#fwriteday

[thoughtkosmos]

~"If a plate breaks in a room where no one hears it, does it really make sound?"~

A collaboration with @theangryshayar and @not-hard-to-love

[xthedepressedpoetx]

Prompt: Ocean and nostalgia.

Team members—@swankydoo and @saallyi

Word count—1029 words

The evening was slowly coming to a close when the car stopped in the beach's parking lot. In the distance Virgil could see the light of the bonfire, indicating that Amy and Xavier were already here. Virgil was equally excited and anxious, it had been a while since they had last seen one another and hadn’t kept in touch much.

As he moved closer to the duo, Virgil looked at the scenery around him. The beach hadn’t changed much. The sun was setting on the horizon and gave both the sky and ocean a fiery blaze and the sand was warm under his feet, having been heated up all day long.

When Amy and Xavier noticed his presence they happily waved at him and gestured at Virgil to come join them around the fire.

As Virgil started walking towards them the wind hit his face. It was the feeling that he used to feel every evening with his best friends.

Virgil approached Amy and Xavier and exchanged greetings, Xavier stood up and gave a hug to Virgil. Then all three of them sat down on the logs across the fire, and the conversation began—

“So, here we are again.” Xavier looked at his two friends with a wide smile

“Yeah, it’s just like the old days.” Amy sighed, relaxing into her picnic chair.

Virgil moved a bit closer to the fire, “Feels awesome to be back here again.”

A few moments of silence passed by before Amy spoke again: “This place is as beautiful as it was before…”

“Yeah, but it could use a bit of cleaning up.” Xavier said while picking up a can off the sand and throwing it in the trash bag.

“It was your turn if I remember correctly!” Virgil teased him.

“Yeah, it was his turn.” Amy laughed.

“Oh come on guys!” He whined and played hurt. His silly acting quickly made the other two burst out laughing and he promptly joined their laughter.

It took them a while to calm down and when they did, Xavier offered everyone a beer, which they all accepted.

“I missed these evenings with you guys…” Virgil announced and smiled at them.

Xavier smiled too and acquiesced.

“Well, we’re here now, aren’t we… Let’s make the most of it!” Amy exclaimed.

“Hell Yeah!” Virgil cheered and the other two others quickly joined him.

"Do y'all remember the last time we came here?" Xavier asked, standing next to the cooler kept on the far end of the beach.

"What kind of a question is that? Of course we do," Amy replied.

"Come here the two of you." Xavier beckoned them towards the rock on which the cooler was kept.

A smile lit up Virgil's face as he read what was inscribed on the rock

'AVX—forever and always.'

"Damn, it's still here." Amy ran her fingers over the inscription. She recalled the day the three of them went skinny dipping in the ocean.

"Remember how loud Virgil was screaming when he got his hand cut on that weird object?" Amy chuckled.

"I wasn't screaming, I caught hold of that thing, like the brave man I was," Virgil said in his defense.

"Whom are you kidding? You were screaming more than a new born baby does, over a little cut," Xavier added.

"Was not." Virgil rolled his eyes.

"Were too," Amy teased.

"We were idiots, weren't we?" Virgil said, with a sigh.

"We were idiots, but the best idiots ever. On our way back to the dorms, we used that weird object to inscribe our initials on this rock. And look! It's still here. Damn you Amy for saying that it was a stupid idea," Virgil said.

Amy raised her hands up in surrender at the accusation. She opened the cooler, passed a can of beer to each, and then the three went back to the bonfire.

"So Mr. 'girls are a waste of time', did you meet your special someone yet?" Amy questioned Xavier.

"Nah. Girls are still a waste of time," Xavier shrugged off the question.

"Oh really?" Virgil drawled out, a certain mocking tone to his voice. "Hey Amy, let me tell you something."

"Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it," Xavier chanted.

"Oh watch me," Virgil said. "Amy, did you kn—"

Xavier sat down next to Virgil, covering his mouth with his hand, preventing Virgil from speaking.

"Did you ugh ugh." Virgil's voice came out muffled.

Amy was laughing, seeing the banter. "Oh screw you Xav, let the guy speak."

Xavier rolled his eyes and sat back down in his earlier place.

"Yeah so as I was saying, Xav had the biggest crush on you the last time we came here." Virgil told Amy as Xavier blushed red.

Amy laughed aloud at that. Xavier sure did know how to hide his crushes.

"Yeah whatever, it's in the past now. Besides, there's a certain someone I fancy who lives next door," Xavier said.

"So, does this certain someone know you exist?" Amy teased.

"Yeah. We're friends." Xavier rolled his eyes.

"Roll your eyes one more time and they'll fall off," Virgil said.

