Hey, so I'm having major writers block with my story so I figured if I did a random writing prompt I could get my spice and inspiration back. Now, this is Writing Prompt #296: Beginnings and Endings. I have to start my story with, and end with whatever the first/last sentence is. What is the sentence? Spoilers. (I'll italicize)
If you wish to do your own prompt, this site, or blog I should say, has the most marvelous ideas ever that you couldn't possibly think not to write. Awesomewitingprompts(dot)tumblr(dot)com
So, enjoy and review. I do hope you had a stupendous Christmas and do have a fantastic New Years.
She opened the dictionary and wrote down the first word she saw. Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she tried to stifle an obnoxious laugh, her mouth in a tight, tight line that eventually broke due to lack of lip muscles. She bit her lip hoping the pain of breaking skin would distract her from laughing. It was bad enough Embry decided to take this assignment seriously, but to open the dictionary and see Yeti was just flat out ridiculous. It fit him so well, Yeti: Abominable Snowman. Never had Anna opened a dictionary, never mind actually doing one of Olivia's foolish assignments to bring her and Embry closer together.
Anna first refused to go see Olivia, but after a long night of sleeping in the bed alone, with Embry on the couch, in the too quiet house she realized that Embry and her have too many problems to count. Olivia was Anna and Embry's couple counselor, a rather young woman with glasses and self-respect issues and dating troubles. She always hides her long legs and hips with boy jeans and her be-a-u-tiful chest, that Anna would kill for, with white button-up shirts that were a size too big. Olivia liked to talk more about herself than about Anna's relationship problems with Embry. The most recent session with Olivia caused Anna and Embry's relationship to be a learning process on how to like each other, Anna would probably never forget that session because that was the lowest point they'd ever had without fighting.
Embry and Anna sat in separate black seats, too angry with each other to sit on the red, heart-shaped couch that was supposed to symbolize some stupid unity shit that Anna thought was bullshit. The room smelled of paper, old, dirty paper, and the wall behind Anna had shelves and shelves of books about depression, anxiety, anorexia, marriage, and Anna's favorite-mental illnesses (which she happened to steal a couple later that meeting). Next to Embry, which was Anna's left, was a large window with a balcony, which seemed highly inappropriate because some of Olivia's clients had severe depression and would jump off that ledge like a fat boy jumps off the edge of a pool to belly flop. The busy streets of Matlock, Washington under it, people talking on their phones with fake designer bags and shoes, acting as if they actually have a place to go, money to spend, a decent job and family. It made Anna want to barf. A quaint glass table with Olivia's coffee cup set on it, no coaster underneath it, which made Anna want to rip her hair out. Then Olivia sat in front of them in her boy jeans and casual Ramones' tee-shirt, her light brown hair in an old woman's bun, her generic brown eyes hidden behind thickly rimmed glasses which clashed with her olive complexion. She was begging to be ignored by men and women.
Embry wore his usual attire, a tight fitted blue tee and some khaki shorts, the same apparel that made Anna go wet south of the pole and her hormones go berserk. On the other hand, Anna wore her high-wasted floral skirt and white tank top, something that was supposed to accentuate her curves and flaunt her arms. Olivia's yellow pad of paper half way full of Anna and Embry's relationship problems and decent features, her purple ink pen and their records balanced on Olivia's lap. She pursed her lips, seeming to smell the anger reeking from Anna and the frustration seeping out of Embry's forehead—or maybe that was sweat. Embry gripped the edge of the chair, secretly telling Anna his wolf was going to break out, but they both knew his wolf was probably laughing at them—couples counseling… Couples counseling! How fucking ridiculous?
Olivia sighed and took off her glasses, "and what seems to be the problem this week?" Her voice laced with humor, as if everything Anna and Embry argued about was something aliens did.
Anna looked at Embry, like daring him to go first, and after a silent argument between them, Anna took a deep breath before rummaging through her purse. "Embry…" more shuffling, "refused to wear…" and 'a-ha' she pulled out the blue Trojan Bareskin condoms box, "he refused to wear these brilliant new condoms I bought, their supposed to feel like nothings there! I figured Embry would love to wear them, but apparently he said—"
Embry cut her off, his voice gruff, "what's the point of wearing condoms with you? It's not like we used to wear condoms before, so why start now? What made you change, huh?" Embry turned in his chair to face Anna, his eyebrows so high up, they seemed to blend with his hairline, and his lips in a tight line that made Anna feel bad for a moment. Just a moment.
"Maybe, I don't want your dick in me without protection anymore because I don't want whatever STD you have from sleeping with whomever-number one or maybe number three? I stopped counting." Her voice thick with malice, Anna would have felt sad that Embry cheated, but Anna cheated as well. It was a mutual problem. The imprint bond was supposed to fix all their problems together, but after a long fight, some broken lamps, and some makeup sex, they realized that the imprint bond only told Embry that Anna was his match. Not that he immediately had to love Anna and always think about her and have Embry'sworld revolve around her. Only his wolf instantly loves Anna and thought about her constantly, his wolf tried many, many times to get the kind-hearted, faithful Embry he used to know to love Anna back, but Embry's wolf gave up after girl number three.
