Bryan Buffkin
Bio
Bryan Buffkin is a high school English teacher, a football and wrestling coach, and an aspiring author from the beautiful state of South Carolina. His writing focuses on humorous observational musings and inspirational fiction.
Stories (43/0)
Through Your Eyes, Chapter One
My story starts in high school. Senior year. Graduation day. The happiest day of a teenager’s life. I’d already walked. No pranks or anything, as I was not the type to draw much attention to myself. One kid did go naked underneath his cap and gown, but he didn’t have the guts to flash the crowd or anything. His grandparents flew in from London by surprise to see him walk, so those plans were off. Altogether, it was pretty uneventful. It was an outside graduation, early Saturday morning. No ironic rain; just a beautiful day. We were the Haven Highlanders, class of who cares, marching in unison in tacky lightning yellow gowns. Everybody had white tassels, but I went with black. I’m not emo or anything, but I do appreciate meager acts of rebellion, and this was good enough. At the end of the alma mater, all the kids threw their caps in the air like a scene out of an eighties teenage dramedy. I took mine off instead and handed it to Mom, since I know she’d want to frame it and hang it in the house somewhere with my graduation photos. She’s sentimental enough for both of us.
By Bryan Buffkin9 months ago in Fiction
Hal
Today is the end of a chapter in Bryan’s life, as he is putting the last coat of paint on the far wall of the house he grew up in. It’s the wall that separates the master bedroom from the room Bryan grew up in. Bryan always begrudged how inconvenient it was being right next door to his parents’ room, especially having to share a wall with them. But it’s been a good long time since Bryan’s been a teenager. He’s in the master bedroom now with his wife, Anna, painting over the wood paneling in a stylish steel gray with white trim. Very modern. Today will be the last day Bryan will spend in his house, as he and Anna have spent the last few weeks refurbishing, modernizing, and prepping 948 Betsy to sell. It’s time; he knows. And it took a while to get here.
By Bryan Buffkin11 months ago in Families
Jamari
He was smiling, and that’s all I needed. I saw him sprinting down the street, passing the neighborhood blocks and yards with local neighbors mowing the mid-summer grass, and I admired his energy. It was far too early that Saturday morning; I had just woken up an hour before, and I’d gone to sleep only four hours before that. I was clearing the sleep from my eyes and the sweat from my brow when I saw him coming up, and we’d be starting the meeting soon.
By Bryan Buffkinabout a year ago in Fiction
Unsafe
WARNING: This story contains elements regarding suicide. I step off the edge. This has been in my head for a while now. I got this job five weeks ago, second-shift security for a downtown bank building. Seventeen floors, mostly law firms and accounting firms, with a large bank on the ground floor and lots of small business offices in between. I knew, on orientation day, when the first-shift officer was training me, that I would be taking this final step eventually. He showed me the top floor suite, the area where the building engineers had their offices and the building held storage rental spaces and cages for some of the bigger firms in the building. He showed me the important equipment, the various systems, and then the staircase. The secret staircase that only the engineers had access to. The staircase that led to the rooftop.
By Bryan Buffkinabout a year ago in Fiction