In one sentence is the spark of a story. Ignite.
Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a memory about this sentence. Write something about this sentence.
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http://writeworld.tumblr.com/post/89211850528/the-phone-turned-itself-off
The phone turned itself off.
She stared at it in abject horror.
How could it betray her like this now?
She had finally… after what seemed
like and probably was hours of turning
it on, checking the number and turning it off again. She had finally built up the courage to call
him, had managed to blurt out her name before ostensibly hanging up in his ear
as the battery went dead.
The universe hated her; it really
did.
And he couldn’t even call her
back.
Calvin Stanford was the best
looking man she had ever seen. He wasn’t classically beautiful; his face was a
bit too… it was hard to describe. He was handsome, not beautiful, if that made
sense. It didn’t really make sense to her. But she had watched him. An unkind
person might suggest it was stalking. That
she had definitely done but only on Facebook. Ugh. She hated herself as she did
it. But it wasn’t real stalking;
everybody did it.
She knew that did not make it okay but desperation to find
out what he was interested in drove her to it. How could she actually talk to
him if she didn’t know what he was interested in? She might make a fatal
mistake, like assume he preferred star trek to star wars or something. Or what
if he had never heard of either? She struck pay dirt when she found his phone
number on Facebook as well. That justified everything.
She had given up on a guy ever
asking her out on a date; she preferred to just ask them herself. If they
couldn’t cope with that, that was bad point number one. It kept some small
measure of power in her trembling hands. They trembled because no matter how
often she did it, it still utterly terrified her. Her mouth went dry and she
got something larger than butterflies in her stomach. But if she lost it, she
could just run away and she had done that once or twice in the past. And never spoke
to them ever again, of course.
Talking to strangers was nerve-wracking.
Trying to impress someone so much that they would actually risk spending their time
to find out more about you or go on a date? That was terrifying.
And Calvin always looked so distracted
and kind of angry; especially lately.
And she had just monumentally wasted his time.
She sighed.
That was it. She could never speak
to him again. She had messed it up so badly.
~~~~
He didn’t call her back anyway, so
the decision was vindicated.
Eternal shame.
~~~~
It was a week or so later when she
waiting for her coffee and she glanced up and recognised his ass. She’d know
that ass anywhere.
She was about to make a run for it
when the server shouted out, “Latte for Melanie!”
Shit! She couldn’t run, now.
Calvin spun on his heel and glared
down at her. “You,” he said.
A weak smile. She slunk over and
fetched her coffee, put her head down and prepared to run for it. He grabbed
her arm.
She let out a startled squeak
noise.
“Wait,” he commanded.
Her hand was shaking, so she put
her coffee down on one of the benches at the side made for standing. He noticed
her tremor.
Besides wishing the earth would
open up and swallow her, she waited dutifully until he got his coffee - long
black, no sugar - for future reference.
He took a sip. “What did you call
me for?”
“How do you know it was me?”
He gave her a look. “You’ve taken
a lot of notice of me lately.”
Crap. He totally knew she stalked
him. “Oh.” It seemed to be all she could say.
“And I don’t know any other Melanies.
If I dial the number will your phone ring?”
“Probably.” Betraying her again. Stupid
phone.
An amused look over the brim of
his cup. “So?”
“So… what?”
“What did you want?”
“Oh.” A long pause. Too long. “I
w-wanted-” the ginormous butterflies started stomping in her stomach “-to ask
you out.” It came out in a rush and she couldn’t look at him as she said it.
“Me?” he sounded surprised.
“For… coffee… or something.”
Another interminable pause.
She added, “My phone died and you
never called me back.”
“No.” He took a breath. “I hate
phones and some fool put my number on Facebook and I have got a heap of calls
lately.”
Oh, crap. That was why he looked
so annoyed. “Right.”
“And I get nervous,” he added.
“You do?” She looked up at his
face.
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“Yes.”
“And we are having coffee-”
“Yes.”
He waved at the cups, “-so it kind
of worked.”
“Yes.”
“Can you say anything other than
yes?”
“Yes.”
He laughed. He had a nice laugh.
They made a date for Friday night.
~~~~
© AM Gray 2014
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