Study Break

The Prompt: Eavesdrop on a conversation and write what happens later.

She hastily brushed her thin brown hair out of her eyes as she bent over the book, intent on her studies. There was a test on Wednesday and she couldn’t seem to focus on the vocabulary. The words were beginning to swim together in her head. It didn’t help that whatever idiots lived on the floor above her were blasting some kind of heavy metal, the words dulled by the walls until nothing but the thumping bass remained. It wasn’t so much that she minded the music itself, she just wanted a break from it while she studied. It was apparent that they didn’t have a test any time in the near future, or at least they didn’t care if they did. Meghan didn’t have that luxury. French was one of the hardest classes she’d ever had to take, followed shortly by biology. This was her last semester of French, but biology was going to follow her for the next two years unless she managed to stand up to her father.

“Okay, you definitely need a break,” Jackie said. She pulled out her headphones and moved away from her computer. “I know that sigh.”

“What sigh?” Meghan asked. She hadn’t been aware of making any noise.

Jackie ignored the question. “Your dad called again, didn’t he?”

Meghan shrugged and glanced back down at her notes. “I just have to focus on this French tonight. I can’t afford to, well, you know.” Formulating the word ‘fail’ was sometimes too much for her. She’d done well enough in high school, but college classes were different. Freshman year was the first time she’d ever failed anything in her life. Now she was constantly worried about French and biology. She’d done poorly enough on some tests and labs already. She had to shape up or risk her GPA.

“You’re stressing too much. Don’t psych yourself out. Take an hour and unwind.” Jackie surveyed her roommate with a critical eye. “And get your damn father out of your head.”

“I had my unwinding time earlier when I went to dinner. Now it’s time to focus.” Meghan smoothed the edges of her vocabulary list and read the first line over again. She just needed to get these words down so she could move onto verb tenses and prepare for her bio lab on Thursday. The paper was pulled from out of her grasp and Meghan shot out of her chair, a scowl on her face. “Oy!”

“You are going to relax for exactly one hour before I give this back, capiche?” Jackie held the paper over her head and Meghan rolled her eyes. It was more than a touch dramatic, although Jackie had tendencies towards melodrama. “One hour of your life, it’s not a lot in the long run.”

“Go to hell,” Meghan muttered. She could have easily switched to studying verb tenses or even to her bio lab, but it irked her to leave a task unfinished.

“Just an hour, I swear. Put all this school stuff out of your mind and enjoy a Friday night for once,” Jackie pleaded. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

The offer should have been tempting, but all Meghan wanted was to move on with her studying. There were more important things than an evening of relaxing alone. Classes, for one. “Give it back. Now.” Her tone was harsh, but there was a long moment when she thought Jackie would keep the vocabulary hostage. Instead her roommate shrugged and let go, allowing the paper to fall back to the desk and land askew on the textbook.

“Fine. Be an old stick the mud boring adult.” Jackie jammed her headphones back on and turned up her music so loud Meghan could hear it from across the room. She sighed once more and shook her head. Maybe she was a boring adult, but Jackie could sure act the immature child at times. Yet still she managed grades that were at least as good as Meghan’s. Some people didn’t have to work as hard as others.

She fixed the paper on her desk, laying it straight before she went back to memorizing the words. There would be time for fun later, Meghan promised herself. After the test.

Starting Over

The Prompt: Describe a lake or river as seen by a young man or woman who has just committed a murder. Do not mention the murder.


It was early still. The sun shone high in the sky and reflected across the calm surface of the lake. It beat down on her, warming her skin until beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. She slid off her shoes and dangled her feet over the edge of the rough wooden dock, her toes just barely grazing the water. It was murky beneath the dock, impossible to see more than a few inches below the surface, not that she tried very hard. She preferred to ignore the uglier depths that lay just out of sight. Straining to see something that would mar the beauty of the lake seemed pointless to her.

She allowed her gaze to drift across to the opposite shore. The edge of the ground blended into the lake, but she couldn’t see just where the change from water to land occurred. Trees dotted the earth around the rim and plants grew dark and thick into the water itself. That was where they blurred together. She couldn’t discern a difference, couldn’t separate them. They wove together and intermingled until her eyes grew weary of staring and she was forced to blink and look away. That was how people changed too. Slowly, imperceptible to anyone watching, then suddenly they were a different person. Looking back, that one moment where he stopped being himself was lost in a sea of other memories.

A duck glided across the water and sent ripples toward the docks. She toed the water, sending a small splash in its direction, but the duck was too far away to even acknowledge the intrusion. The simple, playful act brought a small smile to her lips. She should have been more affected by everything that had happened, at the very least shouldn’t she feel some remorse? Guilt? She felt nothing except a sick sense of relief. It had been a long time coming. And now she was here, watching the lake as the day slowly passed. The gentle movement of the water kept her calm and relaxed, perhaps for the first time in years. There were others around, families with young children, and yet she felt secure on her perch on the dock. No one looked at her and saw anything other than a woman simply enjoying the view. The past was ancient history now. She could start over as the woman by the lake, let her new identity reflect its own image. The lake would be her fresh start. A new life. Calm and put together like the gentle lapping of the water at the shore, the ripples that danced across the surface. Her murky past hidden underneath. No longer scared, she could draw her strength from the lake.

