was hard to tell who the crowd was cheering for. Yet in just three rounds, the match ended as if it was just getting started. The Maverick roundhouse kicked the Hammer to the ground and discombobulated his face. It was all bad, but the crowd loved it. Everyone was cheering, and chanting, “MAVERICK! MAVERICK! MAVERICK!” As the cheering continued, the referee blew his whistle and raised the Maverick’s hand to declare him as the winner.

Tadashi and I watched a couple more matches before we decided to call it a night. Before we left, though, Tadashi had to use the restroom,”Hold on, gonna go to the restroom.”

“Okay, I’ll just wait here.” Tadashi left and I was standing around like a loner waiting for him. As I stood there, I saw a guy come out of the locker room where all the fighters would be.

“Good job,” said some random guy walking by and high-fiving the guy that just came out.

“Thank you,” the guy shyly replied back. I looked over to where the two guys were talking and noticed that the guy who came out of the locker room was the Maverick. He is a lot taller in person and looked a bit rough with his facial structure. I admit he is handsome, easy on the eyes, but that isn’t something I’d reveal right in front of his face.

After those two were done talking, the Maverick stood there looking around. “Why is Tadashi taking so long?” I thought to myself. I didn’t want to look like I was stalking or anything, so I got my phone out and pretended to look as if I was playing a game or some sort.

“Excuse me.”

I jumped. I was startled by the sound of a masculine voice near my ear. I looked over to see the Maverick right in front of me, so close to me. “Yes?” I answered. I didn’t know what he wanted, nor do I know what to say to him really.

“Do you mind telling me the time?” he asked.

“It’s 11:11 P.M,” I replied.

“Oh, make a wish.” He smiled.

I giggled. “Wishes like those never come true for me.”

“You’ll never know unless you try.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I just wished for a gwiyomi girl to talk to, and look who showed up.” He smiled again, a wide grin. He has some nice white teeth, I thought.

“That was smooth,” I said trying to act cool, but deep down I was impressed by his flirtatiousness.

“Yeah, I try.” We stood there silently again, not knowing what else to say to each other.

“So…” I said trying to break the silence.

“So…?”

“You were really cool up there.” Damn, I thought. Now he will think I’m like a fangirl of his.

Again, he smiled only this time he was a little embarrassed because his face turned a light shade of red. “Thanks…”

“No, really you were. Where did you learn to fight like that?”

“An anime.”

“What anime?” I was puzzled by his answer, but I was curious to find out what he means.

“Naruto Shippuden.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together, confused. I didn’t know what to make of his response.

“I’m kidding.”

“Oh!”

He chuckled. “When I was younger, I lived in Japan and took taekwondo lessons,” he explained.

“I see. That’s cool.”

“Yeah.”

Once again, the awkward silence came over us.

“I’m surprised,” he said.

“About what?”

“You being in a place like this. Middletown. A sin city.”

“Oh yeah…my friend convinced me to come. Just to take a break from writing.”

“Writing? What do you write? Fanfiction?”

“I do write fanfiction, but in this case, no. I write entertainment articles for a website.”

“Oh wow.” He sounded impressed. “What infires you to write?”

“Infires?” I was confused. Never heard that word before.

“Oh inspires. Sorry, sometimes my accent slips.”

I didn’t notice until now that he does have a Japanese accent as he spoke. “It’s cool. Just random stuff  and interests in my life that inspire me to write.”

“Oh, that’s cool.”

“Yeah, but right now I’m in a bind.” I didn’t have to mention the last part, but I wanted to. It doesn’t hurt to have someone to talk about your problems without being judged at.

“How so?”

“I haven’t submitted anything lately, and I don’t think I’ll make my quota for this month. No articles mean no paycheck, which means no money for rent,” I sadly said. I realized that my situation is way more horrible than how it sounded as I was explaining it to him. But I’ll worry about this problem when I get home and stare at the computer once again.

“How much is your rent?”

I calculated algebraically. “It’s like $600. It isn’t too bad though I’ll figure something out,” I said with a fake optimistic tone despite knowing that I may not have a home tomorrow.

“Okay.” Before I couldn’t say anything else, I saw him take something out of his North Face backpack. A wad of cash from his winnings. “Here, this is about $1000.” He handed me the stack of cash. I refused to take it, so he forcefully placed the stack onto the palm of my hand and aligned his fingertips with mine to make sure I grabbed hold of it.

“What?! I can’t take this!” I was in disbelief.

“Yes, you can.”

“No, I can’t. I barely even know you. I can’t take money from strangers.”

“Then we are friends. Take it.”

“No, I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“No just take it. Consider it a gift?”

“This is too generous for a gift. I can’t take it.”

“Yes, you can. You need it more than I do. So I’m giving it to you. No ‘buts.'”

“But…”

“No buts,” he said with eyes pleading me to accept it.

“Fine…” I reluctantly replied.

“Good.”

Before I could say anything else, Tadashi came back. “Well that took you long enough,” I said to Tadashi as the Maverick was right in front of us. I placed the ward of cash into my pocket.

“Yeah, long line,” Tadashi replied back. He looked towards me, and then to the guy that stood right next to me. “Whoa! You’re the Maverick!”

“Yeah, I am. But I prefer the name, Andrew,” he shyly replied.

“Oh okay. Hi, Andrew. I’m Tadashi, Kay’s friend,” Tadashi said excitedly.

“Kay’s friend?” Andrew looked at me as he said that.

“Yeah I’m Kay,” I said while giving a friendly smile.

“Nice to meet you,” Andrew said smiling and shaking both Tadashi’s and my hands.

“Yeah you too,” I replied back.

“Wait, how’d you guys know each other?” Tadashi inquired.

“Oh we just happened to be standing here and we’re just talking,” I said.

“Yeah, just talking,” Andrew said. He paused and then said, “Anyways I have to go. Nice meeting  you two.”

“Yeah, see ya around,” I said. “I will definitely pay you back.”

“Don’t have to,” Andrew said as he walked away.

“What’s that about?” Tadashi asked.

“Nothing.”

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Well, that’s it. What do you think? Did you like it? Hate it?  It’s okay to hate it. I never took a creative writing class in my life, so it’s understandable why you wouldn’t like it.

Anyways, once again, I like to thank HallyuFangirl for nominating me. If you want to check out their story, click here. I’m not going to nominate anyone because most of the people I know on here don’t seem to be into this type of stuff.