Embry's mouth felt dry, fucking cotton mouth, and Anna's mouth was just warming up. "I just want to try something new, maybe, Embry we should just be… I don't know," she looked away from Embry and Olivia, "benefits."
"And what is a benefit?" Olivia had her glasses back on and her purple pen writing ferociously ever since Anna said condom.
Anna didn't bother to look at Olivia's face; she knew it would be twisted in a professor type way, half science, half common sense. "We just have sex, because, obviously, it's the only thing that we do together and are happy about. Anything else we do is just ignoring each other and fighting. Fuck, even Paul has decent conversations with me-more than you, and you know how anti-social Paul is," Paul was the one guy in the pack who could look at a girl and instantly their lips locked, he never talked to anyone much, but everyone seemed to like him. The only words Anna and him exchanged are profanities and jokes and sometimes they just vent, they had more of a relationship than Embry and Anna ever had. "Which means," Anna continued, "that we can't be friends, because we'd fight all the time."
Embry's wolf stirred inside of him, making him say no, no, no. "Fine," Embry crossed his arms and looked out the window, he held in the yelp as his wolf bit him and tried to claw his way out of Embry.
"Fine," Anna did the same as Embry—crossing her arms and looking the other way.
"Really?" Olivia's voice surprised them both, she took off her glasses and crossed her legs, dropping the yellow pad four pages filled with today's argument on the glass table, "just like that you two are over? Have either of you done my assignments once?" The silence gave her the answer, "for fucks sake, let me give you some advice. You two have communication problems. So when you two talk, go to a public place, like that park or the mall—"
"Did that," Embry and Anna said in unison.
"You two aren't respecting each other, say 'thank you' and 'I appreciate' once in a while. Go to a calendar and plan a date night—make that a double date night, just to keep the communicating problem at bay. You have conflict problems, you two need to give a little, get a lot. Apologize! Say you're sorry when you're wrong; it's not that hard. Change it up; if you continue to respond in the same way that has brought you pain and unhappiness in the past, you can't expect a different result this time. Just one little shift can make a big difference. If you usually jump right in to defend yourself before your partner is finished speaking, hold off for a few moments. You'll be surprised at how such a small shift in tempo can change the whole tone of an argument." Her tone was precise, like she was reading from a book, "It's your choice," she pointed to both Embry and Anna, exchanging glances with both of them, "how to react and if to react," she waited them to reply with their usual grunts and whatever's, but this time they didn't say anything; Anna gnawed on her lip and Embry began to nibble on his thumb nail.
"You're right," Anna mumbled and looked at the floor, something Anna was never good at was being called out on and the person being right.
Olivia's laugh echoed all through Matlock, "of course I'm fucking right, I'm your therapist, maybe if you did my homework you'd have figured it out yourself." Olivia made some last minute notes on her notebook then put it away with the rest of Anna and Embry's files. "So, those condoms really feel like nothings there?"
Anna smiled, "I wouldn't know for sure, I haven't tried them yet."
"My ex used to hate condoms, fucking dick," Olivia's face twisted with disgust, "I ended up throwing him out of my car on the side of the road in Seattle… I hope he got ate by bears, or a junkie." Olivia sighed and looked at Anna and Embry, probably wonder how in the hell those two got together. "I don't really like having sex, like, guys expect me to have sex with them after I'm done eatng? Uh, no! I'm fucking bloated!" Olivia continued to babble on about her sex life, which Anna eventually zoned out of, not wanting to hear her lousy excuses for not having a boyfriend and not going out to a club.
Anna interrupted Olivia mid-sentence of a very descriptive sex scene, "well, I think our time is up. Let's go, Embry." Anna quickly got up, grabbed her bag and headed towards the door.
"Hold up, "Olivia stood, forcing Anna to stop moving and mumble a curse under her breath, "I haven't given you my homework! So," Olivia smiled and walked towards the door. "You two grab a dictionary, look for three words randomly and the definitions then tell each other what you got and see if it relates to you two, alright?" Olivia opened the door and Anna and Embry practically ran out the door to the car, not even saying goodbye.
Which led to where Anna was now, sitting in the kitchen opening the dictionary at random pages, only to get one word: Yeti. She sighed, decided she'd better just get it over with, and quickly flicked the page to land in the C's, then the M's. Anna pushed her brown hair to one side of her shoulder and stood up, smoothing down her dress she walked to the window. It was a particularly sunny day in LaPush, so Anna hoped once Embry and her did the assignment Olivia gave them she could go soak up some vitamin D at the beach. She looked out into the forest behind her little house and saw the rustling of the leaves in the bushes caused by the playful squirrels, she was hopping one of the wolves would come check on her house, but they never did. They suspected Embry check Anna's house, but he never did, or at least she never saw. At times like these Anna felt lonely, Embry should be in the kitchen with her, hugging Anna from behind and resting his head on her shoulder and gazing out into the forest murmuring words of love in her ear and giving her kisses on the neck. But she knew that was a one in a million chance, Anna was lucky if Embry sat in the same room with her—other than during counseling.
