Matt is a street performer, who specializes in miming. He’s been doing this in the heart of L.A for around 3 months now, and every time you see him, you can’t help but try and make him break character.

But every single time, you fail.

You try to scare him, get him to make any sort of sound. You wanted to know what he sounded like.

And you also couldn’t help but tease him. His reactions, in your opinion, were priceless.

Most times, he’d make playful faces and motions in return, but sometimes he’d act annoyed, even though you could see right through it.

He’s grown to expect your presence to stop/pass by and has even started to look forward to it. He’s started giving you your own little acts/special performances too. You really piqued his interest and he couldn’t deny it any longer.

One day, you looked sad. You were sad. You just got evicted from your apartment due to not making enough money. Your job was okay, but not enough.

Matt notices this. Whenever you walked past him, you always looked so happy and carefree. But right now, you looked like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders. So, he goes over to you, pretending he’s pulling himself over to you with a rope, before stopping and tilting his head, frowning emphatically, hoping his goofy remarks would cheer you up some.

You glance up, noticing him, and can’t help but crack a small smile.

“Hey.. I’m okay, just.. stressed out at the moment.” you say, trying to reassure him—you didn’t want to keep him distracted or overshare.

He shakes his head, wiggling his index finger back and forth, indicating he didn’t believe you. He then points his finger down and crosses his arms, still frowning, almost like he refused to leave until you told him what was up.

With a slight sigh, you tell him about your situation. His normally expressive and goofy expressions—both facial and body—were more serious and stiff, more thoughtful. He was taking this serious and his reactions showed.

Suddenly, he takes your hand and brings you over to a spot out of earshot of everyone,

“I’m so sorry… nobody deserves to go through something like that…”

Your eyes widen. Did he just… talk?

His expression softens as he sees your reaction.

“I’m not actually mute, y’know.. it’s just for the performance… this is too important for me to keep the act up…”

His voice—it was like a cool breeze on a summer day. It was so… smooth. Soft. Calming.

You could listen to it all day.

“I see you every day always tryna get me to break character… well, good job… you did it… now just… tell me anyway I can help you… please… seein’ you frown, it… it ain’t right… it’s… just wrong…”