Short Shorts From the last week

These were both written in five minutes with a 150 word count limit

1.

I always forget. Sometimes, like today, it's the snorkel. Other times, I forget to bring a bottle of wine because I've brought so many bottles to so many other parties. There was one time where I forgot to bring my partner to a wedding where we both had already RSVP'd. He was in the process of leaving me and I was too busy mourning the end of something not so great. Another time I forgot my bathing suit, but that was because I gained 10 pounds and hated the way the sides of body spilled over the edges of my bikini. This, not coincidentally, is also the same time I forgot to bring my own snorkel. I'm not sorry. It was on purpose. (123)

 

2.

There are things she knows for sure. She knows that her mother will wake her in the morning by sitting down on the edge of her bed. That she will whisper in her ear, it's time to get up. She knows that the sound of her mother's voice will make her smile in her sleep. Her mother will smell like coffee and that first morning cigarette. She knows that after she's dressed, had breakfast and put her backpack on she will ask her mother about that cigarette and her mother will say, I quit, remember? She knows her mother will run the shower water so the temperature is just right, and she'll cook the eggs perfectly, not too runny and with a thin layer of American cheese melted on top. But what she doesn't know is how the first day of school will treat her. Will there be pop quizzes and mean girls and gross school lunches? She doesn't know these things so when her mother sits on the edge of the bed and whispers into her ear, she takes a deep breath and inhales all the things she knows. (190--whoops...)