Tag: flash fiction

Attention

“C’mon. You’ve got great figure. Flaunt yourself!”

“Yeah,” chorused her cheerleaders. She’d agreed to meet Jason, the new boy in school, to help him catch up with the curriculum. Julie’s friends were helping her get ready.

“For heaven’s sake! It’s not a date.”

“Oh, but what if?” wondered Katie.

Waving them goodbye an hour later, Julie sighed. They’d forced her into a little black dress and black heels, with her hair in a bun.

“Good luck!” Ruth yelled walking away.

As they disappeared, Julie ran upstairs. She pulled on a ragged t-shirt and shabby jeans.

She’d rather flaunt her mind.

Your time is gonna come

“Damn!” Charley swore.

“What happened?” Though he knew, Marvin asked nevertheless.

“Missed,” Charley replied, halting before his friend of fifteen years. They’d grown up together, and become each other’s wingman.

“Well, there’s plenty of fish in the sea.”

Charley sighed. “Can’t believe it! I mean, I’m a decent fellow, right? Why I can’t I get a good catch?”

“I don’t know buddy,” Marvin assured him. “Trust me, though, the tide will turn and your time will come.”

Charley shrugged, tired. “My brothers’ll tease me anyway. Let’s go before they turn up?”

And the two sharks swam into the deep ocean.

Voices

“Gosh, look at the height of that thing. Looks like the twelve years of practice was for nothing. You’ll never make it.”

“I don’t think I’ll mess up.”

“Are you crazy? You’ll embarrass the whole country if you break down at the last minute. Oh, imagine the horror. Tell them you’re feeling sick. They can’t blame you—the fish was horrible last night.”

When her name rang through the loud speaker, Vanessa approached the pool with jelly legs. Before she knew it, she was poised for her Olympics qualifier.

At the whistle, she dove.

Astonished, her inner voice never surfaced.

Unworthy of note

In the fifteen years since her first job, she had achieved not a thing worth of note.

With failed starts queuing up to summarise her career, her grey hair lengthened regardless of a resumé refusing to impress. Promising big breaks all shattered into nothingness.

Day by day, expending labour and expecting nothing, from home to work and back, she walked a routine so plain and black.

Despite income in a steady flow, her dreams towered over unsteady floor. Enough for a living but not so for a life.

She’d failed a thousand times before.

Always willing to try once more.