#WIPpet Wednesday - Goth of Christmas Past - The Black Charade #amwriting #lgbtqia
WIPpet numbers for 17th January, 2018:
(18-17) + 1 = 2 paragraphs from Goth of Christmas Past
WIPpet Context:I’m still snipping Goth of Christmas Past—and also still playing around with the cover to see if I can increase the readability of the title. I might get it to something I’m happy with before December…
This is another snippet of Jay. It comes a few paragraphs after last week’s, so again, there is passing reference to self-harm.
Here’s the blurb for further context:
Black hair and band hoodies had a lot to answer for.
That day, eleven years ago, when Gothboy mooched into their business studies class for the very first time, Krissi had taken one look at him and thought, What a freak. He’s so cool!
Now in their mid-twenties, Krissi Johansson and Jay Meyer are successful businesspeople and still best friends. But while one of them is moving forward with their life, the other is sliding ever backwards…revisiting the past and wallowing in regret.
Worse still, it’s Christmas—happy joy joy everywhere! Yay. >.<
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And here’s the snippet:When Jay got caught out, they—the all-seeing, all-knowing, ‘because we care’ do-gooders—said they understood he was in pain, but he needed to find safer ways to address it. Take a cold shower, squeeze ice cubes in his fists, hit the wall with a pillow, and sometimes those things did work—for a little while. When they’d found out he was still doing it, they’d decided he was like all the others, doing it for attention. A few surface scratches—oh, look, I rolled my sleeves up without thinking, quick, push them back down, check if anyone saw… But attention was the very last thing he’d wanted.
Krissi knew. She never actually came out and said so, but Jay could tell from the stuff she did and said. She’d once told him, ‘I really admire you. I became a goth, to be like you,’ which was mental. She was so confident and liked it when people noticed her, while he’d always wanted to shrink away out of sight. Of course, being the only kid in school who wore black—well, until The Black Charade came along—made him stand out even more. He was different, and there was no point pretending he wasn’t. If the bullies didn’t pick on him for how he looked and his musical interests, they got him for something else—his epilepsy, being crap at sport, not having a girlfriend, or whatever. In the end it didn’t matter why.
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What is WIPpet Wednesday?
WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Wrayburn - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404
Thanks for reading
Deb x
Ah, Jay. Sadly, I'd probably have stereotyped him back then too, but not in the way he would've assumed. He was the sort of boy I was warned away from because he would "corrupt" sweet, innocent girls. But he sure doesn't sound like he was busy doing any of that.
ReplyDeleteYeah...funny you mentioning that idea of them being corrupt. My bestie in high school was into heavy metal and I wouldn't let him play Iron Maiden...cuz... :D
DeleteI also remember the first time my mum met my goth friends (I wasn't really in their league of gothdom), and she told my gran "They're lovely!" She was very surprised by that. The fact they were blind drunk at the time is by the by. ;)
Oh, Jay. That second paragraph just wrecked me. So much of that is so familiar(not the goth, so much). The rather not be seen, being bullied for being different(for me it was for being quiet and always reading more). This is great.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't goth as much as a freak in high school, now that can reflect on things, so I can sympathize with Jay and can remember my drive to graduate early so I could escape. The goth came a bit later, and has come and gone along the way, but it's stronger than every now that I'm older. I'm both past the point of much social impact on my choices, and like dark colors in general, especially black.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot more to goth than that, I know, but I feel for Jay and the cutting issue. My daughter once explained it as the need to let the pain out. It was a release and not really for attention. I can't say for certain, but that did catch my attention.
I had a few friends in college who cut (this was the end of the 80s to early 90s... I had my own ways to deal that weren't any healthier). Remembering how they reacted and behaved, it was very clear it had nothing to do with attention.
ReplyDeleteWhich... well, Krissi may have dressed the part, but Jay is right. Wanting to be "goth to be like you" is pretty mental. Oddly understandable though... I bet Krissi dealt with her pain in less healthy ways too.
Ouch, I feel those last lines. If people want to hate on someone, they'll find a reason. It can be so hard to come out the other side when you're trapped in that position.
ReplyDeleteThe 'doing it for attention' thing has always baffled me. People have such twisted logic if they think it would be for that.