Did you catch Monday's blog where I featured this month's story by a site Classic Author? Keeping in the mood for family and drama, I couldn't pass up the story Apple of Her Eye by Ronyx. Did you check it out? Have you read it before? What did you think? 

This month's excerpt was chosen because I can't help but know just how realistic it is (being the mother of teenagers). The drama and angst, the total horror of a moment that can't be taken back, the feelings of ups and downs... those are all so very UP and DOWN. I think Ronyx captures it very well in this scene...

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I guess I would find out soon. I looked at my clock. It read 3:47. Ugh! Three hours before I had to get up and go to school. I knew that I would never get back to sleep, so I decided to finish writing an assignment I had been putting off for a week for my Advanced Literature class. I sat down at my computer and turned it on. My desktop background popped up with a picture of Shaun and me. It was a picture taken last year at Shaun’s sixteenth birthday party. I had just given him a bracelet that said, “Friends 4ever.” He had grabbed me and given me a big hug just as his mother snapped the picture. I asked her for a copy, and then I downloaded it onto my desktop. I would smile every time my computer came on and I saw that huge smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around me. This time, however, it made me sad. I knew I would never see that smile on his face for me again.

I went to the control panel, found my desktop backgrounds and removed the picture. I replaced it with a blank background. Now I wouldn’t have to look at a reminder of how things used to be. The blank background now symbolized the emptiness I was feeling. I just didn’t like feeling this way.

I worked for two hours on my writing assignment before I developed a writer’s block. I realized it would do no good to continue writing. At least it had taken my mind off my problems for a while. I had been so engrossed in my assignment that I had completely forgotten about Shaun. But like all bad problems, it surfaced again once the temporary distraction was gone.

It was just after 7:00. I didn’t have to be at school until 8:15. I had an hour to shower, dress and join my mother for breakfast before heading out for the ten-minute walk to school. I undressed and looked at myself in the mirror. I stared at my face for a long time. I guess I was trying to find my soul. But all I saw looking back was my short dark hair, brown eyes and thin body. I’m not a bad looking kid. My mother tells me I’m handsome, but mothers always say that to their sons. The girls at school tell me I’m cute, and they giggle sometimes when I walk by.

Last year, Sarah Mitchell asked me if I like anyone. When I told her no, she said, “That’s good.” Later, her friends told me she liked me and wanted to go steady with me. She had pulled one of the oldest tricks in the book. She took away my ability of telling her I couldn’t go out with her because I liked someone else. Now I had no excuse. For several months we dated, until she realized I was never going to make out with her and kiss her. I told her I thought we were too young to be involved, and we should wait awhile longer. We slowly drifted apart, and she started dating someone else. She is always sitting in his lap and kissing him. Ugh. Ask me if I care.

 

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