Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-10319977-20141211171540/@comment-10319977-20141212105738

(This is a format test.)

There was a knock at the door of Joshua's new house that sent him running down the stairs in excitement. Looking out the peephole, he saw the same girl he'd seen walking up his driveway from his bedroom window only moments before. As he flung open the door almost violently in excitement, the look on the girl's face changed to an expression of shock and fear. He stared at her, not realizing that the overly excited expression on his face made him look like a madman. The girl opened her mouth to speak.

"Hey... uh..." She started, trailing off as she stared in concern at the almost panting boy in the doorway. "Are you alright?" she asked him, now with a hint of fear in her voice. "Y-yeah!" Josh stammered out, puzzled as to why she asked the question. "Okay..." she responded, unconvinced. "Well, uh... I'm Serah, and as cliche as it is, my mother sent me over here to borrow a couple cups of sugar." She expected a response, maybe some laughter, but the boy just stood there staring at her. Though it made her uncomfortable, she continued. "Do you have any?" she asked, half expecting him to lunge at her with a knife hidden behind his back. "Oh!" Josh responded, shaking his head at his own awkward behavior. "Of course. I'll get it for you right away!" He rushed off into the kitchen, almost breaking into a full sprint. This only made the girl more skeptical of his sanity.

Just as she was having second thoughts and turning to leave, he returned at the door with two plastic bags full of sugar. "Here ya go!" He smiled as he thrust the bags in her face. "Oh, and uh, it's not cliche since you're asking for two cups instead of one." he chuckled out, surprised when she didn't laugh back. She slowly took the bags, her eyes wide with what he could only presume was fear. He tried reexplaining. "Get it? One bag of sugar would be cliche since that's what it always is in the stories, and you asked for two!" He stared at her, waiting for a response. "That's the joke..." he spoke out softly, his heart sinking as she continued to stare in silence. "Okay! Well, I'm going to go now. It was nice meeting you." she blurted out before turning away, walking fast down the driveway clutching the two bags. "My name's Joshua!" he yelled out to her, not sure if she could hear him, or would even be interested in his name at this point.

Josh shut the door and rushed back upstairs to his bedroom. Looking out of his window, he saw just what he expected to see. The girl, Serah, had tossed the bags of into the nearest dumpster and was practically running back to her house next door. Josh turned away from the window and brought his palm up, slapping it against his face as he cursed aloud. "Damn it!" He gritted his teeth in frustration. "Why can't I just talk to people like a normal human being? It's no wonder why she thought I was nuts!" he thought to himself as he felt the familiar feeling of tears gathering in his eyes.

The sixteen year old hadn't been able to properly socialize with anybody for as long as he could remember, and it had done wonders to his psyche. As he sat on the edge of his bed, vision blurred by his tears, he thought of all the times he had tried to reach out to somebody, anybody, in hopes of making a new friend, only to be shut down or, in the best cases, ignored. He longed to be able to express himself, to be able to hold a conversation longer than 5 minutes with someone other than his parents. He thought about them, out celebrating their new house, enjoying their ten year anniversary at what was probably the fanciest restaurant in town.

"They'd be better off without me." he thought to himself as he stood up, droplets of water hitting the carpet around his feet. He turned towards his bookshelf and grabbed the first book he could find, flinging it behind him in a rage. It wasn't until he heard the "clink!" of the book hitting something behind him that he remembered what he had been doing before he saw Serah come up to his door. The entire encounter had taken his mind off of his new treasure.