"Lame." Xavier rolled his eyes yet again. "Enough about me though, what about you? You've been engaged for like forever now, when's the wedding, or did you already have it and did not invite us?" Xavier asked Virgil as he laughed.

"Not yet. But continue with that eye rolling of yours and I will be sure to not invite you. Anyways Amy, what about you? Is your love life still the square root of minus one?" Virgil asked.

"Sort of? I have the biggest crush on this co worker of mine, and he seems into me too. But then again, it might be just him being a nice guy and me overthinking it." Amy's cheeks tinged pink.

"Ah Amy Amy, you're looking like a tomato right now," Virgil laughed.

The Sun had completely set by now, giving way to a starry night. Xavier took out more beer from the cooler and passed it around the small group. The three stared at the ocean, memories of all the times they spend there flooding their mind.

[bookishretreat]

Prompt: If a plate breaks in a room where no one hears it, does it really make a sound?

Partner(s): @rachelbeetle

Word count: ~650

Emma paced by the window in her kitchen. The sun was quickly encroaching upon the horizon, almost as if it was a timer counting down. She wasn’t sure if she wanted her date to stay the night, but if she made a mistake, he would be leaving sooner rather than later. As soon as the last ray of sun left her sight, the super-cute guy she’s somehow managed to charm into her little apartment would leave. 

    She froze, squeezing the windowsill as a chill spread down her arm.

    If he left, she might never see him again. 

    Emma shook her head and pushed herself away from the window. She glanced into the dining area to sneak a peek at Max.The chicken was still cooking but her curiosity got the better of her.

    Max was perfect. He looked like a prince straight out of a story book her mom used read to her as a kid. And admittedly, it wasn’t just his looks. Emma had been talking to him online for almost a month now and he’d been nothing but kind to her. He seemed to have all these depths to him that she couldn’t wait to uncover. 

    She moved to the cabinet to grab a plate. He’d probably begin to wonder what she was up to if she wasted too much more time. Still, her hands shook at the thought of losing him as she reached for the delicate china. 

    Plate in hand, she walked over to the stove. But something was off.

    Time seemed to slow. Emma watched her hand involuntarily release the plate; unable to grasp it firmly. She looked down horrified as it spiraled towards the ground and shattered.

    She had messed it up.

    Her one chance to finally have a prince charming who was so much more than his looks was ruined. And she was so close. Why did she have to be so clumsy? She shouldn’t have been so naive to bring him there, in her home. She shouldn’t have trusted herself not to mess it up. Now she was just a failure and once he found out he would never care for her again.

    Maybe he didn’t hear it. Maybe she could save the moment and clean and bring the chicken out to Max and it would be like nothing happened at all.

    “Emma?” 

    She spun in place toward the doorway in a panic. “I, uh—” She wiped her cheek to get rid of her betraying tears. “The plate.”

    Max spared a glance at the broken glass before coming toward her. “So that’s what I heard.” His expression shifted, softened, as he examined her. “Are you okay?” 

All at once the confusion around her seemed to stop. Those three words, ‘are you okay’, were enough to set Emma’s mind at ease.

    What was she worried about? Max didn’t care about her failure, he only cared that she was okay.

    “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. It’s only a plate.” 

    “I’ll help clean it up. Just don’t move, there might be shards of glass laying around you.” Speechlessly Emma pointed to the chicken, now on the verge of burning.

    “Can you turn the stove off?”

    He nodded and quickly left the kitchen, coming back in with some shoes on. He took the chicken off the stove and Emma guided him to where the broom was. Before long he was sweeping away the glass that trapped her.

    Once everything was cleaned, he stood in front of her.“May I hug you?” he asked.

    Emma blushed and said yes. He pulled her into a warm, comforting embrace, and with it, the last of her worries dissolved. It was just a broken plate. Max cared about her, not a simple slip-up. “Dinner’s gonna be cold,” she whispered against his chest. But truthfully, Emma never wanted to leave his unjudging embrace.

[wxtar2ba]

If a plate smashes and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

ANOTHER BROKEN PIECE 

He throws a plate across the room and it shatters

My little sister lives with me and she’s in her bedroom listening to music

She doesn’t hear a thing

Plates keep on smashing

Every little thing I have built is now destroyed, vanished,

But why? Why can no one hear? It’s like an earthquake and I can’t surrender

When the first plate smashes in the room and no one is around to hear it, there is no sign showing how much pain, no one believes, they only laugh.

They don’t hear but here I am laying on the cold ground as the last plate smashes. 

If a plate smashes in a room and no one is around to hear it, the crash falls to my ears alone as he rages. 

When the plate smashes in the room and no one is around to hear it, it resonates with me as it is paired with hands shaking my body.

When the first plate smashes in the room and no one is around to hear it, bruises appear and my morale is broken. 

I must smile as the ceramics clatter along with my heart. 

