Strawberry #21, Strawberry Banana #24, Candy Bar Crunch #2, Soy # 14, with Pocky and Malt
Author: askingxalice
Title: If You’re Gone
Story: Phase
Timeline: October 2016 - Sarah is 27, Rayne is 28.
Challenge: Strawberry #21 (swing), Strawberry Banana #24 (birdwatching), Candy Bar Crunch #2 (saving face)
Word Count: 658
Rating: PG-13
Sarah still wasn’t sure why she had come to this. It’s not like she would miss Angie (or so she tried to tell herself), and she highly doubted she would get her mourning on. But she had gone through the motions beforehand, dressing all in black and driving to the church and signing the guestbook. She hadn’t been surprised to see that very few people had shown up, even if Angie’s wife, now widow, still completely shocked her.
Neither of them had wanted to be there, though for very different reasons, and Sarah had jumped on the chance to leave when Rayne asked if they could go somewhere quieter to talk. So here they were, at a nearby playground in their funeral formalwear, without a word so much as spoken since they had left the church. Slowly rocking back and forth on the swing she had claimed, Sarah tried to think of what to say to open this conversation. All of her possible options involved questions about Angie, and none of them were exactly polite. Luckily for her, Rayne seemed far more confident in her own conversational skills.
“We had the same anger management therapist. Since I can tell you’re wondering about that.” The redhead spoke up, tossing the remains of a cigarette butt to the ground. “She got into one too many bar fights, and I just had a problem keeping my mouth shut around authority figures. Somehow, we made each other happy. Go figure, huh?”
Sarah didn’t answer, instead choosing to focus on a pair of birds that were flitting around a nearby tree. Birds were good. Birds were safe. Birds didn’t have any conversation that might lead to talking about her and her dead sister’s fucked up relationship. She was stupid to have come here, and she should just get up and go find Adrianna and leave before this could progress.
“It was the cancer that started changing her. She’d start opening up about stuff more, telling me about her past. I think she was worried about someone not knowing who she was, and why she was, you know? Just one of those things.” Rayne cast Sarah a glance as she dug another cigarette from somewhere in her jacket. “Your friends know anything about what happened?”
“...No.” It was a tense answer, and Sarah wrapped her hands in the slack of the swing set chain for something to do. “It was a fucked up situation, but I don’t really see how it’s at all important. It’s not like I’m being ignored now, is it?”
“You should tell them. Confession is good for the soul, and all that. I think that’s the one thing Angie went out regretting. She realized a lot of things near the end, but was always too... something to call and talk to you about it. Pride, maybe. There were some things she wouldn’t even talk about to me, but I think she’d want you to know that she was real sorry for everything she did.”
“And I’m just supposed to forgive her because she felt bad about being a shitty person before she died?”
“No. It’s just one of those things you ought to know, is all. I’m not saying you should forgive her, because that’s your prerogative. I just want to tell you that she was sorry because she would have wanted that, and because it’s keeping me out of that fucking church.”
They lapsed into silence again. Sarah wasn’t sure how long they sat there, both lost in their own thoughts, but she was the one to break the silence the second time. “I’ll keep that in mind, then. I... Probably should thank you for being there for her, at the end. We never saw eye to eye on anything, but I wouldn’t have wanted her to go alone.”
Rayne only shrugged, and her answer was simple. “I loved her.” Somehow, to both of them, that said it all.
Author: askingxalice
Title: Linguistics and Logistics
Story: Phase
Timeline: May 2017 - Andy is 33, Oz is 31
Challenge: Soy #14 (overprotected girl)
Extras: Pocky, Malt (Summer Challenge: Ice Cream 112 - brought to you by the Letter C and the number 12)
Word Count: 69 (And I proceed to giggle like the immature person I am.)
Rating:
“No. We are not teaching our daughter French. We might as well prepare to send her to live with bathtub meth making rednecks in the Deep South.”
“...I really think you need to work on your irrational hatred of France.”
“Oh, really? How’s that hatred of New Jersey going for you?”
