Fiction: Headphones

The choices for today are: (1) headphones, (2) hello, (3) hate. The chosen word is headphones.

Fiction: Headphones
In her world, with her headphones on, she could ignore the world. Through the steady jolting of the train, she sat still on the bench with her head down, eyes to the floor and music in her ears. Through the windows, faint afternoon sunlight landed by her feet. The music lulled her into a sleepy comfort. But the eyes upon her were disconcerting.
    Pink hair teased high and colorful makeup never ceased to attract onlookers. It wasn't her way to appeal to anyone. She just made herself looked like what she was - a wild child who loved music and big hair.
    The three boys were in front of her before she realized it but she remained silent and focused on the music. She heard nothing of what they spat out of their noisy mouths. When she didn't respond, one of them grabbed her leather jacket and pulled her to her feet. The other riders looked on. But she calmly looked up at the boy. He was taller than her by six or seven inches and wide as a house but ugly as a toad with botchy tan skin covered with large, odd-shaped freckles.
    She saw his lips move but his voice was drowned out by the music. The widening of his mouth indicated he was shouting. But she stared up at him with lazy eyes. What made him think he could bother her?
    Around her, the other riders were watching but they averted their eyes when she turned their way. They wouldn't help her. She veered her eyes back to the boy. He snatched her headphones and threw it to the floor and stumped upon it as she pulled at the cable that was plugged into her MP3 player inside her shoulder bag but it broke off. The headband of her headphones was bended and one ear cup had loosened apart from the rest.
    The boy laughed. "No more music. What you're going to do now?" He bobbed his head from side to side. Behind him, the other boys snickered.
    What did he think she would do? She opened her mouth and screamed. Her voice ripped through the air and reverberated throughout the train. The other riders covered their ears. As the boys tried to get away, one of them hit his head on a pole, another stumbled onto the floor and the one who laid his hand on her, popped his eyes wide and fainted.
    Slowly, she stopped screaming, letting her voice faded away. Then she gathered up the pieces of her headphones, stuffed them inside her bag, smoothed down the back of her ballerina skirt and calmly sat down.
    The train, which was an express, flew past several stations before it stopped and the doors hissed open. She walked toward the doors, careful not to step on any of the unconscious riders lying on the floor. If she didn't want to soil her boots, she would have kicked the boy in the face. Thinking of the headaches they will all have later made her smiled.
     On the platform, she glanced up at the sky and noted the bits of sunlight between the clouds. Once out the door of the station, she made her way down the stairs and onto the streets and on her way to a record shop. Her headphones needed to be repaired but first she needed a music fix.
  

For tomorrow, the letter I, the choices are (1) idle, (2) insight, (3) impulse. Choose which word I might ramble about or tell a story.

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