I saw this on someone's profile (I'm so sorry, I can't remember who!) and thought it was a cool idea...so I tried, when I had some time. It's to put your iPod on shuffle and then, with only the amount of time of the song, write a little story or drabble based on the song. You only have the amount of time that the song is playing for. (Except you can finish a sentence.)
It would probably be nice to listen to the songs, or at least look at the lyrics, but if you can't or don't want to it's fine, of course. The drabbles can probably be read without.
The Runaway by Gentle Giant
Running won't change anything, Quil thinks as he runs as fast as he can, which is fast enough to get away from it, from everything, but it feels like his heart is being ripped again and again out of his chest with each step he takes--
How can he have so much fucking heart?
Every second seemed like a blessing, every second of what now feels like a curse. How could he have been so--stupid, trusting--he knew something was going to happen, he knew it...
Time doesn't help, not really. Just sort of numbs it, the endless agony. Pain's just worse--but nothing really hurts as much, so it doesn't really happen that much. But happiness--happiness is something long-forgotten, on misty beaches and rainy forests, not this unbearable desert heat, with the sand and dust and no water whatsoever.
Claire would hate it here, he can't help thinking. And he lets himself drown for minutes, hours--time doesn't really matter anymore--in memories, but he doesn't even have that many of those--
He doesn't deserve it, he thinks. He doesn't even deserve the distraction cloudy memories bring. Claire's mom was exactly right--go away, never come back, don't deserve anything to do with her, go away, go away, away, away...
--
Shangri-La by Electric Light Orchestra
The weeks pass, and it's like nothing Sam's ever experienced. He just waits and waits and he just can't stand waiting anymore--
So he goes. Emily already hates him--he feels a stab of pain at that--and Leah's already given up on him (as far as he knows--he hasn't seen her for a while, and when he thinks of her it's like there's a cloud over all his thoughts, feelings...he doesn't really feel anything to do with her anymore) what harm can it do?
What did Harry say? Can't resist...
Well, she couldn't. Flowers and sad eyes and his hopeless stares--how could anyone?
That's her excuse...she won't even say it to anyone else, because she thinks it's too lame. Even to herself...the shame almost overcomes that feeling in the pit of her stomach, the wrongness mixed with perfect rightness.
But it's heaven, for him and then for her, once she can forget about her. He knows what those people, who ever they are, are talking about when they say Shangri-La.
They play cheesy Beatles songs and dance and laugh and kiss and try not to think about cousins and ex-girlfriends and werewolves and vampires.
--
Big Black Smoke by The Kinks
Renee didn't want to leave. But she had to.
The tiny town was suffocating, as if there was a glass dome and it was sucking all the air out, because there were too many people--too few--and she couldn't bring her daughter up in this place, she would suffocate just like Renee, and the look on Charlie's face didn't even do anything to her hardened heart...
She had a few boyfriends, nothing special--they dumped her, she dumped them--until she met Phil.
--
Carnival by Eric Clapton
"Where're we going, Quil?" Claire stuffed her hands in her pockets, blinking up at her too-tall best friend.
"Aw, just come on. Please?"
"Where?" She planted her feet stubbornly, and he sighed, knowing perfectly well he never really thought he'd be able to keep it from her, not really. He never has been.
"Claire...oh, fine, the carnival."
"Carnival?" A grin twisted the corners of her mouth upwards, and Quil's heart skipped a beat.
"Yeah, like when you were little."
"We went to the carnival when I was...little?" She frowned.
"Uh, sure. Yeah."
"Okay, okay. You win." He smiled a heart-melting smile, and she looked away, because she could never really stand to look at him when he did that, knowing perfectly well he was way to old (even though he doesn't age) and way too not interested in her (no matter what imprinting was, and no matter how, according to Allie, he "looked at her") and why was he looking at her like that?
"Well, we didn't actually, you know, there aren't really any carnivals around La Push. Just that stupid one in Forks every year. You hated it."
"I remember." She made a face and he couldn't stop himself from leaning forward, pressing his lips to her cheek--just turning his head at the last second to hit her cheek instead--because no way could he even think about...
