Orange 22; Gingerbread 5
Author: Marina
Story: The Dragon World
Challenge: Orange 22 (I feel your pain), Gingerbread 5 (sleeping beauty)
Toppings/Extras: Cherry (present tense)
Word Count: 354
Rating: PG
Summary: The baggage that Lindsey and Kevin bring with them to the dragon world.
Notes: All the characters have it in varying degrees of severity, and the story is as much about that as it is them trying to deal with what happens to them. This is also me rounding out Lindsey’s character a bit more because she’s been rather two-dimensional in the past.
The stress of having Sidney in the hospital causes Lindsey to eat so much that she gains ten pounds, and her boyfriend breaks up with her because he “can’t deal with it.” Despite this, she is the one who suffers the least, and she knows it.
Her parents can’t cover the hospital bills. When her mother lost her job, they lost their health insurance, because her father is a freelance writer and works from home. They go deeper into debt by the day because they refuse to cut the life support as long as there’s a chance that their youngest daughter might still wake up. Yet the longer her mother goes without work, the harder the two of them fight, and the walls are thin. Kevin has all but moved into Lindsey’s room because his is closer to their parents’ and he can’t stand listening to it.
She is almost positive that Kevin feels even more pain than her parents do, because he feels responsible, and all the chaos that came of it deepens his guilt further. “I wish I had just walked her across the street like Mom told me to,” he often says, bitterly. “Maybe I could have done something.”
Lindsey wishes he wouldn’t say things like that, because he could not have known what would happen, but she prefers it when he talks to her instead of shutting down and pretending he doesn’t feel anything at all. He is her only ally now.
So even though she would love to see Kevin rip Mark a new one, she knows that her suffering is incomparable to his, so she tells him that she was the one to initiate the break up. “I just can’t handle the whole boyfriend thing right now,” she says, and he accepts that without questioning because dating is definitely the last thing on his mind. She’s thankful. Someday she’ll tell him the truth, but right now he doesn’t need the extra worry over her in addition to everything else.
For now, she can bury it and hope for the best, because someone has to be the strong one.
Story: The Dragon World
Challenge: Orange 22 (I feel your pain), Gingerbread 5 (sleeping beauty)
Toppings/Extras: Cherry (present tense)
Word Count: 354
Rating: PG
Summary: The baggage that Lindsey and Kevin bring with them to the dragon world.
Notes: All the characters have it in varying degrees of severity, and the story is as much about that as it is them trying to deal with what happens to them. This is also me rounding out Lindsey’s character a bit more because she’s been rather two-dimensional in the past.
The stress of having Sidney in the hospital causes Lindsey to eat so much that she gains ten pounds, and her boyfriend breaks up with her because he “can’t deal with it.” Despite this, she is the one who suffers the least, and she knows it.
Her parents can’t cover the hospital bills. When her mother lost her job, they lost their health insurance, because her father is a freelance writer and works from home. They go deeper into debt by the day because they refuse to cut the life support as long as there’s a chance that their youngest daughter might still wake up. Yet the longer her mother goes without work, the harder the two of them fight, and the walls are thin. Kevin has all but moved into Lindsey’s room because his is closer to their parents’ and he can’t stand listening to it.
She is almost positive that Kevin feels even more pain than her parents do, because he feels responsible, and all the chaos that came of it deepens his guilt further. “I wish I had just walked her across the street like Mom told me to,” he often says, bitterly. “Maybe I could have done something.”
Lindsey wishes he wouldn’t say things like that, because he could not have known what would happen, but she prefers it when he talks to her instead of shutting down and pretending he doesn’t feel anything at all. He is her only ally now.
So even though she would love to see Kevin rip Mark a new one, she knows that her suffering is incomparable to his, so she tells him that she was the one to initiate the break up. “I just can’t handle the whole boyfriend thing right now,” she says, and he accepts that without questioning because dating is definitely the last thing on his mind. She’s thankful. Someday she’ll tell him the truth, but right now he doesn’t need the extra worry over her in addition to everything else.
For now, she can bury it and hope for the best, because someone has to be the strong one.