Thursday, September 15, 2011

Week Three Prompts ; the one I didn't finish!

2. Go to a crowded public place (not one of your classrooms, though) and be a fly on the wall. Just watch. What's going on? Set that scene.


"I'm done with him," The girl said, waving her hands dismissively, "He's done using me."
"Good for you, Amy!" Her friend said, patting her on the leg, "It's about time. Did you kick him out?"
Amy smiled, "I changed all the locks. I put all his shit in bags and tossed them in the garage. He's out."
"What about your car?" The friend asked, sipping her coffee, "Didn't you give it to him?"
Amy ran a hand through her long, brown hair, "It's not like I signed him over the papers or anything. I just lent it to him. I stole the keys out of his pocket while he was sleeping."
"Wow," Her friend replied, "You're gutsy. Do you think you'll get back together?"
Amy made a face, "You know what they say. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..." Amy didn't finish, "You know the rest. I ain't putting myself in that situation again. I'm 37 years old and I need to find a real man."
The diner was crowded that day. Amy and her friend were sitting together at a small table. Each one had a coffee and a slice of pie.
"Have you talked to him?" The friend asked, taking her fork to the pie.
"Nope," Amy said bluntly, "He doesn't have a cell phone. How could I talk to him even if I wanted to? I haven't seen him in days."
"What will he do? Go back to Connecticut?"
"You know, I don't know and I don't care."
The friend made a face at Amy's response. She started to say something but closed her mouth. Amy noticed this and narrowed eyes, "Do you have something you want to say?"
The friend pursed her lips, "This time you should be... positive about it. Like, don't give him another chance. Make it a clean break. I know you have a hard time doing that."
Amy sighed loudly, "I know I've had problems with it... but I know I deserve better then how he's treating me! He uses my car, my house, and even me. He puts gas in my car but doesn't pay rent. He's sending money to some girl back in Connecticut. I let him live with me and didn't ask for a single dime. It's over."
The friend took another sip of her coffee, seemingly to pause her comment even longer. She pushed some of her short blonde hair behind her ear, "Do you still love him?"
Amy drew back at the question; she clearly wasn't expecting it and didn't know what to say, "Of course I do. I probably always will care about him. But he can't live with me and say he 'doesn't want a relationship'. I'm obviously emotionally attached to him, but he keeps stringing me along. Or maybe I'm doing this to myself. Either way, this is a new start for me. I've gone through so many jerks in the past few years that I have go to find a nice guy or else I'm gunna go crazy."
The friend nodded, "That's what you deserve."
After that, they went back to normal conversation. Amy self-consciously kept checking her phone, as if she was expecting a phone call from somebody. Then, Amy's phone did ring, and she put a finger up and answered it.
The friend watched as Amy walked outside with her phone attached to her ear. She sighed as if to say, 'Maybe it isn't a clean break at all'.

2 comments:

  1. I'm guessing there's a little week 4 in this--just a bit of heightening, a touch of lipstick, and a little rouge to make the story really snap on the page (and it does), and give it a very literary ending (I'd argue that the ending would be even stronger without the last sentence--your reader understands the irony without it, so no point hitting it again.

    This is tiptop stuff--a regular little playlet; I could see it on radio theater, a play for two voices and a cellphone.

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