Rocky Road and Blueberry Yogurt
Author: romanovist
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,101
Challenge: Rocky Road 29 (out in the cold) and Blueberry Yogurt 20 (observation)
Extras: None
Title: Park Bench Soap Opera
Story: Hold on to Rocks
Summary: Antonia finds herself having to wait in town for an hour before she can get a ride home, and passes the time doing what she does best: people watching.
Notes: This is my first story in this community, so please feel free to criticize all you want! I love getting comments about what people liked/didn't like about my writing. This was written in about 40 minutes at 11pm, so it's very ramble-filled and misleading, but I enjoy the idea of the story. More characters than just Antonia will come later.
It’s a simple problem, she told herself. Three dollars and seventy-five cents, one craving for a snack, and a convenience store, that’s what she had at her disposal. Yet the twenty minutes that passed as she wandered aisle to aisle, pacing between skin balms and energy drinks, did not seem to agree that her task was a simple one. Deadlines were for the mundane, Antonia concluded as she continued her indecision.
She knew she was going to get a drink: ginger ale, most likely. All this left was the candy. Orange slices, or a Butterfinger bar? The former had won the personal sweets debate in the past, but isn’t that all the more reason to choose the latter? Revolutionary tendencies in sugar consumption aside, she figured that she was more in the mood for chocolate anyway. She paid for her soda and candy bar and walked outside.
Antonia shivered as she pulled shut the zipper of her jacket. It was a black bomber jacket that she had bought on an impulse (the deadly shopping combination of a gift card and a clearance sale). She never felt very secure about it. The collar looks silly; perhaps the sweater underneath it is the problem; is it too cold for this? The last of these insecurities proved rational; the twenty-five degree weather was not agreeing with her, despite having already lived through three months of winter this season. She stuffed her hands into her pockets in search for warmth and continued down the street.
Why do roads look whiter in the winter, even if there’s no snow on the ground? Antonia pondered this as she strolled past an ATM machine and an insurance agency. Does it have something to do with the ice-melting material? Or perhaps a reaction to the low temperature? Google would have to provide this answer once she got home.
Home, she thought, if that’s going to happen. Her mother decided to go shopping right as Antonia had to work on a project after school, leaving the girl stranded downtown until her parent finished. “bout an hour, c u then” was the texted response to the teenager’s plea for transportation. Antonia winced at her mother’s cyber-language, and then winced again at the cold. An hour downtown - perhaps she really should have worn a different jacket.
Not realizing it, the wandering girl reached the gates of the town park. During the summer time she had spent hours walking the trails and gardens of this place, but during the winter, the snow and ice fought the motivational nostalgia and won; she didn’t come here often between November and March. There's a new time for everything, she figured, and walked onto the gravel-paved pathway.
The water-clogged ground easily gave way to her Doc Martens, making the journey to find a bench a difficult one. Antonia plowed through the muddy pebbles with her feet and eventually reached a seat, right in front of the carousel. She sat down and opened her bottle of ginger ale, enjoying the cold drink despite the frostier weather. On went her headphones as well, and Belle and Sebastian played through the earbuds as she sighed with content. It had been a long school day in the life of Antonia Valentine and she was glad to have some personal time.
Evidently some of her fellow downtowners felt the same. A woman stumbled by, being led on by a rather large chocolate Labrador, which was a bit more eager than its owner to be out on this February afternoon. Antonia smiled at the dog and the woman as they jogged away, out-of-synch and unbalanced. Not shortly after that, a man with a large pair of earmuffs came walking in the opposite direction with a chocolate Lab of his own, but this couple was much more coordinated than the first. As they joyfully promenaded by (a bit too joyfully, the earmuff-less and slightly bitter Antonia noted), the seated girl couldn’t help but wonder if the two dog walkers passed one another.
They must have. Of course they ran into each other; it was a small park and they were on the same path. She wished that she could have seen the encounter: the dogs greeting one another and their owners making pet small talk. A compliment towards the other’s canine here, a disapproving comment about the weather there. Yes, the man agreed, this weather was unfortunate: freezing temperatures and no snow. The woman smiles and says that the snow storms last year were nice, during which she liked to drink cocoa and read. The two would go on to reminisce about their favourite winter memories before both realized that fifteen minutes had passed. Attempting to avoid seeming strange or pushy, they uttered formal goodbyes and walked their separate ways.
The woman sighed, having enjoyed the first pleasant conversation with a man since her husband left her last year. Perhaps out of fate or perhaps out of breeding instinct, her dog had another idea about their destination. It turned around and dashed back towards the other dog, now many feet away. Not having proper command over her pet while walking, now that the animal was running, she had no other choice but to flop around after it. The dog happily pounced on the man, who tumbled to the ground after it. The woman shrieks in apology at her dog's actions, but the man simply laughs and says that her dog is trying to tell her something. She makes a small joke about fate, to which the man responds by asking her out.
Their romance quickly blossoms, and they’re married the following summer, with their dogs as the maid of honour and best man. Their life seemed to work out perfectly, that is, before HE showed up - hm? Antonia jumped as her pocket vibrated. “im here - where r u??” She sighed, putting away her phone. Perhaps she had gotten caught up in the melodrama playing in her head; somehow an hour had already passed. She reminisced in the tragically cliché story she had just played out, smiling at the thought of the ridiculousness. She attributed the fast paced nature of her park bench soap opera to the sugar she had just consumed in the ginger ale.
Just as Antonia gathered up her things from the bench, she spotted the woman from before getting into her car with her dog - sans the man from before. So it wasn’t a fateful romance, she supposed. One can only ponder. Perhaps this woman’s soul mate belongs to another park. Or perhaps, she giggled, he’s a cat person. Antonia took a bite out of her candy bar before heading to find her mother’s car. Tasty, she thought; chocolate was the right decision after all.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,101
Challenge: Rocky Road 29 (out in the cold) and Blueberry Yogurt 20 (observation)
Extras: None
Title: Park Bench Soap Opera
Story: Hold on to Rocks
Summary: Antonia finds herself having to wait in town for an hour before she can get a ride home, and passes the time doing what she does best: people watching.