--
Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel
Claire lets her eyes roam over the fuzzy little intricacies of his face in the picture, taken with that crappy camera he spent about two bucks on, at that little store by the beach--she remembers every single detail, from what he was wearing (or rather, what he wasn't wearing--Quil never really wore anything but cut-offs) to how the raindrops stuck to his long black eyelashes...
She stuffs the picture back into the old book as her husband--her not so warm, not so tall, not so Quil husband--comes back in and she blinks back the tears and she feels his hands and this is what he wanted don't even think about anything else and what if he's still--
--
Escape by Muse
Why was it that the second his eyes met her beautiful wonderful amazing cousin's she felt like the smallest, most insignificant piece of dirt that's ever existed? Why can't anything else keep her afloat, and why does she have to turn into a fucking werewolf and look at his damn mind the minute she was starting to get over him...
Leah wasn't even dirt anymore. She was microscopic. So why was it that all of the pack saw her exactly when she didn't want them to and never when she needed them?
She fought the vampire alone. That wasn't the problem.
--
Invisible Touch by Genesis
No one really knew what imprinting was. So when Jared came back from his week-long absence from school, having to clench his fists at every little irritation--"can't phase and kill half the people in your class, no, plus exposing us..."--Sam was in his head every second, even when he was human...
So when his eyes met those beautiful dark brown ones belonging to the person sitting right next to him--did they change seats?--he searches desperately in his head for her name--Kate--no, that's her, no Mary...don't be stupid, no one's called Mary anymore--Kim.
He smiled shyly, gazing at the way she dipped her head, hair falling over her reddened cheeks...
--
The Battle of Evermore by Led Zeppelin
The fight seems to last forever. The pack's exhausted. Why can't the stupid vampires just die already?
Burn. Be ripped to shreds. Whatever. They're not picky.
Then Sam came and the fury seemed to drip from every pore of his body, influencing everyone else in the pack, the pure, unadulterated, anger...
It helped. They died, or as much as monsters who were already dead in the first place could die.
Then they all almost wished they could still be fighting, still be killing, ripping--because anything that would make the last twenty seconds not happen...
The still, matted fur, blood-encrusted bodies lying on the ground would make anyone do anything to erase the last twenty seconds.
--
Mother by Pink Floyd
Claire was tired of her mother. I mean, come on, did she actually prefer her to be with some random hormonal teenage boy with less than honorable intentions than Quil?
She tried it. A boy from her English class asked her out, she said yes, he showed up at her house, her mom smiled, waved, said "have a good time," and off they went.
Of course, halfway through driving to the movie, Claire clutched her stomach, held her mouth--"I'm so sorry but I'm really really sick...do you think you could just take me to my...brother's house, just right there?"
The fact that Claire didn't have a brother was very well known to the boy in the car, who had spent quite some time staring at her only sibling, a sister, but when she yelled and Quil came out, threw him off her, yelled some variation of "you disgusting piece of slime" at him (only with more swear words), he drove away faster than she would have thought possible. She let Quil wrap his relieved arms around her and hide his face in her hair--he didn't want her to know how...well, jealous, he was...
Claire's mother still preferred the boys--that is, the boys that weren't Quil.
--
Cousin Kevin by The Who
Quil and Jacob had never really been the best of cousins. Their parents never dared leave them alone together, but then when Jacob's mother died, Billy's watch slackened...and sometimes Quil's parents weren't around.
No one really knew quite what they did. They just saw the results.
Too bad they didn't have the super-wolfy-healing powers they got years later, because there sure were enough trips to the emergency room with broken bones and blood-gushing wounds.
They were always laughing, except for that brief period when Jacob's mother died.
And everyone was constantly jumping at every noise...
Leah once drank the glass of water they'd put a lizard in. That was one of their worst and least imaginative tricks.
--
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 by Pink Floyd
Claire hated school. Rebelling and skipping and wearing torn jeans and band t-shirts, blasting the music as loud as it would go to drown out the sounds of her house--her mom thought Pink Floyd was the devil incarnate, Nirvana right up there with The Clash and The Who, who wasn't even loud--and looking and looking--there were no fucking drugs in La Push, anywhere, and even Josh-with-the-perpetually-dialated-pupils-in-math-class had to get them when he went to Seattle to visit his grandparents and no way was he going to share--and looking for anything to do that would even come close to anything at all...but there was nothing in La Push. So one day, she couldn't stand it anymore.
