My Favorite Time Consumer

So, I’m writing again. Maybe it constantly fills my thoughts, and it might possibly distract me from daily tasks like, you know, eating, but I think the end product is worth it!

Here’s an excerpt from my most recent revamping of a great, original story so you can see if you feel the same way! Enjoy!

~Ari

Dear Jason,

Where are you, baby? I really need you to be okay right now. I haven’t washed the syrup off yet. I probably never will.

Why were we so stupid to never specify that your dad’s last name is MacNair, and mine’s is Jacobs? I mean, I can’t blame the director.

Actually, I can.

She is licensed to take care of you all day long, but when a strange guy walks in and says he’s picking up a naïve, beautiful, trusting 3 year old and gives her his identification, she doesn’t even use the resources she has to check out his background!

Just based on the fact that he is the father of someone who is permitted to pick you up, she trusted you to an abusive, hate-filled disgrace of a man who actually has a restraining order filed. In her office.

Just to make sure this doesn’t happen, you know?

Jason, my little baby, I spent three years saving you from your father, but I never thought to prepare you for mine.

Don’t make him mad. He isn’t like Chris. He can’t be appeased, and I wouldn’t let you do that anyway. He just wants to hurt you because he knows that it’ll hurt me.

I really need to hear you lisp my name again, sweetie! Just this once, I wish karma would pay me back!

I’ve given up so much and done so many things for you, for my mom, even for Tony before I knew him.

It wouldn’t be fair for the universe to not even consider paying me back, just to see you, baby!

No, not just to see you. To see you safe. To see you safe, in your bed, surrounded by the people you love, regardless of their varying levels of affection for you.

There’s not a lot of love here without you. You were what holds us together!

Chris hates me and hates the fact that I’m keeping his secret, and that’s destroying his marriage. Tony is just a mess, and he needs constant attention, which means no one has time for them self, which means everyone’s a mess.

Without an adorable three year old to lift our spirits and lisp away our troubles, we’re not going to make it, Jase. Someone’s going to have to give, and I hope it’s my mom, because I could never leave her in a situation like this.”

Meredith paused, pen above the paper, unsure of how to continue.

Her lip quivered, and the pen dropped as her head dropped onto her desk.

“I miss you, Jason!” she whispered brokenly. “Please come home!”

“Ah, Meredith?” A voice just inside her door made her look up.

Oh, PS, the title of this one is going to be “Echoes” at the moment. I like it. What do you guys think?

Winning Excerpt

Spoiler: This is not the excerpt that put me over 50K, and the reason for that is that my quality dropped dramatically when I had 800 words to go.  I had to put something up, though, so here goes.  (Current Word Count: 50,574)

 

Eddy was sitting in his study, but he definitely wasn’t getting any studying done.  Part of him begged to get called in to work for an emergency.  Part of him begged to reverse time a little and pause during the trial.  That one point when they’d all been together, having to be the same team again, just for a short time.  The other part of him, which he realized was a third, not just a part, wanted to go see Trixie.  That was the easiest thing to do, and probably the best, so he got into his car and went to the animal hospital.
The receptionist recognized him with a smile.  “She’s in her room,” she told him, pushing a button so he could access the hall.  He thanked her and pulled open the door.  Every step down the hall filled him with anticipation until he reached Trixie’s door.  He could hear low whimpers from inside before he’d gotten to the gate which formed the door to her little doggie hospital room.
As soon as he was within sight, the whimpers changed tones from pained to excited and intensified greatly.  Eddy smiled broadly as he opened the door and stepped over the gate.  As long as she had to stay down, the gate was fine, he figured, but as soon as she got well enough to walk, she’d be out of there in a heartbeat.  At the moment, she looked incredibly happy, and Eddy had to admit that it made him happy to see her happy.
He stroked her face soothingly, kneeling beside her.  “There you go, girlie.  Did you miss me?  I missed you more than anything.  Well, not anything, technically, but you get the idea.  Home’s just not the same when I’m the only one there.  I really miss always having you right beside me no matter what I’m doing.  You have got to be my favorite annoyance, do you know that, puppy?”
She sighed contentedly as if she definitely did know that, but if he’d just scratch a little more to the left, she’d never forget it.
“Work’s been slow, which is good, I guess.  Brinkley  hasn’t gotten any better, which is a definite minus.  We got our big bad guy, although we’re still waiting on the jury.  It’s been two weeks already, but that’s not uncommon.  We’re still looking for his boss, but we’ll find him soon.  I know you’re rooting for me, puppy.  Good grief, did I tell you I missed you?  Probably a dozen times already, but I can’t say it enough for you to understand the whole truth.  I miss everything about you, even cleaning up after you.  You’re my only friend, do you know that?”
Then he realized that it didn’t have to be that way.  “Don’t go anywhere, puppy,” he warned, planting a soft kiss between her ears and standing slowly.  “I’ll come back with a treat for you,” he promised in reply to her suddenly insistent whines.
He left the room, painfully aware of the fact that she already missed him and didn’t understand why he was leaving so soon.  The receptionist looked surprised, too.  “I’ll be back tonight,” he explained.  “I just had to stop by now.”  She nodded and turned her attention back to her computer.
Eddy climbed back into the jag, wondering what to do next.  Reine would probably blast him for stalking her despite his insistence that it was all Brinkley.  He really didn’t feel like an argument right now, although it did have its appeals.  What he needed was a friend to just sit down and say the random, simple “cool, man” over coffee, so he drove straight to Tyler’s house.
The car wasn’t in the driveway, and Eddy immediately had a feeling of dread that he wouldn’t be at home at all.  He risked it anyway.  He walked up the driveway and knocked loudly on the door.  Nothing.  He rang the doorbell.  Nothing.  He tried both at the same thing, and still nothing happened.  He turned away slowly.  He should have known better.
He would go back to Trixie and apologize for running off like that when she was the friend that had given everything for him.  He still had to get the treat he’d promised her.  There was a whole box of treats in the glove box of the Jaguar, but he felt like getting her something special for having been there for him for so long and through so much.  He figured he’d stop at the mall, since it was right next to the hospital, and get her a big bone.
After purchasing the dog bone, he suddenly felt like getting coffee, and remember Reine’s favorite coffee shop, he walked through the mall toward the shoe store.  When he got to the corner, he refused to go past the coffee shop and look in the shoe store first.  Instead, he stepped into the short line at the coffee shop.  Glancing at the sign with their prices, he whistled low.  This coffee had better be exceptionally good for the price he was going to have to pay for it!

