Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Pictures In The Air.

Tears ran down the side of her face as she stared up at the ceiling. How could she be so stupid? She was smarter than this, better than this. She was going to do better, make better decisions. She was going to be the one to break the stupid cycle and not end up being condemned to the same fate as her mother and her grandmother.

She had it all planned out. Right down to the color of his eyes. Brown. A light, bright brown that shined when the sunlight hit it just right. She was going to finish high school, go to college and be a game developer in a huge company. That is until she made the right connections and started a company of her own. Then, after she got wildly successful, she would meet him. A nerdy, but still cute gamer-geek like herself, with those bright, brown eyes.

All in that order.

That was how she imagined it. That was how she had been imagining it for as long as she could remember. On those cold nights, when the heat got shut off. On the hungry nights and even on those nights when they weren't sure if they'd have a roof over their heads the next day she would look up at the ceiling and see the images of her perfect future floating above her.

Now, thought tear-filled eyes, those visions that used to fill her with comfort instead just hung in tatters above her.

All because she couldn't keep her damned legs closed. All because some stupid plastic stick that she left on her bathroom floor just confirmed what she feared most. All because some boy whose eyes we nowhere near the right shade of brown said just the right things to make her forget her goals.

No. She wasn't going to play that game. As convenient as it would be to put all the blame on him she was going to let herself off so easy. She was the one who gave in and let raging hormones make the call.

Fucking hormones!

Now, what her mother managed to pull off at seventeen, she did at only fifteen.

"Way to go, girl!" she smiled to herself, "Always the overachiever." The thought made her laugh. Hard. Too hard. For a minute she thought she was losing her mind because she laughed so hysterically. She laughed until she didn't have the breath to laugh any more.

"Hey," she put her hand on her stomach, "hope you don't mind your momma going a little crazy for a bit just now. That's something you'll probably have to put up with from time-to-time. Better learn to deal with it, kid. And you better learn to keep up too. I've got plans I intend to see through to the end. I didn't plan on having you along for the ride but I guess that's just going to make things more interesting."

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This was inspired by this weeks prompt on Studio 30 Plus.
This time writers taking part had write a post that incorporated the line "hung in tatters above her".

15 comments:

  1. Nicely done, Mr. C! My heart sank, at the reveal. I don't have very high hopes for her or her plan (FIFTEEN - Yikes!), but I guess that's kind of the point, isn't it? I loved the use of the prompt itself, too.

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    1. Why, thank you. What she's hoping to accomplish is a tall order which, sadly, so many have not been able to pull off. But, still, you never know. There are always the one or two who do beat the odds. Thanks for reading.

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  2. Did my comment get gobbled up by the hungry google-monster? I know I left a comment here! Didn't I?

    Well. Am I ever glad you wrote a story, and linked up. I'm not glad my comment disappeared. Bummerama.

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  3. Gobbled-up comments don't happen too often. But when it does, it's always when I took the time to craft a well thought-out comment that I couldn't possibly hope to get as right the second time around.

    I'm glad you threw the suggestion out for me to give it a try. I like how this prompt got me to think outside my comfort zone.

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  4. I like that you gave your heroine a sense of hope in the end. Maybe being a little crazy will help her make her plans work.

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    1. I'd like to think so too. A little hope combined with a small amount of crazy can do wonders. And thanks for stopping by.

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  5. So many dreams are given up because of the unexpected. Nice to see she kept hers!

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    1. So true. Holding on to your dreams is hard to do when life keeps throwing all these curve balls. But when you do hold on and achieve what you set out to do despite the challenges, it makes the victory all the sweeter. Thanks for passing through.

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  6. Awesome writing my friend. Loved it and I hope you do more of these promts

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    1. Confession: I may have used my own eyes for that description. They're one of my most attractive features.

      In other news: I'm extremely vain.

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  8. So THEN WHAT HAPPENED?? You can't leave us hanging, bro.
    It's a sign of a great writer that you can write so naturally from the viewpoint of a pregnant 15 year old girl, and make me care about her SO MUCH with one page. Nicely done. I'm going to go give up on writing now.

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    1. Thanks. I'm flattered. You were kidding about the giving up on writing thing, right? Because that would really bum me out.

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  9. I got pregnant at 17, and my baby boy is now a 20yo in college and is going into health because he wants to help others. I was so happy your girl held onto her hope. It's a hard road, but it can be done. My son and I are proof.

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