fiction friday no. 1 Friday, July 25, 2008

About Fiction Friday: I've decided to set a goal of doing something creative every week. To acheive this goal I'll be writing. Any story that pops into my head. I'll post what I write on (tah-dah) Friday.

"Wake up," she said in a matter-of-fact, uninterested way. The words hung in the thick unconditioned summer air of his bedroom on the main floor of the neglected WWII-era cottage he called home. Her tone was flat, but also jarring without exerting any energy. She carried herself with an air that made it seem she simply could not be bothered to wake up a classmate for a late afternoon Biology lab. She could, however, use contagious lethargy as an excuse to blow off the lab herself.

He stirred to the sound of her voice and the shuffling of her flip-flopped feet. He turned his face away from the cool plaster wall to survey the afternoon sunlight cast onto the dark timber floor. He pulled the sheets back, squinted his disapproval of the interruption before running his hands through the rat nest that was his hair. She fondled the rows and stacks of textbooks, modern classics and empty compact disc cases, busying herself like one does when trying to avoid staring at the person getting dressed right in front of them.

The nonchalant way in which he moved about the room belied the smile her presence caused in his heart. Still having not said a word, he moved to the joining bathroom to brush his teeth and put on the tee shirt he had pulled off the night before. Staring at himself in the mirror his eyes told him the truth he had yet to stomach. They would not survive without scars. They would both be hurt. He would break her heart to save his own.

She was in his bed when he returned, back against the wall where a headboard should be with her knees drawn up to her chest. A crooked smile appeared on her sun kissed face. “I don’t want to go,” she confessed. “Let’s go get a bottle of wine and smoke cigarettes all afternoon.”

He crossed the room dragging his backpack. He playfully messed with her hair before crashing down beside her.

She laid her head on his shoulder.