Hi all,
hope you enjoy this week’s story. Please get in touch if you were able to guess the ending in advance: I’ll start ’em, you finish ’em!
I lit a cigarette, let the smoke curl around my face, like demonic breath. Gary had a vape. His hair was short and sandy and he sucked on his vape like he needed it. That was what made me think of him as fat. I smoked when I was bored.
We were best friends. No one else could stomach us.
He was filming, and I flicked cigarette ash out the window. We had parked near the sports track at school. Bad idea. We were both in our twenties. Two older guys hanging around the track, where sometimes girls went running or jogging in shorts. But Gary wasn’t interested in that. Parents and boyfriends and teachers came and said hello in a way that made clear that, as soon as they had figured out what we were doing, there was going to be police involved. There was no one on the track now. The mist had come in early like it does here in September. It was only starting to get dark, the edge of the trees murky, but the field was clear as anything.
‘Watch the smoke, man,’ said Gary.
I flicked the butt out the window rather than argue with him. I didn’t have the stomach for it. The track was empty now but Rosie had been running earlier and I felt sad. She was in her final year and she looked so good. Lovely and kind and those jogging pants were tight but I would have liked to take her home, look after her. I’d say: look after her like a cat or something. But that sounds weird. I just would have liked to be around her, is what I mean. It was a dull ache in my stomach. Me and Gary in my van while he tried to film ghosts for our YouTube channel.
I stared out the window, imagining I was back at my flat with Rosie. We were talking about moving somewhere nicer and she smiled at me, her hair in a ponytail because she was going out jogging. In pretty much all my daydreams she’s either going jogging or coming back from jogging. Gary sucked on his vape and the smile evaporated in the gurgle it made. He really sucked, you know?
It was dark now, so I switched on the headlights, turned the car around. I drove through town, down Main Street, past Church Street and around to Willow Lane. Pulled in. Gary started talking as I put the key in the door. Excited about his footage. He darted inside, straight to the computer. I made us toasted sandwiches. He came out when it was ready.
‘Thanks, man,’ he said. He lifted one slice of bread. Squirted ketchup onto the coagulating cheese, then went back to munching. I put on music. No TV till we’d eaten. I was sick of cleaning the crumbs out of the sofa and Gary never noticed them. He was waiting with the remote control when I joined him.
I suppose I’m more of a dog person, really.
My usual writing prompt rules applied and the prompts were the featured picture and the below six words.
Yes, I missed one.
No. You tell me which!
material
demonic
murky
stomach
lovely
tendency
