word list Prompt #248 - Word List

[comicfan]

Use the following words in a story:  roses, rain storm, deer, cake, and chapel.

[Sasha Distan]

You got me: Family Matters

 

I got through the small talk with my family, but I didn’t actually start to feel better until I saw him. I knew I’d run into him sooner or later, after all, he worked at the hospital, but he was on his way to see a patient, armfuls of blankets and IV supplies. He nodded to me, a smile and a promise of later, probably with sympathy and cake for my broken self, and headed off down the hallway. I grinned, which hurt, but I’d always thought that his butt looked fucking fantastic in scrubs.

 

“So what happened?” My little sister, four years younger than me, and ridiculously grown up and sensible with her Prada shoes and her sleek haircut, rested her pointed little chin in her hand. I could tell that she was equal parts worried about me, but pissed about having to fly down from the city to see me. It wasn’t actually that far, but she always acted like coming out here was a really big deal.

 

 

“Well it was fucking pissing it down like all bloody day.”

 

“Language!” My mother admonished, slapping the corner of the bed, because she wasn’t allowed to slap me, what with her only son just having come out of surgery. “You can just say that it was a bad rain storm.”

 

“Fine.” I hated to watch my language around my parents. It was hard enough doing it when I went home for dinner every couple of weeks. Along with all the other shit I wasn’t allowed to talk about. “So it was raining really hard, and I know the tyres on the truck were due, but they were still usable ” My father grunted, “It was booked in pa! The garage have the damn Ford on the books for Thursday, not that it’ll need it now I reckon.”

 

“Well, alright.” My father folded his arms and sighed. Compared to my sister, who’d gone to college and gotten a ‘real job’, I was always considered the irresponsible one.

 

“And then this fucking deer comes out of nowhere and BAM! I aquaplaned, and span out, and then there was a tree…” And nothing, until the massive bear-like fireman had cut my out of the wreckage with the jaws of life, and then I was being rushed to hospital with my stomach ripped open from navel to sternum because my ribs had punctured my spleen.

 

“Oh baby…” My mother squeezed my hand, “Well thank the Lord in heaven that you’re OK.”

 

I tried to shrug.

 

“On the plus side, I’ll get to letch all over that cute nurse while I’m here.” My boyfriend chose that moment to walk by again, looking cute and fuckable as all hell. I had the feeling I wasn’t going to be doing any really physical sex for a little bit though, which sucked.

 

My father followed my line of vision, and his face darkened.

 

“What the hell is it with you and all that shit boy?”

 

“Aww what?” This was such old ground. I saw my sister put her face in her hands in frustration, “Dad you know I’m gay.”

 

“No you ain’t.” Dad jabbed one thick finger into the mattress.

 

“Honey,” Mum again, sounding hurt and disappointed, “We know you’ve done things in your past that you regret, but you have another chance at life. It’s a good time to leave all that nonsense behind and get settled down.”

 

“I am settled. I love him and we live together. I want to spend the rest of my life with Ja-”

 

“I don’t want to hear his fucking name!” My father was on his feet, roaring and red-faced. His fists were bunched at his sides, “Listen here boy, you are going to find a nice clean girl and settled down, get married in that damn chapel like me and your momma did and have a whole host of little kids.”

 

“Or what?” My injuries really didn’t want me to be shouting, but I didn’t much feel like I had a choice, “Or fucking what?”

 

Dad grabbed mum up outta her chair and snarled.

 

“Then you ain’t no boy of mine. C’mon.”

 

Mum went with him, but it wasn’t like I expected her to do anything else. I gulped down the tears, there went my family. My sister squeezed my hand.

 

“I’m sorry bro.”

 

“Me too.”

 

“Do you really love him?”

 

“More than I love my truck.” I smiled, and my sister matched my expression, “Yeah. I really do.”

 

“Good for you bro. Does he treat you well?”

 

“He brings me yellow roses every Sunday.” A stupid little tradition that had started when we were dating. Yellow roses and pick’n’mix sweets on a Sunday morning. I always bought the sweets.

 

“You’re lucky.” She stood, and kissed the un-bandaged part of my forehead. “Hold onto him tight big brother.”

 

“You bet.”

 

She stood and gathered up her coat and expensive little purse.

 

“What are you gonna go with the deer?”

 

It hurt, but I couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“Lucky fucker made it out un scathed. Who’d have thought right?”

 

She looked me up and down, and turned to go.

 

“Same people who doubted that either of us would ever make anything of ourselves bro. Look at us now.”

 

I watched my sister clip down the hallway in her fashionable footwear and skinny suit and shirt. Yeah, just look at us now, my sister not finding love and me with my beat up self.