With the blink of an eye Anna twirled over to the fridge, humming a soft tune she heard on the radio just hours before, and pulled out the orange juice, then two more twirls to the cabinet to grab a glass. She poured the glass half full and began to return to the fridge.
"Wait," a voice from the door startled her, making her loose balance and almost topple over onto the floor. Luckily, Anna gripped the edge of the counter, which ended in her not falling towards death onto the floor. "I want some OJ."
Anna was fuming, steam came out of her ears but she quickly realized she had the power to react and how to react, so she stood up and put the orange juice on the table and smoothed down her dress once more. She narrowed her eyes at him but kept her mouth shut about him making her trip, "pour it yourself, and try not to walk in to quietly next time, please." She stressed the word please, feeling the newness of the word in her mouth; it tasted salty. She walked over to her glass and took a sip, watching Embry clumsily enter the room making as much noise as possible, which made her smile—a rare sight to see.
Embry got to the orange juice and just chugged it form the container, making Anna grimace. "I'm sorry," the apology made Anna spit out her drink. She looked at Embry with wild eyes, and for once, she looked into his eyes—not his nose. It's been forever since Anna looked Embry in the eyes, four months to be exact, and it was the best feeling in the world for both of them. Embry's caramel eyes made Anna want to dive in them, but then it reminded her of that Twix commercial where the guys a driving into a caramel pool—or maybe that was Milky Way.
"I forgive you…" she looked away and downed her OJ. Walking back to the table she was sitting at she held up the piece of paper and raised her eyebrows at Embry. "Did you complete it?"
He looked puzzled for a minute then remembered, "oh!" He smiled and pulled out two crumbled pieces of paper from his pocket and sat down next to where Anna was.
"You know she said only three words, right?" Anna turned to face Embry, crossing her legs, tilting her head and smiled at him.
"Yeah, I know," he looked down then turned his chair around to face Anna, "you go first."
Anna sighed and pursed her lips, clearing her throat she began, "this is so stupid… okay, so… Yeti, noun, meaning Abominable Snowman. Accurate. Caitiff, noun," she swallowed some bile rising in her throat, "a cowardly or base person. Wrong, very, very wrong." She kept her eyes glued to the paper her hands trembled a little, making her put her hands in her lap, "Murdrum, noun, killing of a human being in a secret manner… kind of true, I mean, vampires and all, but I put false because Olivia is going to read these, so… yeah, that's it." Anna finally looked up at Embry as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"Okay," he began, looking anxiously at the paper, "pulchritudinous, adjective, beautiful," he looked up momentarily at Anna who turned absolutely green—not red. "Correct on so many levels," he smiled as Anna gripped the counter as if she was going to fall off, "Vulpine, adjective, cunning or crafty, of or resembling a fox. Sometimes. Foreign, adjective, external to one's country or nation. Well, you look positively green right now, so yes, I would say." He smiled and then looked at Anna with sincere eyes. "That was the second one I did… because the first was just terribly true-my luck-and I don't want to hurt your feelings anymore."
It took Anna a moment to get the room to stop spinning, she wondered where the hell her anxiety medication and cigarettes were. After a second she took a breath, "read it to me."
"Are you su—"Embry began, cut off by Anna persisting 'just read it,' so he did. His hands began to tremble and the crumbled paper shaking ever so lightly, "neglect, verb, to pay no attention or too little attention to; disregard or slight, very fucking true. Psycho, noun, a psychopath or neurotic person. True," he pursed his lips and forced himself to read the rest because he knew Anna wouldn't drop it. "Cunt, noun, a woman, the vagina… I like to think so and sometimes I believe it to be so true," he began to stutter his words.
Cunt? Cunt? Before Anna knew it her hand landed on Embry's check with a loud smack! Then they stared at each other, Anna, ignoring the throbbing in her hand she curled it into a fist. But then she looked into Embry's eyes and for once she felt like he could take on the world to protect her, that he would love her eventually, because even though she doesn't like to admit it, Anna loves Embry with all her heart. Everything melted away for a moment and Anna was blind and before she knew it her arms went flying around Embry's neck and she held on for dear life, as if she let her arms drop she'd fall into an abyss of darkness. Never before had language been put to such cruel, yet efficient, use.
Not my best, but, hey it got my creativity juices flowing. So, I hope you enjoyed my little Embry tale and maybe after all my other pre=planed stories and current story I'll write this up. Any who, I do hope you review and have a lovely New Years. Cheers
-Donna