Drabble: Pillow Fight
Title: Pillow Fight
Character: Xander
Prompt: Down/Under
The girls, in their underwear, move in slow motion through floating bits of down. Laughing. Smiling.
He knew it wasn’t real.
It was the smiling that tipped him off. The girls he knew didn’t smile like that. Not anymore. They were too frightened, or too burdened. Now every smile came with a heaping side of sad. Smiles were watery, or bitter, or brave, but never simply smiley.
His job, for years, was to keep those smiles coming, keep it light, keep ‘em happy. He’d lost the knack, somewhere. He’d fix the toilet, sure. But he couldn’t fix the underlying problem.
Character: Xander
Prompt: Down/Under
The girls, in their underwear, move in slow motion through floating bits of down. Laughing. Smiling.
He knew it wasn’t real.
It was the smiling that tipped him off. The girls he knew didn’t smile like that. Not anymore. They were too frightened, or too burdened. Now every smile came with a heaping side of sad. Smiles were watery, or bitter, or brave, but never simply smiley.
His job, for years, was to keep those smiles coming, keep it light, keep ‘em happy. He’d lost the knack, somewhere. He’d fix the toilet, sure. But he couldn’t fix the underlying problem.