 

“Hey there big guy.” He was standing there smiling at me.

 

The world just keeps on getting brighter.

[joann414]

Weekends and Bad Weather

 

Jo Ann stared out the kitchen window as she drank her first beer of the evening.  The rain storm hadn't let up all day.  Feeling another presence in the room, she turned to see K.C. standing in the door of the kitchen,  holding two pink roses.  Jo Ann knew he'd probably stole them off one of her own rose bushes, but she didn't feel like scolding him.

 

"These are for you.  I picked them myself."  K.C. walked toward Jo Ann, holding out the two roses.

 

Jo Ann wasn't fooled by the gesture.  "Whatever it is, the answer is no, K.C..  By the way, did you pick up Cassie's birthday cake from the bakery like I asked?"  Jo Ann knew the answer by the look on K.C.'s face.  "I knew better than to count on you."

 

K.C. said hurriedly.  "I'll run and get it now.  The bakery doesn't close until six."

 

"Fine, but I'm still not going anywhere with you, nor am I driving you anywhere."  Jo Ann ignored the sad, little brown deer eyes K.C. pleaded with silently.

 

"Well, we'll talk about it when I get back with the cake.  I think you'll change your mind when you find out what it is."  K.C. left to go get the cake.

 

Cassie walked through the door, glad that a bunch didn't jump out screaming, "Happy Birthday."  She had hell at work, and was ready for a quiet evening with Jo Ann.  She traipsed into the kitchen to find Jo Ann holding out an already opened cold beer to her.

 

"Happy Birthday, sweetie.  K.C. forgot to pick up your cake, but he's gone after it now.  I told him we weren't going anywhere.  You sounded pretty damn stressed when I spoke with you at lunch.  Did you day get any better?"

 

"Hell no.  My new patient called me everything but the son of God, and then threw his lunch at me.  I wanted to break the bastard's other leg."  Cassie flopped down onto a bar stool.  "Tell me K.C. isn't going to be here all evening."

 

Jo Ann sat down beside her and said.  "I told him we wanted a quiet evening together.  Maybe he will take the hint."

 

***

 

The front door flew open an hour or so later.  "Damn, it is raining like hell out there.  I didn't think I would ever get here."  K.C. plopped the cake down on the bar in front of the two women, opening a cabinet drawer, and pulling out a knife.

 

"You're not fixing to cut MY birthday cake.  Gimme that knife!"  Cassie jerked the knife out of K.C.'s hand and cut the first piece of cake for herself, not bothering with a fork or plate.  She took a bite, and put ithe cake to Jo Ann's mouth for her to taste.  K.C. looked on like a hurt kid.

Giving in, Cassie cut him a piece and put it on a paper towel and handed it to him. 

 

He wolfed it down before saying, "Let's go over to that chapel on McComb Ave..  They're starting a revival tonight."

 

Both women looked at him like he had two heads.  "You wanna go to church?  What have you been drinking?  Jo Ann looked searchingly at K.C. as she spoke.

 

"I haven't been drinking.  I just decided to mend my ways a little and not be so promiscuious anymore."  K.C. didn't look at either of the women as he spoke.

 

Cassie spoke accusingly.  "I know exactly why you want to go.  The nurses were talking about the visiting minister that's preaching the revival.  There's a picture in the paper that they were all fawning over.  Mend your ways my ass, K.C.

 

"I resent that, Cassie.  Maybe I do want to live a better life, and be a better person.  I'll just go alone."  K.C. had the hurt puppy look down pat as he walked out of the kitchen.

 

"Make sure you don't bring the preacher home with you."  Jo Ann laughed as she spoke.

 

****

 

The next morning, Cassie and Jo Ann sat out on the back deck, enjoying mimosas and the sunshine that was drying the saturated backyard. 

 

"K.C. must've been quiet when he got in last night.  He didn't wake us up.  Maybe he went out after the services.  A lot of good one night at church did him.  I'm going in to get the muffins from the oven.  Would you like another mimosa?  Jo Ann reached for Cassie's glass when Cassie nodded, and walked through the open sliding glass door into the kitchen.

 

They ate their muffins in a comfortable silence and sipped on their mimosas.  A few moments later, a sleepy-eyes K.C. stumbles out the door in nothing but a pair of Donald Duck boxers, with the yellow beak portruding from the fly.

 

"Good grief K.C., do you ever wear plain old boxers?"  Cassie shook her head in amusement as she goaded him.

 

"Butter me a couple of those muffins please.  Is there any orange juice?"  K.C. spoke to no one in particular.

