Stumble Over Words Novels & Stories

My vision blurred with tears as I tried to open my mouth to speak but no words came out. My words came out startled as I stammered a bit, “How… did… You know?”

He looks so flustered as he stumbles over his words. I've never known Ares to stumble over his words like this, or look so unsure of himself. I almost want to laugh out loud. Just what exactly is he trying to say that has him acting like this? If I don't ask him, I guess I might never get a straight answer.

Without a single word he spun on his heel and stormed from the room. I flinched when I heard a loud crash. It was shortly followed by the front door slamming shut. Embarrassment wasn’t an emotion I was familiar with, and as it swept over me my skin began to prickle with discomfort. I began to fumble with the ties, my fingers suddenly clumsy. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I didn't realize. I’m so clueless sometimes, I swear. I just put it on without looking and—and I should have looked first. Why didn’t I look first?"

I KNOW ALL THIS THINGS! But as usual, I couldn't say those words, I opened my mouth again, and instead came out jungled messed up words. “I-I-I’m……..I mean, It's, it's not………” I stuttered,my words got struck in my throat, unable to voice out. Veronica threw her head back in amusement,laughing. “ Oh, this is priceless!” She exclaimed, cleaning the tears off her eyes from all the laughing she was doing. I was determined to wipe the laughter off her face, then I tried to force my voice out, and make it clearer, so I cleared my throat and tried again. “you see……..” I started, pride swell in my chest at how well those few words came out.

Confused and unable to process what had just happened. “What just happened?”

she stutters with a slight bit of panic lacing her words. "How who did what?" I ask, completely confused, but needing to know. "He, my fa..., somehow he was in my head, somehow he was hurting me, trying to ki...l..l ... me..e." she blavers out almost choking and tripping up over her storming emotions with a paniced under tone, as if the words hurt to say aloud, like she doesn't want to say them aloud, in fear it will make them truer in some way.

I could see they were growing impatient so I just blurted it out. “IwanttoplanasurprisedinnerforWinnifredbutIhavenoideaonhowtogoaboutitsoIwasthinkingwhetheryouguyscouldhelpmecomeupwithsomething”. I said in one breath and sighed in relief that I had said it out. They were both staring at me like I just spoke in a foreign language they both didn't understand and I was wondering why they weren't saying anything until Judy spoke up. “I'm sorry sir, but we didn't hear anything you just said”. Judy said and I realized I didn't pause between my sentences, hence making what I said actually sound like gibberish. No wonder they were just staring at me.

Fold in just one word. "Maybe you forgot. I'm still married .. You, what are you?"

Either way I wasn't going to make a fool of myself. I walked over, striding as quickly as I could, but in the process, the heel of my right shoe slipped across the floor to the left. I stumbled, crashing to the ground, silently wishing the floor would open up and swallow me whole. My hair fell forward, hiding my face as I pressed my palm against the cool surface. Another hand reached out to me. Slowly, I lifted my gaze, tracing it back to Emmette and my embarrassment deepened tenfold, knowing he was seeing me like this.

He stuttered, couldn't get the words to roll out of his tongue. “You what?!” I barked, cutting him off. “What could you possibly say that would make up for the humiliation, the shame, the loneliness, the confusion, the… the pain? You think saying ‘I didn’t mean it’ or some excuse would change anything?!” He tried to speak again, and this time I let him, but only to hear him stumble. He couldn’t form the words. His jaw moved, but nothing came out. Stammering. Fumbling. He looked like a child caught doing something wrong, and I hated that he could still get to me with his face.