My challenge this week came from The Onion at A Lot of Layers. I am quite fond of this girl and her blog. You should check it out. Anyways, she gave me a great challenge to write around for this week. The challenge is included at the end of the story just to build the suspense a little for you.
I decided to take a a crack at this one and incorporate two areas I am not strong in, Fiction writing and dialogue. Hope you enjoy.
Open Access
I stood at the door panting and sweaty, irritated because I couldn’t figure out the right key to get me in this damn apartment. After being here for two weeks, you would think I would have a clue but no, not the case. At least I had gotten a good run in this morning. I needed something to distract me, to clear my head and push out the thought of what was on the calendar for tomorrow.
I walked in and threw my keys down exasperated that it had taken me that long to get in my own damn apartment and he was just standing there looking at me.
“Nice of you to open the door for me,” I said with a snark. What the hell was his problem?
“Sorry, I was distracted,” he answered, an odd tone in his voice. I couldn’t quite place it; it was something between amused and disgusted. I noticed at that moment that he had my phone in his hand.
The news channel that we always kept on for background noise was running the headlining story, that big cell phone meltdown. Apparently, Blackberry had some sort of meltdown and all of the security code functionality had been disabled. There was mass panic among scandalous people everywhere from what the report alluded to. I wasn’t worried, but maybe I should have been.
“So, what’s your problem?” I asked him sharply.
“This,” he answered. He held up my phone.
Oh shit.
I guess I should have been worried after all. My mind raced to think about what was on there. I had been with him for a few months now but we weren’t exactly exclusive that whole time and I kept in touch with some of my other guys. One in particular that I knew could be trouble for us if he ever found out.
“Nice picture,” he said flatly.
He held up a photo of me and the other guy kissing. We had taken it as a self-portrait on our last date before calling it off. Innocent enough. He knew that I dated other people before we went exclusive.
“So what”, I asked, shrugging off his attitude.
“But I like the video better,” he said with a bitter laugh.
I continued into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and didn’t immediately reply. My first thought was which video? The other guy and I had a habit of making impromptu videos of ourselves in the heat of the moment just to have fun with it. I thought I had erased them all but I must have missed one.
“That was a long time ago. If you want to make an issue of it now, be my guest,” I said back to him trying to keep my tone nonchalant to demonstrate how totally not a big deal I considered it.
“And then, as if the picture and the video of you with him wasn’t enough, there are the texts,” he continued, the laugh disappearing out of his voice, replaced with straight anger.
I knew what he was talking about. I didn’t really have an answer for him but I started to get angry back at him now for taking advantage of the security code being disabled and me being out for a run. I thought we trusted each other? Instead of fighting with him, I just stopped and looked at him.
For whatever stupid reason, I had kept the most recent string of text messages from the guy before. Maybe it was nostalgic, maybe I needed to see his confirmation of my decision on the screen to reassure me that I was making the right decision. I don’t know, I never thought I would have to stand here and justify it to him now.
“And you want to know what the real kicker is? Not only do I find out you are pregnant with someone else’s baby right now, but then I find out you are having an abortion tomorrow morning without even telling me? Yeah, you can thank your calendar reminder for that little clue in.” He was beyond angry now, his face was red and he was clenching my phone so hard I thought it would shatter.
I wish it would shatter. And take all my problems and this moment with it.
Destroyed and laying in the floor in a million little pieces, just like I felt I was right at this moment.
I walked over to him and pried my phone from his hand. His face was red and he was shaking. I could literally feel the anger radiating off of him when I was close to him.
Now was not the time to say anything. Anyways, what could I really say to him that he hadn’t already found out from my phone?
I picked my keys back up off the table and walked to the door. I wanted him to stop me but I knew he wouldn’t.
When I got down to the street, I stood on the sidewalk and just cried for what seemed like forever.
Then I dialed his number.
The Writing Challenge was: During an electrical surge, all cell phones lose their ability to be 'locked". Tell a story about the carnage you think would occur when partners could read all of each others emails, texts and other technological debauchery.
Thanks to The Onion for giving me something fun and challenging to write about!
And on a side note, I wrote an article for The Dude Society, an online men's magazine, advising guys to clean out their phone so if this scenario ever happened in real life, or they just have a crafty, snooping girlfriend, they wouldn't get busted. You should check it out! It created quite a stir!
http://thedudesociety.com/2011/03/would-your-phone-get-you-busted/
4/26/11 Update: SeeSaw just completed the challenge that I gave for this week at Indie Ink. Stop over and check it out, it's an awesome and unexpected take on it.
And on a side note, I wrote an article for The Dude Society, an online men's magazine, advising guys to clean out their phone so if this scenario ever happened in real life, or they just have a crafty, snooping girlfriend, they wouldn't get busted. You should check it out! It created quite a stir!
http://thedudesociety.com/2011/03/would-your-phone-get-you-busted/
4/26/11 Update: SeeSaw just completed the challenge that I gave for this week at Indie Ink. Stop over and check it out, it's an awesome and unexpected take on it.