Closed doors veil the truth behind the lying wood. An illusion of “fine.”

Another broken piece in a thousand pieces--scattered and chipped, beyond repair. 

My AMAZING partner is @herlighting-stormsandshines. Please give her some love and stay tuned for the next prompt. I am going to link to a blog that will compile the work of a group of writers working collaboratively and displaying their creativity. Much love. <3

[thoughtkosmos]

≈Dividers of Time≈

≈≈≈

The saltiness on my lips is now a permanent taste. I’ve been on this beach for way more than I should but I can’t bring myself to finally leave.

My face is tired of fighting this scorching sun.

The heat of the outside world makes me wanna stay submerged underseas, even if my breath doesn't last long.                                                            The closer I get to the water, the closer I feel to home.

My beautiful seashells and sandcastles, a small paradise inside my heart.

This beach is comfortable enough for me to stay forever. I ignore my burns, I ignore the tide rising higher by every single second.

I ignore the consequences.

He made sure to inform me, burn the fear in my brain, rush me to make every decision, force me to follow him and not stay behind. I've worked so hard to find my shells and build my castles, but he would never understand.

How the hell am I supposed to just… just leave them behind?

He has a twisted way of messing with me, mocking me every step of the way, laughing at my face for trying so hard to keep up, but always failing.

I can't follow his pace. I keep getting distracted along the way, causing me more pain, burning my vulnerable skin more and more.

But I shouldn't lose track of him, he knows the right way, he knows the right path. And certainly staring back at the sea isn't the right direction on this uphill.

My precious possessions are getting submerged under the tide, one by one.

I can't collect them all and carry them with me, it’s too much of a burden. They’re too heavy to hold and I’m on my own, everyone is moving forward and I'm on my own trying to hold onto them. But I know that if I don’t let them down on this very sand, to be dragged by the sea, i'll be drowning too.

Despite my actions showing the opposite, drowning is not my intent.

I guess I can't have everything I want, and that leaves an even more bitter taste in my mouth.

I have to choose between the past and the present, the shore and the sand, drowning in what I admire or moving into the unknown.

He keeps reminding me of what I'm so not gracefully avoiding.

I have to get going on this beach of life or i'll end up a shell of myself too, dragged into the ocean of history, just like the relics of my past.

I can't take it anymore.

The riptide's constant rising is pressuring me to move on, and the responsibilities burning above my head are making my walk too difficult to handle.

Only one will survive for longer; either me or my memories. I either move or join the shells of the people who are no longer in my life and the sandcastles I once called home. I can feel myself being pulled inside...

A few drops of the past's water could be refreshing, but the more you sip on it, the thirstier you become. At the end, you never know what kind of oasis awaits you ahead.

Life is about enjoying the stroll by your past's beach, while being refreshed by it's droplets.

Just don't neglect to take a breath for yourself every time you dive back.

≈≈≈

A collaboration between me, @not-hard-to-love and @theangryshayar for #Fwriteday

This week's prompt was: Ocean and Nostalgia

:)

[thoughtkosmos]

~ Writers Wage War: ~

| Fwriteday |

~•~

Hello everyone!!

So we're trying to make a kind of a writing challenge for anyone interested

In this group chat that I'm linking bellow we'll have a new writing prompt/challenge/topic each week

Anyone that wants to participate will create small teams of like 2/3 people and work together for their entry

The way that the teams will work is up to them!

Maybe each member writes a specific part, maybe everyone gives ideas to combine and create the final piece

We'll see how it goes!

As long as you are willing to participate, I'm sure it will be fun😁

This is a Group Chat on Tumblr.

Also if you want you can reblog this or send it to any groupchat or friends of yours or whatever, so that we have more people to participate 😁

[bookishretreat]

Prompt: Oceans and nostalgia

Partner: @rachelbeetle

Word count: ~1250

Part 1:

Ryver watches the sun begin to peek out over the horizon. It’s first rays showering the calm ocean with golden droplets. She looks around the almost deserted beach. It is perfect aside from isolated litter, most likely leftover from last night's parties. She loves walking along the shore at this early hour. It is her only reprieve from the everyday mundaneness of her life. Ryver finds it so humbling to take a moment out of her routine to observe the beauty of the most natural place in California, the ocean. It seems her life is so ordinary and lonely.

Ryver lives in the smallest, cheapest, one bedroom apartment she could find. She works in her local diner while also doing all the odd jobs she can find. She struggles to stay afloat on a monthly basis. Not too long ago, she was forced to sell her car. Her old, beat up Ford was one of the few belongings Ryver took with her when she left home at 18. The other possession she brought was her mother's necklace. 

