Welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Each morning I spend fifteen minutes writing on a singular story line. Each morning starts with the last line of the previous day. The goal is to get a (very) rough draft out of the simple story idea and to avoid letting the story idea languish in limbo forever, actually writing it out. This is the third year I have done this writing experiment and each year I learn just a little bit about myself and the way I write as well as creating a framework for the story. But without further ado…
Day 148: “You know, I’m fine with that.”
“You know, I’m fine with that.”
At Gwen’s words, Kelly’s eyebrows shot up to her hair line. Gwen noticed that her hair was once again multi colored and she was sporting several piercings. As there had been no actual holes for piercings the night before Gwen suspected they were magnetic piercings and as easily removable as the temporary hair dye.
“You are okay with us ignoring you?” Kelly repeated.
“Well if you ignore me because you don’t know me and only want to bother talking to me when you think I am one of you then I would rather just have you keep ignoring me,” Gwen said.
“Really?” Kelly said.
“Yeah,” Gwen said. She looked at Kelly. “I had people I thought were friends betray me because it turned out, they weren’t really friends. So now I’m only friends with people who actually want to be friends with me.”
As she spoke, Gwen was aware that the others in the room were listening. And as the words left her mouth, Gwen felt the butterflies still. Somehow she thought she was over what Lisa and Toby did. She thought that maybe she would have to get over it a little more before she got around to dating, but she thought she put it away. But now as Kelly was offering to be nicer, simply because she knew that Gwen’s family was acceptable, she realized something. The thought of having people who weren’t actually friends in her circle of friends was what was causing her butterflies.
She didn’t want another person like Lisa in her life. She thought Lisa was a friend and throughout their friendship, Gwen helped Lisa because that was what friends did. But Lisa then turned around and threw it away by betraying her with Toby. As Gwen turned to the blank page in her sketchbook, she realized that she wouldn’t mind Kelly or Nico or the others making a scene. Even if they made the class unbearable and she ended up dropping out, that was better than getting another false friend. Deep down, that was what she was worried about.
“So you don’t want to be friends,” Kelly asked when she finally digested what Gwen said.
“I’ll be nice to you,” Gwen said. “I don’t have a problem with you and we can be friendly but I don’t think we’ll be hanging out much.”
Kelly blinked. “People always want to be my friend,” she said.
Gwen shrugged. “Then maybe I am the one missing out. And over time I’ll see how fabulous you really are.”
“Yeah, you will,” Kelly said. “I’m really fun to hang out with.”
Before Gwen could think up a reply, their instructor came in and class began. During the class Gwen concentrated on her sketching and tried to ignore the others. Gwen heard the whispers and suspected that she was the topic of much of the conversation.
Ten til Midnight 