Tsukishima Headphones

My dad was a zombie. My mom? Even scarier. She was an uber-powerful mutant. At the crack of dawn, she was already yelling, "Derick Olson! Don't make me come over there! What kind of zombie are you? Glued to your headphones all day—are those audiobooks really that captivating?" I rolled over in bed and promptly fell right off. Scrambling to my feet, I started tidying up my room in a flash, terrified she might actually make good on her threat. "Look at Mr. Hoffman next door," she hollered. "He roams the streets day and night, probably gobbled up more brains than you've read books!"

Jack Goldsmith wants a mate. He is sick of being alone. Jack is the only wild wolf in the United Kingdom - Werewolf or otherwise. According to his father, he was an aberration, his mother died giving birth to him and his father had never forgiven him. Superstition was rife in the 1600s when he was born and he grew rapidly, not like the other children. Rumours spread of witchcraft, and though his father was caught, Jack escaped to live his life alone - until now. SaffronTalbot has inherited her grandmother's cottage in the wilds of the Yorkshire countryside. As an empath, Saffron Talbot is looking for a new life - and she is going to get it, but it's not the life she ever imagined. She's a nature-loving girl and the pressures of the city of London make her feel ill. The number of people, the buildings so close together, and the noises make her feel increasingly ill. If she dares go out, her headphones are clamped to her head and the darkest sun-glasses she can find cover her eyes. Her neighbours think she is the local weirdo when they see her marching along the street with her head down to avoid making contact. Moving to Yorkshire to the cottage her grandmother has left her will be the beginning of her life - in more ways than one.

"It's already 7am, where is Ms. Martin?" I opened the door to my office, exhausted and tired. Another sleepless night. I was taken aback from the scene in front of me. Paris, was randomly dancing with her headphones on. Singing loudly to the lyrics to what seems like a Korean song. "Hello Mr. Hernandez, Go on, tell me I'm late now. Bloody bastard, I went out to get your coffee so you didn't have to drink it cold but i won't do that today because you'd rather your stupid coffee cold than your assistant being a considerate person. RIGHT?" "Glad to hear your thoughts towards me. Ms. Martin." I tapped her shoulder and saw her horrified face when she realized, I heard and saw it all. --- Paris Martin, a girl full of life is given a job as the most ruthless CEO's assistant. Felix Hernandez is a man of his word. He doesn't lie and he hates liars. Paris being the clumsiest person and Felix the most stiff. Felix being Paris' forever bully doesn't help her. When Felix finally ends up ruining Paris, he realizes how horribly he treated her. How will he bring back the sun-like Paris? Will he be able to bring back his best friend's clumsy sister?

She was aware of all those men looking at her with lust, while she was running true the park, which made her angry and sad at the same time, but she just made her headphones louder and smiled on her chin. She wanted something real, although it was impossible to find because a man must give her all of himself, just as she would do the same to him. Ah, stop dreaming Jenna!", she mouthed, making her legs run faster, not knowing that soon her life will about to change.

Mom was a top student at a prestigious school and had always been determined to be the best at everything. She demanded that I learn to walk by seven months, speak fluently by eighteen months, and master all addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division by the age of three. I did all of it. Yet Mom still felt it wasn’t enough. However, when my younger brother, Liam, didn’t speak until he was five, Mom clapped and cheered when he finally did, celebrating his “late-blooming brilliance”. I didn’t think anything of it. Until one day, I was wearing headphones, memorizing Spanish words, and accidentally let the sound leak out, scaring Liam. He clutched his chest and cried, saying his heart hurt. Mom’s eyes turned red as she stormed over and slapped me. Then she grabbed my ear, twisting it a full 360 degrees with all her strength. The pain in my ear was so intense that I lost all feeling, and the fear made me nauseous to the point of vomiting. Still, Mom forced the headphones back on, cranked the volume to the maximum, and locked me in the storage room to reflect. “How could I give birth to such a terrible child? You’re just jealous of Liam. No matter how much I do for you, you’ll never appreciate it! “Love listening to words, huh? Then listen all you want.” But seven days later, when she opened the door, she completely lost it.

Nubia has her life planned out. She is working on her master's degree in post colonial studies. She has a quiet apartment and a schedule she sticks to. Every Wednesday night she finishes class at nine thirty, walks to the bus stop, and waits. The bus is always late. There is always a stranger sitting on the bench. He wears headphones and draws in a sketchbook. He never speaks. She calls him Pencil Boy in her phone and does not think much about it. Then one October night the bus is delayed by forty three minutes. Eli studies architecture but he draws people instead of buildings. He has been sketching Nubia for six weeks without ever saying a word. He is quiet and pays close attention to things. He has learned to keep people at a distance because it feels safer that way. But when the cold night gets to Nubia and he gives her his hoodie, the silence between them finally breaks. What begins as pie at a late night diner turns into a Wednesday night tradition. Then a friendship. Then something much deeper. As Nubia and Eli grow closer, they must face the things that make them different. Race. Class. The dreams they are chasing. The families they come from. And the strong pull of a connection neither of them can ignore. Set over one school year, 43 Minutes is a warm and sensual love story about two people learning to truly see each other. It is about letting yourself be seen. And it is about the moments that change your life in less than an hour but stay with you forever.