This little vignette inspired me to flash fiction, or perhaps it is found fiction. It is no doubt far too racy for my family-friendly blog, and far too sexist. Oh what the hell:
We are standing in the BestBuy parking lot, swilling Milwaukee's Best. It is one forty five a.m. and the trains have stopped running. The bars have closed too, but I don't go to bars because I am flat broke. It doesn't matter that I am underage. That never matters. It is all about the cash.
"Are you going to kiss me or what?" Nikki says to me out of nowhere. She is leaning back on my rust bucket Ford Escort, her beer can up to her lips all frosted with the brightest red lipstick she could find. She is wearing a low cut tight black dress and I literally feel my eyes darting back and forth over her, not sure where to settle.
She is older than me, but not really by much. Maybe 5 years. She bought the beer.
In all, I guess I'm a pretty dumb kid who doesn't pick up on cues very well. I didn't know she wanted me to kiss her. "Sorry, I didn't know you wanted me to kiss you." I didn't even know she really liked me all that much. I don't really like her that much, but her eyes are the the most crazy violet blue. She drops her beer can and it roles under the Escort and then she grabs the front of my tee shirt in one agile move.
"Well duh!" is all she says before pulling me into a hard, hot, sloppy-wet kiss, driving her tongue into my mouth.
I freeze. She looks up to my face. The sulfur light from the parking lot lights catch in her mascara-framed eyes. "Well, aren't you just the shy one!"
I drop my beer and it roles under the car to join hers in the gutter.
The upshot of this, is that I'm thinking of writing a series of pieces based on this image, speculating as to its origins. It sort of becomes "found fiction" then, after all, although I'm thinking of throwing in some less-than-ficiton word things.
Next stop: a story of two vagrants who end up fighting over the beer. I've already got it mapped out; it is kind of like McTeague but without the doneky.
Yes, you've got the flash fiction form here: a significant event with closure. Closure can be a change in direction, a realization or a summation. The two beer cans ending up together in the gutter is a definite summation and a telling image. And the significant event is a first kiss. A nice read.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I read the phrase Flash Fiction...I hear it in the Flash Gordon song. Flash! fic-tion! Stupid. If you see this as family unfriendly, it's been a long while since you have read new young adult literature. I've actually exchanged some books for my son after perusing the pages...and I am hardly a prude.
ReplyDeleteNice story. I love Flash! fic-tion!