Excerpt 2!

(Yeah, I know it’s a long time coming, but here it is at last.  I couldn’t give you the other stuff without context.  I hope you enjoy.  Current word count is 15132.)

Tyler knew Eddy had been by the mall and had called saying that he’d pick Reine up, and he knew that Eddy was going home to change cars before coming over.  What Tyler didn’t expect was the gorgeous German shepherd that sat patiently on the back seat in the “down” position until Eddy lifted the leash and gave a command.  Tyler felt his heart fly into his throat.  Gorgeous was relative, and Tyler wasn’t a dog person.  He supposed that if he had to have a dog in his house, Trixie was okay, but he still didn’t want her anywhere nrear him.
Reine saw his face at just the wrong moment, apparently, and he saw a devilish hint in her eyes.  She leaned toward Eddy for a moment and said something very quietly.  Eddy stood up from beside Trixie and shrugged.  Reine smiled, took the leash, and ran toward the porch with Trixie thundering behind her in a deer-like movement.
Tyler realized what was coming just a moment too late.  That was the moment after two long legs attatched themselves to his shoulders and the force of it sent him onto his back.  Trixie didn’t seem to notice.  Joyfully licking his face as if her were a long lost friend, she didn’t look like she was moving any time soon either.
Tyler grunted slightly, although he didn’t dare open his mouth.  This was almost torture.  He really didn’t like dogs!  He realized how ridiculous this situation was and almost started laughing.  The strange sound that was produced by this made Trixie freeze with her tongue against his face.  She whined deep in her throat and then resumed her torturous licking.
Eddy finally appeared to take pity on Tyler and called Trixie off in a low, one word command.  Tyler was amazed at how easily he got the monster off of him by just saying “come” and he lay there for a moment enjoying not having any weight on him.  then he realized how ridiculous that looked.  He was just sprawled on his front porch with a guy, a girl, and a dog watching.  He grinned sheppishly and jumped up.  Well, he tried to jump up, but it took a minute.  He had a feeling he looked like he was on a tight rope a thousand feet in the air as he struggled to stand on his thirty foot long porch.
From the expression on Reine’s face, he knew his feeling was right or very close to it.  “Well,” he attempted to brush off the situation awkwardly.  “That was nice.  Now that we all know each other, do you want to come in?”
Eddy just smirked, and Reine rolled her eyes, but Trixie barked once.  Tyler had to hand it to her, she was somehow keeping his attention.  “Pretty dog,” he mentioned.
Eddy nodded.  “She always has been, haven’t you, puppy?” his voice suddenly got that quality that people only have in their voices when talking to pets and very young children as he leaned over the golden and black animal that Tyler thought was way too big for anyone to call a puppy and stroked her face affectionately.
Trixie ate it up.  Literally.
While the dog and owner shared a special bonding fight, Tyler asked Reine how work went.  It was a nice gesture, he thought.  “Did you enjoy your first day?”
From the way her eyes rolled, Tyler knew that he had somehow crossed an imaginary line that he didn’t even know existed.  He made a mental note although even he wasn’t sure what it said for this one.  “Not so hot, huh?”
“No,” was all she said, and since she had shut her mouth twice before saying it, Tyler could see that he was lucky to get an answer at all.
“Sorry.  It was an obvious answer already, huh?” he asked.  “Actually, don’t answer that.  I didn’t mean to ask anything.  I know you’re just going to say ‘Obviously’ very annoyingly, and–what?”  He did an instant checklist and saw the problem before she got a chance to say it.  “Don’t.  It’s never annoying.  You’re never annoying.  If I think so, it’s my fault because I have translation problems.  Is that it?”
“It’s about time you got somehting right,” was the ungracious and reluctant agreement he got for his unfelt statements.
Tyler didn’t even look over this time.  He knew Eddy was smirking again.  Instead of offering this time, Tyler just led the way inside.  “You know where everything is, so you know, knock yourselves out.  Please note that this is only a figure of speeck because it would really suck if you managed to knock youreself out while doing something here.”
Eddy’s chuckle and Reine’s groan raced past the closing door and made it to the ears of the shadow in the bushes that none of them had noticed.