Assignment 2 - Creative Writing - Smoking

Creative Writing (short story) – Smoking.

Sitting on the wall of the fountains in Birmingham, I noticed a crowd of gorgeous young lads around 18, two years older than myself, whilst waiting for my friends I took my first puff of cigarette coolly. As I blew the smoke out, I playfully made circles and exhaled the smoke from my nose. I was enjoying showing off and making an impression. At that time I noticed one of the young lads looking at me and smiling. He was the good looking one out of the crowd; he was tall, about 6 feet, he had lovely short spiked blonde hair, and his eyes were sparkling baby blue and he had a wonderful smile. I couldn’t help but smile back; I was pleased he noticed me. Maybe he thought I was cool and sexy for smoking? I hoped so.

Eventually my friends turned up, I noticed my cigarette was half gone and I didn’t want it, so I offered it to my friend James. James refused and said that I should finish it off. But I felt sick and it caused a headache, but I wanted to be cool so I took one more drag and I coughed after. My friends were laughing. I threw the cigarette on the floor and put it out. My ‘friends’ called me chicken, said I couldn’t handle it, I denied it and defended myself saying that I could and that I had a whole one earlier! I was annoyed. At this point the good looking blonde lad came over and offered me some chewing gum. I accepted as I was still feeling a little sick. He introduced himself as David and asked if I wanted to chill with him and his mates. I looked at my friends, threw Kerry the packet of now 11 cigarettes and went off with David. David words were “you don’t need to impress me by smoking.... It isn’t cool!”
David knew that the cigarette was my very first whole one.

Rationale
The reason why I chose the content for this topic is because in the lecture there were debates on how people thought about smoking being cool. Some people were agreeing that smoking is attractive and sexy. I used my own experience for this topic as I was once a smoker and I didn’t enjoy the taste or feeling it left and I only did it to look ‘cool’ and mainly because of peer pressure (hence James and Kerry). The young lad, David being introduced was to show that this isn’t the case and you don’t have to smoke if you really don’t want to. This creative piece contributes to the lecture debates because I used some of their views to tell the story, for example women playing as they smoked and looking sexy.

The reason for the character of David is because I was attracted to him and I wanted to be sexy and get his attention. Which in the story I did but David knew that it was my first whole cigarette because I couldn’t finish it off. David knew that chewing gum would help shift these feelings. The style of writing was to create an atmosphere step by step in the story so they will get an image of what’s going on.

The effect of David reaction by encouraging me away from my ‘friends’ was that he knew that I liked him and that smoking isn’t what I want. David’s words saying that I don’t need to impress him by smoking and that it isn’t cool was a lesson and good advice to not give into peer pressure.

Conclusion
I feel that I have covered the topic and how it has effects on people differently, where I can’t handle a whole cigarette without feeling sick and yet my friends could. Also peer pressure is the main thing in teenagers; it’s not about being sexy and attractive but mainly being cool. It’s about image for them.

Bibliography
In-class notes from slide-show and the debates in the lecture for smoking.