 

Cassie slid the carton of orange juice toward him, and Jo Ann sliced two muffins, spreading cinnamon butter on them.

 

K.C. went inside and came out with two glasses, settling down in a chair, and moving the newspaper out of the other chair.

 

"Why do you have two glasses?  We both have mimosas, and there's no way  you can eat both those muffins.  They are huge."  Jo Ann admonished K.C. in a motherly voice.

 

"Well, I brought the preacher home with me last night."  K.C. preened as he made his announcement.

 

Both girls looked at him doubtfully before Cassie finally spoke.  "Yeah, right.  Why don't you go get the preacher and let him say grace before you eat those two huge muffins?"

 

"Did I hear someone say they wanted me to say grace?"

 

The two women's mouth dropped open at the sight of the man walking through the door, wearing K.C.'s , Frosty the Snowman boxers, the carrot, sticking out from the crotch.  The picture in the paper didn't do this gorgeous creature justice.

 

Looking at K.C., the two women chimed in unison.  "You are so going to hell!"

Edited July 27, 2013 by joann414

[Slytherin]

   ROFLMAO      

[K.C.]

      ........ what? Me not going to Hell!  

[totallyy]

This looked interesting so I tried, fantasy is not really my genre but the deer just threw me for a loop so I just tried my hand at it: Will Our Love Run Dry?

 

Today was the day.

 

I was to be wed to his royal highness, Prince Alexander of Zion. I was to be crowned Royal Consort to the Prince. I was to gain a family: a father, a mother, and a husband. But today was the day that I would forever remember as the beginning of the rest of my life with the man who changed it forever, Alex.

 

The day was beautiful. Sunlight illuminated the kingdom, glistening off the ivory towers of the castle. A gentle breeze swept through the kingdom, carrying a faint hint of lavender. I stood at the door of my tiny cottage and looked down the dirt road at the royal castle in the distance, its gleaming white walls, a promise of a future. A pair of children chased each other down the street, unadulterated joy gurgling in their throats, spilling over in bursts of laughter. A smile spread across my face as I remembered the first time I met the royal child.

 

Mother had just given me a silver piece to fetch a pound of meat from the market. As a child, I had never been particularly sharp. The silver slipped from my pudgy little fingers as I tried to make my way through the crowds that lined the street. They had gathered to observe some commotion that was making its way through the lower town. The silver rolled through the crowds; between the legs of overweight ladies bustling each other to get a better view, pass the feet of sturdy men with their children hoisted on their shoulders, narrowly avoiding a group of beggars eyeing the crowd with suspicion, tumbling forward into the open space. I squeezed through the sweaty bodies and was shoved into the open lane. The silver piece lay at my feet. I bent over to pick it up when a monstrous shadow cast itself over my petite frame, a shrill neighing sending me tumbling backwards.

 

Fear bound my body as hooves narrowly avoided crushing my legs and pounded imprints into the ground. A stern man dismounted from the carriage and eyed me with suspicion, his fingers menacingly toying with the horsewhip.

 

“It’s alright,” an angelic voice sung from behind the shadow.

 

Small feet shuffled pass the horseman and stopped right in front of me. A small hand extended itself and as I looked up, beautiful blue eyes set in a round face was roving up and down my body. His hair seemed to frame his face with a gentle glow in the reflection of the sun. The golden strands curled slightly as they brushed against his forehead.

 

A field of wheat in harvest, I thought it reminded me of.

 

“You alright?” he asked.

 

I nodded, dumbstruck.

 

“Need some help?” he asked once more, his lips curling in amusement.

 

I looked at his outstretched hand and heat rushed to my cheeks. My limbs abided by my will as I shakily stood on my feet. As I brushed my dirty hands against my pants, I kept my gaze fixated on the ground.

 

“I… I apol…pol… ogise…, y… your… high…highness,” I stuttered, ashamed.

 

He bent down at my feet. I gasped, horrified.

 

“Here,” he said as he straightened himself and held out his hand, a piece of silver sitting in the palm.

 

“Oh… thanks… thank you… your highness,” I managed as I picked the dirty silver from his hand, my callous dirty fingers brushing against his soft clean palm. I bowed a stiff awkward bow as I waited for him to mount the carriage once more.

 

“It’s Alex,” he added throwing a glance back at me, punctuating his sentence with a wink.

 

I blushed furiously as I stepped away from the open path and joined the sidelines. The horses neighed, lifting their hooves, as the horseman’s whip cracked against their hide.

 

The same sound echoed through the night as I returned home, silver piece in hand, the meat all but forgotten. But the next day, a letter arrived, the royal seal prominently displayed on the back.