Ryvers mother had died from leukemia when she was very young. The ocean and a love of flowers were the only things they had in common. Ryver remembers taking long walks with her mother along the humid beaches of Florida before her mother became confined to her bed. Ever since her mother died, Ryver has worn her silver necklace with a small, and yet intricately carved design of a lotus flower. Ryver’s mother has always said the lotus flower symbolizes rebirth; that’s why she loved it so much.

Ryver reluctantly ends her walk as the sun becomes fully visible. She begins her long walk home to change into her work clothes, not looking forward to what the next long day will bring her.

Part 2:

They're arguing. Again. Xavier presses his ear to his door, wanting to hear what they're bickering about. He's just about heard it all. His dad doesn't clean up after himself (he doesn't), his mom has too many expectations (she doesn't), one of them doesn't actually love the other anymore (that is true). God, he wished they would just divorce already. One of these days he fears he'll hear an argument about him. They will blame him on their bad marriage. They'll use him as a bargaining chip. 

They haven't yet. He has been lucky so far that they keep him out of their arguments for the last seventeen years. Still, he's afraid, and once he hears them utter the unforgivable words, that this is his fault, he'll never be able to convince himself otherwise. 

He moves to his window, unlocking and opening it. They won't care. They haven't checked on him since he was seven. 

He feels lucky that he lives so close to a beach. In just five minutes, he's there. The beach provided him the good kind of solitude. Not the kind at school, where he's too old to be given a chance with any of the cliques. Not the kind at home, where he wants to be a family, but isn't. The beach was where he could have peace. No bickering. No drama. 

He sits at the base of a rock and cradles his head in his hands.

When he looks up, he sees something shine in the sand. 

He gets closer to it, and picks it out of the sand. It's a necklace, a silver flower. Who was its owner before? He can feel the energy from someone else in it. He can't quite describe the feeling besides that it has their compassion and company. 

He wasn't alone. 

After a while, he took it home with him. And despite his parents still bickering, he fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

Part 3:

    Ryver arrives home hot, sweaty, and tired but peaceful despite the early morning noises of construction and cars honking drifting through her thin walls. She goes into her too small bathroom to freshen up change into her work clothes. No matter how many times she washes them, they still smell of stale grease. She reluctantly changes. Her uniform is ugly - a red and white striped hat, a red collared shirt, and khaki shorts tucked into a thick brown belt. Not even her dad would wear it.

    Thinking of her dad makes Ryver miss home. It’s been so long since she has been home. In fact, she hasn’t been to a real home since she was six. Since her mother died. Her dad tried everything he could to make Ryver feel at home after the funeral, but Ryver never did. To her, home doesn’t exist without her mom.

    She reaches towards her neck to rub her necklace, like she always does when she’s homesick. But this time she doesn’t feel the cool pressure of her silver flower. 

    It’s gone.

    Ryver can’t think. She hasn’t been without her necklace for almost thirty years. She searches her entire house. It doesn’t seem longer before she realizes she is late for work. Deep down she knows where her necklace is. The beach. But she doesn’t want to admit it to herself. Because if it’s at the beach, there is no chance of it ever being found again.

    Ryver goes online and posts an ad to her newspaper. Maybe if it’s found, someone will return it. But Ryver doubts that.

    She feels her whole world crumbling around her when she closes her computer. Ryver has given up hope. That lotus flower necklace has kept her sane for the last fifteen years. 

    But Ryver has to go to work. Even though she is late, she needs at least some hours on her paycheck. She wipes away tears that she hadn't noticed before and with a sigh, walks to work.

Part 4: 

Xavier wakes up and is blessed with silence. The necklace he found has been hung around his neck for the last few weeks. He clings to it especially when he's feeling alone, grasping it in his hand helps fill the emptiness. 

When he goes to make breakfast for himself he notices something familiar on the newspaper. The flower necklace. Someone wants it back. 

He considers keeping it, but lets his heart drop as he dials the number of the owner. They arranged to meet in a few days so he can return the necklace.

They meet on the beach. In a way it’s fitting because that’s where all of this started. Xavier, although reluctant to return the necklace, is excited to meet its owner.

Ryver approaches him with an equally excited look. She is so happy to finally receive her necklace. The few weeks she has been without it have seemed to last forever. But when Ryver see’s Xavier for the first time. She knows what she has to do.

    “It’s yours.” Ryver says. She watches in joy as happiness overwhelms the young boy's face. 

    “Thank you so much. Should I pay you? How much?” He replies.

    “Just take care. That’s all I ask,” she responds. “See you around?” 

    “Sure,” Xavier says, clipping the necklace onto his neck. This necklace has become a part of him during the last few weeks and he is grateful that he was allowed to keep it.

    Ryver walks away knowing she did something right. No matter how hard it was for her to give away her necklace, she knows that it was long past time she left her past behind. And best of all, Ryver knows she found the best owner she could.