M.K. Lee's Blog: Telling Tales, page 123

Diary Drabble: Stay

They both look up when the light flickers, turning to the window to see the rain hammering own. “Stay,” Luke says, absent, the back of his hand hitting Toby’s thigh since he’s sprawled across most of the couch.

“You sure?” Toby asks.

“You can’t go out in that,” Luke says, hauling himself up.

He’s so close, arm draped casually across the back of the sofa, half leaning in. Toby imagines a crackle in the air between them for the look on Luke’s face, but tells himself he’s projecting, seeing wh...

At The Bus Station

It’s been exactly eight days, seven hours, and thirteen minutes since Damien saw Elias last, and as he cranes his neck to look for his bus pulling in to the station, Damien is convinced he can feel the seconds ticking by adding extra tension to his stomach.

Not that he’s been counting all that time passing, of course, nor spent hours mournfully staring up at the ceiling of his room unable to concentrate on anything but the fact that Elias isn’t with him. And it’s not even that long really sin...

Diary Drabble – Long

He should have set off from the house earlier, convinced himself to wait. Now, he’ll have an extra long wait here at the airport, which is going to do nothing for his nerves. The noise, the people, the constant announcements; it’s a wall of sound. Bile keeps rising in his throat for missing his own announcement, for not finding his gate, for his carry on luggage being too big. And that’s not even letting himself think about the actual flight.

“Don’t worry,” says the guy buckling himself in th...

Diary Drabble – Fight

He was all out of fight. Dean couldn’t catch his breath, the weight pressing on his chest preventing him from getting more air into his lungs. His heart raced and his skin tingled, and where his shirt had got rucked up there was a draught up his back. Somehow, and he didn’t remember doing it, he’d lost a sock. And the pillow he was laying on was bunched up in his neck.

“Do you give in?”

Dean scowled up at his captor, holding an expression of pure irritation for all of a minute before breakin...

Diary Drabble – Retain

Since the new guy’s embarrassed wince when he’d slammed back the meeting room door ten minutes late, Jack hasn’t really heard a single word. How is he supposed to retain a single thing when he is sitting opposite him, still flustered and so adorable for it. He’s dropped his pen twice, and Derek, the guy from IT, has rescued his cup of water from spilling, deliberately putting it in the middle of the table and out of his reach. He doesn’t even know his name yet, but Jack definitely thinks this...

Diary Drabble – Penny

It’s supposed to be lucky to find a penny. Find a penny and pick it up, or something. So Simon does just that, stops in the middle of the street like some eager magpie, bending down to retrieve his new shiny. Which is when someone steps out of the florists and bumps into him, leaving Simon sprawled out face down. A courier doesn’t see him in time so rides right into his side. And when Simon tries to stand up he puts his hand straight on a shard of broken bottle glass, groaning in defeat. “I’m...

Diary Drabble – Ice

The world turned to ice. Once all the storms had blown themselves out, all the tsunamis had claimed half the coasts and prosperous lands became home to famine, ice seemed to be all there was left. For the first few years, those leaders who lined their pockets instead of leading their people still decried it wasn’t climate change. After all, the entire globe wasn’t exactly warm. But they soon were silenced, too idle to fend for themselves and too lacking in skill to have anything worth trading...

Diary Drabble – Revenge

He’d planned his revenge for days, pretending that he had forgotten The Incident, when really, it was all he thought about. Maybe there was a touch of childishness about it, and there was more than a pinch of jealousy. But if he focused on getting Nathan back instead of why he felt the need to get him back, then, well. Everything would be okay. Probably.

Mark stands at the top of the stairs, waiting for Nathan, his housemate of three years, to show his date in. He’s sure he just heard the fr...

Diary Drabble – Dissonance

The words weren’t coming easy. Was it the jarring way he ended each stanza, or the dissonance of words on every other line? He’d been writing this poem for days, retrying everything he knew and the words still not coming out right.

Iambic pentameter sounded forced and amateur, and the freeverse made him sound like a slam poet trying too hard. His attempt at a villanelle fell flat, and the only version he was happy with was a slowly forming ghazal.

“You’re missing your muse,” his sister said...

A Pit Stop

“Are you embarrassed by me, Grant?”

Josh’s voice is quiet; that low, growling pitch that, depending on the circumstance, either has Grant pleased he’s rarely on Josh’s bad side, or falling to his knees in reverent worship the way only he gets to worship Josh.

“What? ‘Course not,” Grant replies quickly, wondering where Josh is going with this, and also what he’s done wrong. He’s been so tense about taking Josh home to meet his family, that he’s spent the week leading up to it overthinking ever...