Hi everyone! I realized today that I haven't updated since February! I don't know why I've been slacking off so much, maybe I've been spending too much time playing with my camera. I'm really trying to get back into writing and I'm hoping that blogging again will help me. Sorry if my topics seem random, I'll try to mostly talk about writing, but I might also mention other things.
I've been going to a small writing group lately (mostly just friends and people from the last nanowrimo), and we've been doing short stories and writing prompts to try to become better writers through practice and critique. The following short story (a little over 1000 words) is based on a prompt that a friend came up with and I slightly altered. We all drew character types and then were told to write a story with that character as our main character. The actual story prompt was that aliens have announced that they're destroying the world in three hours. We had to write a story about how our character would react to that announcement. Go ahead and read the story, titled Three Hours to Love, and see if you can figure out what kind of character I had.
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They were all screaming. Yelling at each other. Upset because the world was ending. Not like all their bickering and whining would do much good.
I clutched the flowers I'd purchased before the worldwide announcement. Roses, white ones. She liked white. I stood in the street with the rest of the people as the aliens told us they were destroying the planet to make way for a hyperspace bypass. That would put a dent in my plans.
I'd have to speed things up if I wanted to get there in time. We had three hours to make the most of things.
I looked down at my token of admiration. The blossoms were already beginning to wilt. Cheap flowers. If I would have known the world was ending when I bought them, I would have sprung for more expensive, nicer ones. Now, I didn't have time to go back and buy better ones.
These would have to do.
The streets were jammed with cars. Most people were trying to get home, attempting to find and reconnect with their families before it was too late. I ran, not bothering on a taxi or a bus. Her apartment wasn't too far from where I was anyway.
I rushed, hurriedly taking in the sights as I passed. Some people were stunned, too overwhelmed to do much other than sit on the curb with their faces buried in their hands. Others were still yelling, acting like there was something that we could have done. Children were crying as parents didn't know how to console them.
An elderly couple was sitting on a bench holding hands. I stopped to catch my breath as I watched them kiss. I smiled as I observed. It renewed my hope that there would be a happy ending to this. It would all be okay as long as my life ended with the one I loved.
I ran until I reached Amber's apartment, running up the two flights of stairs and down a covered hallway to where she lived. 349, a door so familiar to me. I rang the doorbell once, clutching the stems of the roses and willing them to stay perky for another two and a half hours. I pulled the poem out of my pocket. I’d written it the night before and now the words, "I want to spend the rest of our days together," seemed a little ironic.
With no answer, I rang again, hoping she was home. Where else would she be? I heard a noise from within and my chest filled with excitement. So she was home. I couldn’t help the silly grin that spread across my face as I heard the deadbolt slide open. The door handle turned and a luminous blue eye peered at me through the crack.
"What do you want?" Soft, pink lips asked.
"I brought you-"
The eye looked downward, at the flowers and paper in my hand. "More flowers? Another poem? Trent, I'm not interested in you, remember?"
"But Amber, I love you!" I exclaimed, desperately pushing the flowers toward that dainty nose, willing her to smell soft fragrance of the blossoms.
"I know you do, but I don't return those feelings, no matter how many poems you write me."
"I just thought, it being the end of the world and all, you'd want to spend the last few hours of your life with someone that cares about you," I said, lowering the flowers and dropping the poem to the floor, turning away, tinging my words with the maximum level of sadness.
I slowly walked back towards the stairs, until I heard a sigh followed by soft words float down the hallway, "Trent, why don't you come in?"
I turned and smiled, trying not to look too excited. That might scare her off. She let me inside and I looked around, taking in the surroundings. It was similar to how I'd imagined, but with less pink. I'd always imagined Amber as a pink sort of person.
"You're still a virgin, aren't you?" She asked me with a smirk on that adorable face of hers. All of her expressions gave me delight, even when they weren't very happy with me.
I nodded, slightly ashamed.
"Well don't expect to die a non-virgin, if that's what you're here for."
I laughed, "That's fine. I wasn't hoping for that, I just want to spend the rest of my time with the woman I love."
She sighed and pointed to her couch. "You might as well take a seat. Would you rather watch the news until you die or Harry Potter?"
"Which Harry Potter?" I asked as I sat down. The couch was comfortable, much nicer than my ratty one.
"The Prisoner of Azkaban? It's my favorite one and we've got just about enough time left to watch all of it." She said and I nodded. It was my favorite as well, but I didn’t mention that. I just added it to my mental checklist of reasons why we were meant to be. She pulled the movie off her shelf and slid the disc into her blu-ray player. The view I had when she bent over made my heart skip a beat.
We smiled to each other as we heard the familiar music of the movie's introduction began to play. She didn't bother to put the flowers in a vase, she just took them out of the plastic and fondled the soft petals. "They are so pretty," She smiled as she looked from the flowers to me. "You're a nice guy to come spend these last few hours with me. I've been nothing but mean to you."
I smiled back, "I wouldn't want to spend them with anyone else."
She set the flowers down on a side table and leaned over to kiss me. Her lips were as soft as I'd imagined, and her mouth tasted like honey. With only that kiss, it made the end of the world okay, because otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten it.
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I dropped the poem and flowers in front of her door and walked down the hallway, sitting at the top of the stairs and watching the people around me rant and rave about the world ending. At least I would die with love in my heart, instead of all this anger and resentment. I spent the last hours of my life at the top of those stairs dreaming about what could have been.
If only she would have been home.
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I hope you enjoyed it and didn't find it too depressing. Please let me know what you think of it. The bit about the aliens destroying the planet to make way for a hyperspace bypass is from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I figured the little tip of the hat to that amazing book was required. I mentioned Harry Potter because I've got it on the brain! The Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite too. I'll try to post more short stories, maybe one a week. I won't be posting parts of the current book I'm working on, but I am slowly getting through the editing process. I'll try to update you guys on how that goes.
Did you try to guess what kind of character I had? If you guessed along the lines of Hopeless Romantic, you did well!
