Noodle Panda// Chapter 1

So I’ve been writing a short novel recently and I thought I would share the first chapter. I feel like saying IT GETS BETTER, because I’m writing Chapter 12 now and so much has happened, so please give me feedback so I know if any of you guys would like to read the other chapters. I don’t know what category I would put this novella into, I guess it’s similar to books like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident Of the Dog In The Nighttime, so if you like those sort of novels you may enjoy this. Just please give it a read and tell me what you think, I care about this story a whole lot.

Noodle Panda
By Alexandra Harrison
Chapter 1

“Idiot.”

Silence.

“How in God’s name did you manage it Lenny?”

“I don’t know,” I said through gritted teeth. My words were muffled by my large hands, which obscured most of face, covering hard worn cardboard skin, scarred by acne that troubled me many moons ago.

The room was mostly dark. Crepuscular light spilled in through the kitchen window and Kate’s reading lamp gave off a thin splatter of light that illuminated four lifestyle magazines and half a ham sandwich. The dust particles in the air were glowing like fireflies and a thin trail of smoke danced in the air from Dan’s cigarette.

“Do you care about anything Lenny? Do you even give a damn?” said Dan, his cigarette wobbled between his dry lips as he spoke.

“No I don’t care about one damn thing,” I said, looking up at Dan with a sick humour in my voice.

“How are we going to tell Kate? Did you even think about her when you did it Len? Do you ever think about her?”

“I always think about her,” I replied quietly.

Dan gave one note of breathless laughter, he smirked and continued.

“You’re funny Len.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t give a damn about that girl, if you did you wouldn’t have lost us our whole situation.”

I lit my cigarette and looked at my best friend with vague interest.

“We can’t survive on her wage, so you better enjoy that cigarette because it will be the last one in a long time”

“Where is she?”

“Who?” asked Dan, caught off guard from the sudden change in conversation.

“Kate, where is Kate?”

“Where she always is”

“She never goes this early”

“They called her in”

“They called her in? What! Was there some sort of emergency. Those poor men, how will they survive for a whole day without my lovely Kate? Bless their souls,” I said, my tone saturated in sarcasm. My cigarette tasted strange, but I carried on smoking.

“She wouldn’t have to do it if it weren’t for you, Len,”

“I hate it.”

“I know you do.”

“I hate it.”

Silence once more.

My cigarette tasted bad.

I flipped the table.

Smashed glass, sticky magazines, cigarette stubs and nail clippings all lay scattered across the wooden floor.

My arms were shaking with a ferocious excitement.

“Put a light on!” I shouted at Dan, as he pushed himself across the room and flicked the switch.

I crouched down on my knees and started to pick everything up. The glass scraped my skin and peeled off a few layers. Hot blood bloomed out of the cuts and I licked them with my tobacco stained tongue. I think I was crying, I know this because I had a migraine afterwards.

Dan made me a cup of tea and I sat down on the sofa. He sat in his usual chair.

“Len what are we going to do?” he said after a long period of silence, only disrupted by noisy slurps of tea.

“I have no clue. I mean I could get another job, but who is going to employ me? The last one was just a coincidence.”

“Nah mate, you earned it.”

“And now I’ve destroyed everything.”

“Yeah.”

I started to cry again.