Meraki // Poetry & Short Stories

The Worst Noise On Earth

Another old one I pulled from a long time ago that I forgot I even wrote...whoops (or in which a boy is laughed at)
Warnings: just sadness I guess. But that's to be expected from me at this point. I'm just full of that stuff.

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There it is again.

The noise was almost echo-like, distant yet so close by. It rang in the boy's head, but it felt like there was cotton shoved in his ears. It was muffled but all the while jarring.

There it is again, the worst sound in the world.

He couldn't let it get to him. After all, it was last period. Just a measly twenty more minutes to go until the weekend. He could make it...he had to try.

Damn it, damn it all.

The noise wouldn't stop. It surrounded him, attacking him from all sides, all because he couldn't answer a stupid math problem.

"I'm sorry, but that's not correct." The teacher tried to be nice, her voice as smooth as silk through her front.

It didn't help. He could still hear the noise as it bounced around in his thoughts.

"Anyone else?" She called out, her question receiving many volunteers in response.

And even so, the noise refused to die out.

The boy put his head down with a small whimper, the urge to cover his ears and scream growing by the second. He could feel their stares and their whispers and was once again reminded why he hates coming to school.

"Nice work, Dylan," the teacher praised. He had gotten the answer, done what the ashamed boy could not. And at this, Dylan turned around and once again initiated that terrible noise.

This isn't right. This isn't supposed to make me feel this way.

And yet it did. It caused the boy so much hurt on his already thin self esteem that all he wanted to do was curl up into a ball for the remaining five minutes.

Because the sound of everyone you know laughing at you and your mistakes also marks the sound of self hatred, and all the poor boy could do was sit and endure the absolute worst noise on earth.