 

As I passed the streets, the men and women of the town stopped me to offer their congratulations: a shaken hand, a half-hug, claps on the back. I smiled and thanked them. I was surprised to discover that I was not bitter, as I left the town behind.

 

The castle walls stood before me in all their glory, a wall of stone on stone paved in blood and built on the corpses of slaves that lived hundreds of years before me.  Miles of greenery stretched on the either side of the gate. I touched the weathered stone and remembered the day I turned fifteen.

 

I had just finished gathering the herbs I needed to bring back to the local physician. I sat my basket down against the walls of the castle and waited. I had two hours before I was due to return. The sound of hooves pounding against the ground announced his arrival. Still dressed in his armour, he dismounted the beautiful white stallion. Unclasping his helmet and lifting it off his head, he shook out his golden mane, damp from sweat and sticking to his face in clumps. His face had become more angled over the years; prominent cheekbones cut across the side of his face. But his eyes remained the same beautiful blue, cerulean, like a lake in summer. He was beautiful.

 

“My knight in shining armour,” I teased.

 

“Shut up!” he retorted, annoyed.

I had gradually stopped using formal titles in private with Alex, as we grew closer. He had become my best friend, my only friend. We talked as we hid from the intense midday sun under the shade of a lonesome oak tree, erect in a field of grass. We laughed and joked and poked fun at the ridiculous characters we had to deal with on a daily basis. As a physician’s assistant, I could assure you that there were many.

 

Following a horrible impersonation of one of my previous customers, Alex guffawed with laughter and clapped me on the back. I winced, noticeably. I rearranged my features quickly, steeling myself, but it was too late. Alex had seen it. His face hardened, the crinkle in the corner of his eyes as he smiled flattened out and his full lips pressed into a hard line.

 

“Show me,” he demanded, his voice low and steady.

 

“Alex…,” I pleaded softly.

 

He yanked the hem of my tunic upward, revealing blotches of purple against a canvas of ivory. He brushed his fingers against the ugly patches, his warm hands sending currents of electricity buzzing underneath my skin. I gently tugged the fabric back down over the bruises. I looked at Alex from underneath my eyelashes, ashamed. His eyes darkened, a storm brewing inside them. His jaw tensed.

 

“How could they?” his voice cracking, “How could you let them?”

 

“You should leave,” he stated sternly, “Get away from those monsters.”

 

“I can’t,” I said, my voice quiet, “They’re family.”

 

“They’re not!” his voice boomed like thunder.

 

My eyes widened in shock. He leaned closer and lowered his voice, quivering under the strain of controlling his temper, “They’re not.”

 

I looked away; my eyes focused past the expanse of green before me, at the forest in the distance, a sliver of happiness worming its way into my heart as I pondered the implicit meaning of his words.

 

I strode through the wrought iron gates, trees lining the side of the path, the flowers of spring giving way to the fruit of summer. The courtyard lay before me in all its glory. The water in the fountain danced in the sunlight, throwing colours on the walls of the castle, an acting prism. I spotted a single rose blooming. I bent down, inhaling the fragrance of a beginning. It would be the first of its brethren. The walls of this courtyard had seen a first of mine as well.

 

I had been dismissed from my apprenticeship with the local physician. I begged for his mercy. I had nowhere else to go. I had no money. Mother had passed on years before. There was no one left.  He snarled.

 

“Don’t bother,” he spat, “Besides, his royal highness spotted you skiving off from your duties. He thought I might as well get my money’s worth instead of paying your lazy ass.”

 

The door slammed in my face.

 

Alex, I seethed.

 

I marched out of the town where I met him, across the fields where I grew to know him and into the courtyard of the castle. He sat on the ledge of fountain, the sun illuminating his bronze skin, his chiseled face and those blue eyes that were staring into the distance.

 

“How could you?” my voice quaked, the anger that had been building up inside me melting into a puddle of hurt.

 

“Gabriel?” he questioned, surprised.

 

“I have nothing left,” I said quietly.

 

A silent moment passed between us before understanding spread across his face.

 

“I was trying to help… You needed to leave…,” he replied, uncertainty showing under his cool confidence.

 

“I’m not your charity case. You don’t get to meddle in my affairs even if you are the fucking prince, your royal highness,” I retorted, enunciating the last words slowly and clearly.

 

His demeanor changed in an instant, the air seemed to have been knocked out him. My chest clenched at the pain evident in his eyes. I had to clench my fists to resist pulling him into a hug. I wanted to and I hated that I did.

 

Another moment of cold tension passed between us.

 

I turned to leave when his hand shot out and grabbed me by the wrist.