She could and she did. She dropped out.
It wasn't just the teachers, the boredom, the absolute inanity of it all. It wasn't just that everyone there hated her, she hated everyone, teachers included. It wasn't the fact that the only person she could trust wasn't allowed there.
She couldn't go home and face her mother and her screams and her what do you think you're doing you go back there this instant--
She knew Quil would be the same only without the screams and without the anger, just with disappointment and that look in his eyes...that was almost worse, in a way.
You don't want to give it one more chance? You're so close to finishing...just another semester...come on, Claire...
She told him that if he didn't have to she didn't have to. She was an adult, well, close enough, and she could make her own decisions.
He said he was a werewolf. Is. That's a bit of an excuse, isn't it?
She said, "I'm a were-cat, then. I'm not going back."
He laughed and laughed and she said, "Why don't we run away?" and he almost said yes, yes, yes, but he remembered he had to stay whether he liked it or not and there was no way she was leaving without him...
"La Push is too small to hide from her."
"Who? Oh." He hugged her tightly, said, "Don't worry, it'll be fine, promise."
She knew it wouldn't be, but she didn't say anything, just soaked Quil's pillow with tears when it got dark and she thought he couldn't see. But he came over from the couch he had insisted on taking, lay next to her, wrapped his arms around her, kissed her, promised. And she buried her face in his chest, breathing in his scent, thinking of nothing but him.
Her last thought was I just want to see her face when she sees us in the morning, maybe that'll trump the whole dropping-out-of-high-school thing. She wondered if Quil was just as bad in her mother's mind. Would she prefer she was the next Josh-in-math-class?
--
Hello, I Love You by The Doors
Her eyes were burning, burning...cold, beautiful gray...
A jab in his shoulder, Seth shrugged it off.
"Seth! That got old such a long time ago, you were just telling Brady to stop staring holy shit Seth. Hey! Brady! Guess what?" He didn't even give him enough time to answer before continuing. "Seth fucking imprinted on--"
"Shut the hell up, Collin," Seth shoved Collin with his elbow.
"What are you going to do?" Brady wondered idly.
"I don't know." Seth tore his eyes away, sat down angrily.
"You have no chance."
"Thanks so much." He snorted.
--
Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
Just the sound of her voice, anything, Jacob would take anything at this point...
It wasn't just Bella he missed, or rather, the Bella he was in love with. It was Bella, Bella being his best friend and Bella laughing and being embarrassed and saying, "You know, you're sort of beautiful?"
He wondered if she actually knew what she was getting herself into. He'd tried so hard, but nothing got through to her. Nothing would, with that thing there, clouding her mind, judgement...she would never really do that to herself, to Charlie, to me.
Did she know what she was going to be turned into? Could she tell the difference between hot and cold, life and death, happiness and...whatever he gave her which was not that.
He knew her being happy. He saw it before he even came any where near Forks. And then after...right after he came back she was just glowing...
--
How Do You Feel by Jefferson Airplane
"Jacob, you need to talk to me. I can't help you if you don't help yourself."
I stared blankly at the complete stranger, wondering why, exactly, I was supposed to spill my guts out to someone who I didn't know and who didn't know me, someone who never has and never would give a shit about me, and someone I would never care one bit about.
"Huh?"
"How do you feel?"
"Excuse me? How do you think I feel? The girl I fucking love was turned into a damn bloodsucker, and you ask me how I feel?"
"Now, Jacob, you have to keep calm," the stranger said, gazing warily at my shaking hands. "Anger won't help anyone."
--
Anthem by Rush
The whispers surround, the faces haunt. She will never be free of him, she thinks. She also thinks she does a good job of hiding it from Edward, and that seems to be true, so...
But she can't turn into a vampire. Why does she think bloodsucker, instead?
If she's changing because she loves Edward, then why shouldn't she not change because she loves Jacob?
Why does she have to love him? Or better yet, why does he have to love her?
So, I know I said they'd be about the werewolves, and they mostly were, except for that one about Renee...
I think I kind of killed some of these. Especially the Rush one. But oh, well. I hope you enjoyed...
Please review!! It only takes you a minute but it makes my day, as cheesy as that may sound.
