Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Stay Together for the Kids

The young girl screeched and threw her thrice broken pencil at the white, stained wall. She buried her head into her small hands and let out a scream. How am I supposed to figure this out? This is impossible!

The math problems that her eighth grade teacher had given her for extra credit were taxing her to the max. Her grades had been getting worse in the past months and she felt terrible. She had never gotten less than an A- but now she was getting C's and D's. She just couldn't seem to concentrate.

A voice tilted through the music blasting through her headphones. She turned the punk rock music up a few notches more and got up to retrieve her tooth marked and very short pencil. No matter that her music was incredibly loud; she could still feel the vibrations of a door slamming and fists banging against it. She closed her eyes as she sat down and then opened them quickly to finish her extra credit work.

Soon after she had started again, she was able to figure out what the numbers and letters meant. She elatedly stood and scooped all of the fanned out papers into her binder and shoved them messily into her backpack. The fourteen-year-old grabbed her handful of change and opened her door slowly. The hallway was dark as she slipped out and pushed her still pulsing headphones tighter into her ears. She tiptoed out the door and down the stairs, skipping the creaky one on the bottom. As her feet hit the floor at the bottom of the hard-wood floor she could hear a dim voice. She froze where she was and slowly took one of the little clips out of her ears. She could hear a soft, whimpering voice from a little to her right.

"Annie?" Annie's mother smiled slightly and stepped over to her daughter. Annie dipped her head and pressed pause on the CD player stuffed into her pocket.

"Where are you going?" The tall woman stepped over to the short girl and stooped her tear stained face to kiss her daughter. Annie stepped quickly out of the way and frowned; wanting to be anywhere but there.

"What was that for? What have I done to you? Why are you so mean to me?" Annie's mother burst into tears and buried her hands into her face as Annie heard her father coming from the other room. Great, we're going to have a party. She thought sullenly. She had wanted to slip out quietly and go to Brian's house. Maybe go out to get some pizza, or just to hang out. Why did I let myself get caught? I should’ve run.

"What is going on out here?" Annie's mother looked up; startled.

"Annie's being rude again. Why does she always get like this? What have I done to her?" Annie's father stared at the small brunette and frowned. She was looking blankly at her feet, her hand still in her pocket, one of her headphones stuck deeply into her ear. Her jeans fit tightly, which he hated, but her black hoodie was baggy which was half-decent. His daughter was growing up way too fast for her own good, if you asked him. She had too many friends who were boys for his taste. She needs more girl friends.

"What did you do? Are you all right, Annie? Why are you mad?" Annie glared up at her father and snarled.

"Why do you care? All you care about is your stupid firm and yelling at each other. You don't care about me at all!" Annie snapped as shoved her headphone back into its place and stalked over to the door. She pulled it hastily open and slammed it behind her. She knew they would never understand. They would never get it. They didn't care about her, they just wanted their lives to be good. He wanted to make more money, and she wanted a perfect daughter who wore pink and always looked like you could crack her hair with a hammer. But Annie never looked like that. She rarely wore pants that weren't torn, and her hair was short, falling just above her chin.

Annie remembered that things hadn't always been this way. She could remember when she was younger feeling warm and safe when she was with her parents. The young girl remembered them loving each other. She could remember them staring into each other's eyes and kissing quietly, making her gag, which in turn made them laugh. The past couple of months had turned things around. Her parents no longer kissed and her father spent most of his time at work, while her mother spent most of her time crying. A word seemed indented and terrible though unspoken on all of their tongues: divorce.

Annie walked quickly down the almost-dark street and stifled back a sob. She passed Brian's house and kept walking. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she had to get somewhere. She just needed to get away for a few hours.

Annie soon found herself in a small alley and fatigue settled over her. She looked around her and all at once realized that she was alone. And she was lost. A siren sounded in the distance and she followed the sound. The sun had set long before and the moon glared fully down at her. Annie swore as she realized that she had left her cell phone on her desk at home.

She kept walking and soon exited the alley and found a small, pink-lit diner. A large, flickering sign hung over her that read "Flora's". Annie sighed gratefully and stepped quickly to the door. She opened the glass covered door into a very pink room. A large woman stood behind a bar that was surrounded by booths with mismatched chairs and benches. Annie stepped up to the friendly-looking woman and smiled shyly.

"What can I do for ya' hun'?" The large woman in a bulky, white apron asked.

There were only a few people sitting and laughing loudly in the booths, drinking frothy drinks and eating great-smelling food. Annie's stomach growled as she realized that the last thing she had eaten was cafeteria food at her school, which was not as bad as it looked, but that didn't mean it was even half-decent.

"Do you got a phone?" Annie asked quickly, bringing her attention back to the large woman in the apron.

"Ya, thar's a payphone ovar thare." The woman gestured to the phone and Annie nodded and was instantly grateful that she had remembered to grab money. She picked the dirty phone up and stuck the correct amount of money in it, quickly dialing the number.

On the first ring, her mother picked up. "Annie?!" The woman half screamed.

Annie hesitated, but then answered, "Mom?"

"Oh thank God! Jake, it's her..."

Annie could hear her father's voice on the phone immediately. "Annie, where are you? We'll come get you, just tell us where you are."

Annie wiped away a tear and said, "I'm at a diner called Flora's; I don't really know where it is. I'm on a payphone in the diner."

"Okay, don't move, we will be right there." The phone clinked and Annie heard the noise of the money drop through the payphone as she hung up. She walked over to the bar and sat at a stool. She ordered a coke and drank it slowly, thinking of how worried and relieved her parents had sounded. She had never thought that they would be that scared if she left. She had always thought that if she disappeared they wouldn't even notice.

Ten minutes passed. Annie jumped as the door to the overtly-pink diner slammed open. She cringed as she imagined the glass breaking and shattering everywhere. She turned to see who it was just as she was grabbed gruffly from behind and twirled around to face her attacker. Her father's face was streaked with tears as he pulled her to his chest.

"Don't ever do that again!" Annie felt herself fall into him as she let the tears she had bottled in fall onto his neatly pressed shirt. When he finally released her, Annie was taken up by her mother, a softer, but no less loving, embrace.

"Annie, why did you leave? Why are you so mad all the time?" Annie shook her head as she pulled herself away from her mother.

"You and Dad are always fighting. You don't love each other or me anymore. You're going to get divorced." Annie's parents exchanged a pained glance and then smiled at Annie.

"No matter what happens to us, we will never stop loving you. We're sorry we've been so up in ourselves lately, we had no idea you even noticed we were fighting." After another glance at each other, Annie's father continued, "We're trying to work our problems out; we don't believe that we will get divorced." Annie nodded and let herself be led out the diner door and into the small, silver Volvo.

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