“There is no such thing as an irrational hatred for New Jersey.”
“So we’re teaching her German, then?”
Title: If You’re Gone
Story: Phase
Timeline: October 2016 - Sarah is 27, Rayne is 28.
Challenge: Strawberry #21 (swing), Strawberry Banana #24 (birdwatching), Candy Bar Crunch #2 (saving face)
Word Count: 658
Rating: PG-13
Sarah still wasn’t sure why she had come to this. It’s not like she would miss Angie (or so she tried to tell herself), and she highly doubted she would get her mourning on. But she had gone through the motions beforehand, dressing all in black and driving to the church and signing the guestbook. She hadn’t been surprised to see that very few people had shown up, even if Angie’s wife, now widow, still completely shocked her.
Neither of them had wanted to be there, though for very different reasons, and Sarah had jumped on the chance to leave when Rayne asked if they could go somewhere quieter to talk. So here they were, at a nearby playground in their funeral formalwear, without a word so much as spoken since they had left the church. Slowly rocking back and forth on the swing she had claimed, Sarah tried to think of what to say to open this conversation. All of her possible options involved questions about Angie, and none of them were exactly polite. Luckily for her, Rayne seemed far more confident in her own conversational skills.
“We had the same anger management therapist. Since I can tell you’re wondering about that.” The redhead spoke up, tossing the remains of a cigarette butt to the ground. “She got into one too many bar fights, and I just had a problem keeping my mouth shut around authority figures. Somehow, we made each other happy. Go figure, huh?”
Sarah didn’t answer, instead choosing to focus on a pair of birds that were flitting around a nearby tree. Birds were good. Birds were safe. Birds didn’t have any conversation that might lead to talking about her and her dead sister’s fucked up relationship. She was stupid to have come here, and she should just get up and go find Adrianna and leave before this could progress.
“It was the cancer that started changing her. She’d start opening up about stuff more, telling me about her past. I think she was worried about someone not knowing who she was, and why she was, you know? Just one of those things.” Rayne cast Sarah a glance as she dug another cigarette from somewhere in her jacket. “Your friends know anything about what happened?”
“...No.” It was a tense answer, and Sarah wrapped her hands in the slack of the swing set chain for something to do. “It was a fucked up situation, but I don’t really see how it’s at all important. It’s not like I’m being ignored now, is it?”
“You should tell them. Confession is good for the soul, and all that. I think that’s the one thing Angie went out regretting. She realized a lot of things near the end, but was always too... something to call and talk to you about it. Pride, maybe. There were some things she wouldn’t even talk about to me, but I think she’d want you to know that she was real sorry for everything she did.”
“And I’m just supposed to forgive her because she felt bad about being a shitty person before she died?”
“No. It’s just one of those things you ought to know, is all. I’m not saying you should forgive her, because that’s your prerogative. I just want to tell you that she was sorry because she would have wanted that, and because it’s keeping me out of that fucking church.”
They lapsed into silence again. Sarah wasn’t sure how long they sat there, both lost in their own thoughts, but she was the one to break the silence the second time. “I’ll keep that in mind, then. I... Probably should thank you for being there for her, at the end. We never saw eye to eye on anything, but I wouldn’t have wanted her to go alone.”
Rayne only shrugged, and her answer was simple. “I loved her.” Somehow, to both of them, that said it all.
Author: askingxalice
Title: Linguistics and Logistics
Story: Phase
Timeline: May 2017 - Andy is 33, Oz is 31
Challenge: Soy #14 (overprotected girl)
Extras: Pocky, Malt (Summer Challenge: Ice Cream 112 - brought to you by the Letter C and the number 12)
Word Count: 69 (And I proceed to giggle like the immature person I am.)
Rating:
“No. We are not teaching our daughter French. We might as well prepare to send her to live with bathtub meth making rednecks in the Deep South.”
“...I really think you need to work on your irrational hatred of France.”
“Oh, really? How’s that hatred of New Jersey going for you?”
“There is no such thing as an irrational hatred for New Jersey.”
“So we’re teaching her German, then?”