Notes: This is my first story in this community, so please feel free to criticize all you want! I love getting comments about what people liked/didn't like about my writing. This was written in about 40 minutes at 11pm, so it's very ramble-filled and misleading, but I enjoy the idea of the story. More characters than just Antonia will come later.
It’s a simple problem, she told herself. Three dollars and seventy-five cents, one craving for a snack, and a convenience store, that’s what she had at her disposal. Yet the twenty minutes that passed as she wandered aisle to aisle, pacing between skin balms and energy drinks, did not seem to agree that her task was a simple one. Deadlines were for the mundane, Antonia concluded as she continued her indecision.
She knew she was going to get a drink: ginger ale, most likely. All this left was the candy. Orange slices, or a Butterfinger bar? The former had won the personal sweets debate in the past, but isn’t that all the more reason to choose the latter? Revolutionary tendencies in sugar consumption aside, she figured that she was more in the mood for chocolate anyway. She paid for her soda and candy bar and walked outside.
Antonia shivered as she pulled shut the zipper of her jacket. It was a black bomber jacket that she had bought on an impulse (the deadly shopping combination of a gift card and a clearance sale). She never felt very secure about it. The collar looks silly; perhaps the sweater underneath it is the problem; is it too cold for this? The last of these insecurities proved rational; the twenty-five degree weather was not agreeing with her, despite having already lived through three months of winter this season. She stuffed her hands into her pockets in search for warmth and continued down the street.
Why do roads look whiter in the winter, even if there’s no snow on the ground? Antonia pondered this as she strolled past an ATM machine and an insurance agency. Does it have something to do with the ice-melting material? Or perhaps a reaction to the low temperature? Google would have to provide this answer once she got home.
Home, she thought, if that’s going to happen. Her mother decided to go shopping right as Antonia had to work on a project after school, leaving the girl stranded downtown until her parent finished. “bout an hour, c u then” was the texted response to the teenager’s plea for transportation. Antonia winced at her mother’s cyber-language, and then winced again at the cold. An hour downtown - perhaps she really should have worn a different jacket.
Not realizing it, the wandering girl reached the gates of the town park. During the summer time she had spent hours walking the trails and gardens of this place, but during the winter, the snow and ice fought the motivational nostalgia and won; she didn’t come here often between November and March. There's a new time for everything, she figured, and walked onto the gravel-paved pathway.
The water-clogged ground easily gave way to her Doc Martens, making the journey to find a bench a difficult one. Antonia plowed through the muddy pebbles with her feet and eventually reached a seat, right in front of the carousel. She sat down and opened her bottle of ginger ale, enjoying the cold drink despite the frostier weather. On went her headphones as well, and Belle and Sebastian played through the earbuds as she sighed with content. It had been a long school day in the life of Antonia Valentine and she was glad to have some personal time.
Evidently some of her fellow downtowners felt the same. A woman stumbled by, being led on by a rather large chocolate Labrador, which was a bit more eager than its owner to be out on this February afternoon. Antonia smiled at the dog and the woman as they jogged away, out-of-synch and unbalanced. Not shortly after that, a man with a large pair of earmuffs came walking in the opposite direction with a chocolate Lab of his own, but this couple was much more coordinated than the first. As they joyfully promenaded by (a bit too joyfully, the earmuff-less and slightly bitter Antonia noted), the seated girl couldn’t help but wonder if the two dog walkers passed one another.
They must have. Of course they ran into each other; it was a small park and they were on the same path. She wished that she could have seen the encounter: the dogs greeting one another and their owners making pet small talk. A compliment towards the other’s canine here, a disapproving comment about the weather there. Yes, the man agreed, this weather was unfortunate: freezing temperatures and no snow. The woman smiles and says that the snow storms last year were nice, during which she liked to drink cocoa and read. The two would go on to reminisce about their favourite winter memories before both realized that fifteen minutes had passed. Attempting to avoid seeming strange or pushy, they uttered formal goodbyes and walked their separate ways.
The woman sighed, having enjoyed the first pleasant conversation with a man since her husband left her last year. Perhaps out of fate or perhaps out of breeding instinct, her dog had another idea about their destination. It turned around and dashed back towards the other dog, now many feet away. Not having proper command over her pet while walking, now that the animal was running, she had no other choice but to flop around after it. The dog happily pounced on the man, who tumbled to the ground after it. The woman shrieks in apology at her dog's actions, but the man simply laughs and says that her dog is trying to tell her something. She makes a small joke about fate, to which the man responds by asking her out.
Their romance quickly blossoms, and they’re married the following summer, with their dogs as the maid of honour and best man. Their life seemed to work out perfectly, that is, before HE showed up - hm? Antonia jumped as her pocket vibrated. “im here - where r u??” She sighed, putting away her phone. Perhaps she had gotten caught up in the melodrama playing in her head; somehow an hour had already passed. She reminisced in the tragically cliché story she had just played out, smiling at the thought of the ridiculousness. She attributed the fast paced nature of her park bench soap opera to the sugar she had just consumed in the ginger ale.
Just as Antonia gathered up her things from the bench, she spotted the woman from before getting into her car with her dog - sans the man from before. So it wasn’t a fateful romance, she supposed. One can only ponder. Perhaps this woman’s soul mate belongs to another park. Or perhaps, she giggled, he’s a cat person. Antonia took a bite out of her candy bar before heading to find her mother’s car. Tasty, she thought; chocolate was the right decision after all.