She drew her feet out of the water and stood, the splintered wood of the dock coarse against her bare feet. In just a few steps she had moved to the cooler grass. Her toes dug into the soft ground and a smile played across her face once again. Things would be okay now. She had taken control for the first time and now she was safe. Things would be okay.

Prompt #17

The Prompt: A Rainbow

The light streaked across the sky as Isa stared out her bedroom window. She recited the colors in order.

Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.

A rainbow. A perfect rainbow, arced above all the houses and trees, dipping low to each side outside of Isa’s view. It hadn’t even rained earlier. Those were the best kind, Isa thought. Usually rainbows were an apology for the rainstorms, but occasionally one happened out of the blue like this. Just a random spark of happiness to brighten everyone’s day.

Isa smiled up at it. Nothing seemed quite so bad with a rainbow in the sky.

Sounds came from downstairs. They must have been fighting again.

Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo.

They were always fighting lately. Cam deliberately made their father angry, like she was trying to bring out the worst in him. Isa couldn’t stand the yelling. It was a Sunday. Why couldn’t they just let things rest for one day a week?

Why couldn’t Cam just keep her head down and do what Dad wanted?

Isa always tried her best not to be noticed. It was safer that way. She was younger so he didn’t care as much about her as long as her grades were A’s and she didn’t stir up any trouble. Cam was a different story. She always had all kinds of friends and though her grades were good she rebelled in other ways.

There had been the shoplifting, and the drinking. Lately it’d been pot and college boys. She would come into Isa’s room late at night with the smoky sweet smell clinging to her clothes, ready to regale her with a story about her adventures that night.

Isa mostly tried not to listen.

Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue.

They were screaming again. She didn’t bother to question why Mom wasn’t stopping it. Their mother spent most of her time out on the patio with a cigarette these days. The stress smoking had gotten worse since Cam started high school.

Everything had gotten worse since Cam started high school.

“-won’t have this kind of behavior in my house! It’s disgraceful!” Isa cringed at the tone in her father’s voice. Her door was closed, but he still rang loud and clear.

Cam’s response was no better. “I’ll do what I want! It’s not hurting anyone!”

“That’s not your decision to make!”

Isa tried to tune them out, turned her attention back to the rainbow.

Red. Orange. Yellow. Green.

“You’re too old to act like this anymore! Look at your sister! She hasn’t started acting out and she’s been in high school for a year!”

“Only because you’ve got her locked away terrified in her room!”

Isa shuddered. She hated when the conversation- argument became about her. It seemed like it was the only time Dad ever noticed her. She wasn’t a fan of his attention. It never led to anything good.

“Look around this house, Dad. Isa never leaves her room, Mom’s outside pretending everything’s fine, it’s all on you!”

“I will not be spoken to that way in my own house!”

Red. Orange. Yellow.

Cam’s response was too quiet for Isa to hear, even though she strained. The arguments were bad, but the endings were worse. Sometimes Cam locked herself in her room, sometimes she joined Isa in hers. Lately she’d taken to fighting back with everything she had and the fights never ended.

She rarely got quiet.

Isa couldn’t hear a thing. She considered getting up from her window seat if only to open the door, but decided against. If anyone wanted her they’d come looking. It was safer in her room.

Then suddenly, a door slammed. The front door. Turning her gaze from the sky, Isa saw Cam’s blonde head retreating from the house at a near run. She didn’t look back, she didn’t even pause. Just continued until she was around the corner and out of sight.

Another door slammed, this time coming from inside the house. Her father’s study. She doubted he’d come out until dinner when her mother would plead and cajole him to join them at the table. It would be a tense meal, but usually Cam didn’t get back until they’d all gone to bed.

Red. Orange.

Isa waited up that night for the click of the front door, the soft beep of the security system or her sister’s soft footsteps on the stairs, but they never came. She waited up until suddenly she was opening her eyes to the bright light of morning and there was no hint that Cam had ever entered her bedroom.

She tiptoed down the hall to her sister’s room and peeked in. The bed was unmade, but that was nothing new. Cam was a slob. She wasn’t there and there was no sign she’d come back during the night.

Breakfast was quiet with no Cam to stir up trouble. There were no lectures about breaking curfew or the shameful behaviors Cam was exhibiting. There was no Cam.

Not a word was said the whole meal and Isa retreated back to her bedroom. She took up her usual seat at the window and watched not the sky, but for Cam to return.

Red.

She remained in that seat for hours, staring out at the grass and watching for Cam to come flouncing up the path, but she never did. Afternoon arrived and she was still gone.

The knot in the pit of Isa’s stomach tightened. Cam had always come back before, but there was always a question of how long that would last. She was eighteen. No law said she had to return. No reason for her to ever set foot in the house again. She’d certainly made that point clear several times.

Isa felt sick and the grass swam beneath her eyes. She’d been watching it for too long. She blinked rapidly to get the green haze out of her head and caught a glimpse of the sky. Yesterday’s rainbow was long gone and the sky was a clear blue, not even a cloud in sight.

Just a blank sky, nothing to distract her from Cam’s absence.

Nothing.