ไร้เดียงสา Novels & Stories

Laughing? No fucking way!

"Reid, I made you some food." "You have the nerve to show up here?" Reid lifted his head, and the look in his eyes was terrifying. Nola took a step back at the sight of it. Reid grabbed the stack of documents off his desk and hurled them into her face. Pages scattered across the floor. "My soulmate who gets football?" Reid let out a bitter laugh and advanced on her step by step. "You can't even tell the difference between offside and a corner kick. Who the hell do you think you are?"

It has never felt less like a sanctuary. No one moves. “Well,” my father finally says, the single word cracking like a whip in the quiet. “That was a spectacular display of ingratitude and foolishness, Eleanor.” “Robert,” my mother warns, but her heart isn’t in it. “No, Margaret. She humiliated a good man. She humiliated us.” He turns in his seat to look at me, his face etched with lines of anger and bewilderment in the dim dashboard light. “Charles Ashworth. Good family. Solid. He’s been nothing but patient, understanding of your… your quirks. And you throw it back in his face in front of everyone? What is wrong with you?”

Then my mother says, with the calmness of someone who has decided the conversation is over on their terms: "I don't know why you're being so dramatic. We have given you everything. Everything we had. You are alive. You have a life." A pause. A small, precise pause, with something in it I have no word for — not cruelty, not coldness, something more indifferent than either. "You should be grateful for that. Some children don't even get what you had." I look at her. "You're nothing without us," she says. "You know that. Without the name, without the family — you're nothing. A sick girl with nothing."

Leo’s voice was low and full of menace. “Why should I?” Ava laughed maniacally. “For three years, you’ve been thinking about her! Thinking she’d come back! But look at her! She has her perfect husband, her perfect son, her perfect life! And you? You’re stuck with me. The crazy bitch you made!” Leo shot to his feet. “I said, shut up!” “I should shut up?” Ava’s eyes were full of venom. “You ruined me! I lost our baby because of you! And now she stands here, while I… I have nothing left!”

Provocatively, she said, "This necklace isn't worth much, Hilary. There's no need to get mad at me." I frowned slightly. I hadn't even bothered with getting mad. I had many necklaces like hers, but I didn't like any of them. "You shouldn't be so petty, Hilary," Arnold admonished me, assuming that I was unhappy about it. "Don't overthink it." I found all that ridiculous. Sighing, I said, "I'm not mad. Really. You're the ones who shouldn't overthink it." Arnold seemed surprised, judging by his gaze, and he remained suspicious. "That'd be great."

Diana was beautiful, zero. Shekinah wasn't bad, zero. Zero! All damn zeros!

Nothing more, nothing less. ******************************************

“Anna, I appreciate your concern, but I have to do this. I badly need the money and this is the only way I can get the money that I need as fast as possible." There was no part-time job I could do to be able to get the amount of money I needed. I knew I could die, but I was certain that if I stuck to Ian, I was going to get enough money for my family to take care of themselves if I did die after or before the surgery. Anna had no other choice but to follow me so together we entered the shop and bought the clothes that I needed and walked back home, with Anna, still by my side. **********

Perfect. No.