Rachel #1: The Man with a Bruise on His Upper Lip

so, i wrote a short story starring my oc rachel. i may or may not make this specific chapter into a comic. 

Rachel #1: The Man with a Bruise on His Upper Lip

by Spoontooth

as her alarm clock went off, shining the numbers “7:30am”, rachel hazily got out of bed. during the night, she had had a dream that her grandmother’s cat, who she used to be afraid of during her childhood, had lunged at her, and endlessly clawed at her thighs. the alarm had jolted her out of her dream, but by the time she was walking to the bathroom, it had already begun to fade from her memory. she never liked to drink water in the mornings because after waking up, her throat felt very sore. so she wouldn’t drink much water throughout the day. by the time it was night, her throat would stop being sore, so she’d chug all the water she could before she was forced to go to bed. usually she’d lose alot of sleep due to having to wake up to pee alot during the night, but this particular morning she had actually managed to get a good night’s sleep, at the cost of her bladder. 

last night, she had skipped her shower because she had went through an exhausting day at work, and didn’t really feel like wanting to shower. because of this, she was forced to shower in the morning before she had to go into work. it was a thursday, meaning this was the last day of work before the weekend fell upon her. rachel always hated her job, and always strived to do more creative things with her time at home, but whenever she found herself with the time to do so, she always found herself playing video games or watching movies, rather than writing that one short story she had been wanting to write since high school. 

she left her house at around 8:45am, and waited at the bus stop for about 15 minutes. it always took a while for the bus to get there, which is why she always woke up extra early on weekdays, despite her job starting at 10:30am. the bus arrived at 9:00am, and she got prepared for the 20 minute bus drive. she popped her headphones in, and began listening to papa roach’s “last resort” on a loop for the entire ride. mostly, she found pleasure in looking out of the bus window, but today in particular, she was fixated on a man who was standing in the middle of the bus, holding on to a pole. she would see this man every weekday on the bus, both going to, and coming from work. normally, he looked nonchalant and monotone, but today he seemed alot more depressed with himself. what really caught rachel’s eye was the fact that he had a bruise on his upper lip, and he was scratching it alot. she found it a bit odd, and after repeatedly glancing at him for a few minutes, she eventually decided to just ignore him, and keep on staring out the window while listening to her music. 

rachel got off at her stop at 9:22am, and began her 25 minute walk to her job, getting there at around 9:50am. most days, she gets to the building early (somewhere between 10:00am and 10:16am), but today she had gotten to her job extra early, which gave her a very brief sense of pride. 

after settling in at her cubicle, she finally booted up her computer and started work. throughout the entire first half of her work day, only one notable thing happened, and that was a 15 minute argument she had with a client on the phone. the client sounded to be a middle-aged white woman (you could just tell she was white over the phone), and was insisting that rachel was somehow the cause of the woman’s misplaced file. the woman screamed over the phone to speak to rachel’s supervisor, and rachel obliged, transferring the woman over to bob, her supervisor. 

during her break, rachel had noticed one of her co-workers named daniel had struck up a conversation with another female co-worker of theirs. as she drank her coffee, rachel nervously tried to jump into the conversation, but they both just blankly stared at her, and rachel walked to the other side of the room. after their conversation had concluded, rachel tried to strike up another conversation with daniel, but he really didn’t seem interested. then, she randomly blurted out “do you wanna have dinner with me?” daniel gave her the same blank stare both he and their female co-worker had given to rachel earlier, and answered “yeah sure, whatever.”

after the conversation, rachel walked away happily, seeing this as a win. 

…

after work, rachel raced home as fast as she could to get ready for the “date”. she didn’t really have any nice clothes, so she just settled on a simple black korn t-shirt, tight blue jeans, and a pair of black converse. she hopped back on the bus, and took a quick 15 minute ride to the restaurant her and daniel were scheduled to eat at. she was the first one to get there, and waited at the table for over half an hour. eventually, daniel arrived, and they both endlessly tried to keep several conversations running. but unfortunately, none of them really lasted for that long. 

rachel ordered spaghetti and meatballs, while daniel just kept eating the bread that the waiter served. eventually, the topic of music came up, and daniel asked rachel about her band shirt. she would then proceed to go on a 7 minute long rant about why korn’s cover of “word up” was the greatest piece of music ever created. when daniel asked to hear the song, rachel excitedly pulled it up on her phone, and handed it to daniel. he put it in his ear, and listened to the whole song, the entire time wearing a disgusted face. 

from there, the entire “date” became very awkward (as if it wasn’t awkward enough already). eventually, daniel excused himself to go to the bathroom. 

he never came back. 

…

it was pouring rain during the walk back to the bus stop. rachel had been thinking about the “date” for the entire walk back, and kept on trying to figure out what exactly went wrong. was she too weird? was the music too much for him? if pigs could fly, could they somehow grow wings? none of these questions brought answers to rachel. the bus picked rachel up, and that was the first bus ride she had been on where she hadn’t listened to music, in a very long time. she noticed that the man with a bruise on his upper lip was seemingly more upset then he was this morning. she noticed that they were the two only ones on the bus, but it didn’t really make sense because the man was always on the bus with her both going to and coming from her job, and she had already been on her “coming from” bus ride when she rushed home to get ready for her “date”, and she had even seen the man on that bus ride!

the man noticed rachel looking at him, and she quickly looked away. she continued to stare out the window, but then began to hear footsteps getting closer to her. 

“hey there,” said the man. “i notice you don’t have your headphones in today. is there any reason for that?”
rachel didn’t respond. 

“is it because of the ‘date’? did it not go according to plan? aww, well i’m sorry about that. but you’re gonna have to face it. it was all your fault. there’s nothing you could’ve done to prevent it.”

rachel stared at him blankly. 

“he never liked you. you were a fool to think he could ever have wanted you, or anyone for that matter. no one wants you, rachel. no one will ever want you. you’re a parasite. you latch onto other people in desperation for social approval and friendship. but you’ll never get it. you’re just not like everyone else. you’ll never be normal. for all you know, you probably don’t even exist. 

you. will. die alon-”

“SHUT UP!! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!” screamed rachel. 

and with that, the man was gone. 

…

that night, rachel dreamed that she murdered an entire family of nazi conservatives who lived in wyoming. 

THE END!!