 

“Don’t go,” he pleaded in a small voice.

 

“I have nowhere to go,” I replied in a low voice, feeling exhausted.

 

Hot tears threatened to spill over as I realised the gravity of the situation for the first time.

 

“I have nowhere to go,” I repeated, “I have nothing left.”

 

“I have nothing left,” I repeated, “There is no one left.”

 

I repeated the words under my breath, rolling them over my tongue again and again. 

 

It’s starting to rain, I thought, as droplets streaked down my face, my vision blurred.

 

Fingers tilted my chin up, I remembered seeing gentle blue eyes, blue as a clear sky. I remembered Alex’s eyes. Lips pressed against my own, a gentle urging. A tongue licked against my upper lip as it pressed forward, touching my teeth. Hands held my waist steadily, a steady pressure against my skin. I slipped my arms around the body in front of me and stepped forward. I pressed my chest against his chest and basked in the warmth. I opened my mouth and let him in.

 

The clock struck twelve as I walked through the chapel doors. They all turned. Alex stood beside the throne in his ceremonial tunic, his sword strapped to his side in its sheath. The light lending colour from the stained glass windows of the chapel cast an ethereal glow around him.

 

I walked down the aisle, remembering the struggles that had led up to this point: his parents’ disappointment and their eventual approval, the cancellation of his arranged marriage with Princess Sofia, my apprenticeship with the court physician, the virulent gossip in the kingdom. But as with all the trials and tribulations, I focused on Alex and let them fade away.

 

“… And should there be anyone who opposes the coronation of Gabriel Baignard, Royal Consort to Prince Alexander, speak now or forever hold your piece.”

 

The chapel doors threw open to reveal a breathtakingly beautiful lady dressed in a robe of silk, the colour of twilight. Her alabaster skin contrasted the black hair that cascaded down her back. Green eyes pointedly forward, Princess Sofia stalked through the silent hall, her hands holding up a snow-deer, widely thought to be a symbol of the supernatural. The creature whined pitifully as its eyes looked into mine. A shiver ran down my spine as I watched the animal lay in her pale hands. It seemed resigned, as if it knew what was about to transpire.

 

“A gift,” she sang, “for the newlyweds.”

 

She glided along the aisle silently as dark clouds advanced in the sky, mounting an ambush on the sun. Rain pelted against the roof of the chapel as droplets streaked against the faces of the figures in the stained-glass murals.  A storm had descended upon us.

 

As she neared the throne, a flash of silver opened a sea of red. The blood of the creature spurted out onto the ground, emptying in a pool around us.

 

Sofia’s face morphed into something wicked as her voice rumbled across the hall. “I curse you as you stand. As the last drop of wine of this banquet runs dry like the blood of this sacred creature, your love will dissipate and turn to everlasting bitterness. You will rue the day you chose to live a life of sin, abominations!” she cackled as her green eyes gleamed with maliciousness.

 

The pool of blood advanced, travelling along the cracks in the stone floor, pooling around our feet. It soaked through my cowhide boots and stained them a gruesome red.

 

“Guards! Seize her!” commanded the King. But in the place where she stood, only lay the pitiful creature, its heart pumping the last of its life force out of its own body. She had left, gliding down the chapel aisle and dissolving into the curtain of rain.

 

The darkness receded and the sun illuminated the room once more to reveal the wilted roses lining the chapel and the pristine tiered cake that had rotten into a mound of mould, festering with maggots.

 

The tension in the hall burst into a buzzing of hushed and scattered voices.

 

I looked to my prince.

 

“I can’t hate you,” I teased, my shaking voice betraying my fear.

 

“It’ll be alright,” he assured me in his words, but his eyes mimicked my fear.

 

“I can’t have no one again,” I whispered.

 

“You have me,” he assured me,

 

“You have me.”

 

I pressed my lips against his and then, I believed.

Edited July 27, 2013 by totallyy

[joann414]

I loved this Total.  The imagery was fascinating. Thanx for sharing!

[Slytherin]

I love fairytales Great story, totallyy

[comicfan]

Okay I finally gave my own prompt a try again. It can be found here - https://www.gayauthors.org/story/comicfan/promptmenotforthesearemyprompts/2

[Ieshwar]

I loved the responses to this prompt. They are all so different, and to think that they all stem from one same prompt. 

 

I have reviewed the three which were posted in the stories section. The fourth, Jo Ann, this was hilarious. I never knew KC was into Preachers.  And the boxers were great. I want one too now. 

 

Thanks for the share. These were amazing responses, very well written.  

[craftingmom]

Here's one for this prompt:

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/craftingmom/nekoshorts/13