Day 5: 8,333 Words

He pressed his lips to her cheek, hoping, no praying that she would get the feeling he did. He wished they would not have to hide their love…

Stephen looked up when he heard walking. He'd expected that Sally would be at their usual spot on the beach that morning. She had not showed up. While he looked up he quickly saved his latest installment of his story as he watched the girl stomp up towards their sitting area.

Something was wrong with Sally. What was it?

"Lass, are you okay?" Stephen asked as she opened her chair.

There was a problem. Sally didn't have her tablet case with her. All she had was her flash drive, which was dangling around her neck like a necklace.

"It's Daniel, he stole my tablet. After last night I found one of my flash drives and decided to save my story folders. Well, guess what. This morning I woke up and there was no tablet. Thank goodness I saved the files on this," she grasped her flash drive, "but now I don't have anything to type on."

"Oh Lass, have you reported him."

"I have, even if my mom and dad are a little reluctant to, but Daniel is gone. No Daniel, his bedroom is trashed and empty of his things. He just sort of disappeared. Along with my Surface. I don't know what to do. Mom and Dad said they would take me to go get a cheaper laptop, but that won't be for a few days."

"Oy, I got an old laptop you can borrow until you get something new."

"I can?"

"When your lessons are done for the day, come over to my place and you can work on your story there."

"Okay. I'll let mom know when I get back home. So how are you doing in your story?"

"Slow going today. I hope I make the one thousand six hundred and sixty seven mark just to stay on track."

"I would like to publish my story. I mean, I love books, I love reading books like this. Maybe one day I will become a famous writer."

"That seems like a good wish."

"Yeah but the publishing companies are cut throat about what they want, who they want. They want something like a Rick Castle writer."

"Yes, but even that fictional man had issues with putting out his first novel didn't he?"

"You saw that episode?" She looked at him with a wry smiled tucked on the side of her mouth. "But I'm ready, I guess."

"Are ya ready for the Write In tomorrow?"

"Um, sure. It sounds fun."

"Nervous about going?"

"No, well, a little. But I know you're going to be there so it won't be too bad. Hopefully some don't know who you are."

The last time she was at a write in was with the teen group. Though it had not been a bad experience, she wanted to talk about writing and stuff, not the fact that she knew a famous person.

"Well, I'm done for now. Want to come back to my place…" Stephen started to say but was cut off by Sally.

"No, sorry, I have to get back to the house and start on my lessons. I hope you don't mind. But I'll come over later."

"When are you supposed to be graduating?"

"This coming year, because of the screw up with the tutor early this year I'm behind in my credits a little bit. I would have graduated this year but now I get to graduate in 2014." She said as she got up and folded her chair.

"That's good. I plan to be there when you do graduate."

After they separated once they returned from the beach, Stephen went to his home and Sally went to her home.

Over the next couple of hours, Sally worked on her lessons, her school work that was being given to her by her mother. While working on an English assignment, an idea about what her character, Joanna, was going to do next in the story and Sally had to write it down. She was the only one to be home schooled, her younger brothers were slightly younger and in high school. Killian was on the football team and Kevin, Killian's twin, was the President of the Student Body.

"Mom," Sally said, looking up from her work. "Have you heard anything from Daniel?"

"No, sweetie. I'm sorry." Her mother said as she looked up from her teacher's manual book. "Done?"

"Yeah, oh hey, Mom, can I ask you something?" Sally asked as she closed her lesson book. "If Stephen isn't busy for Thanksgiving, can he come to it?"

"Sure, I don't see why not. But you better ask you father, otherwise it wouldn't be nice to do it."

"I'll ask Stephen first. He may have some plans going on."

Grabbing her flash drive and her precious notebook, Sally about ran over to Stephen's place. For once she was excited about something in life.

When she rang the door bell, Stephen answered it in a pair of shorts and no shirt. And then her enthusiasm went down the drain, and her face lit up like a roaring forest fire, as red as Stephen's hair.

"Sorry, Lass. Come in. Just got done with some exercise," he said stepping in. "Didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

"No, it's okay. I should be used to this, since you wrestle in…" she stopped herself.

"Yeah, that too. Come, I set up the laptop for you at the dining room table."

Stephen went and got dressed while Sally sat down at the table, plugged in her flash drive and picked up on her story where she left off at.

"What are you going to do about your mornings at the beach?" Stephen asked coming back into the dining room.

"Well I have a notebook for notes. I can write with a pen or pencil that way. Then I can go back over it with a word processor or something like that." She said typing away. "I take notes or whatever, and then transcribe them onto a document of my choice. Though, I am saving up for the writing program called Scrivener to help me with my novel writing. I heard about it through the .org website. Have you signed into that yet?"

"No, I didn't. I didn't know there was one."

"Well, since you have the internet on this thing, I'll show you." She typed up the website and showed him her page.

While she showed him her own personal page on the website, Stephen leaned on his good arm, looking over Sally's shoulder. He could smell cinnamon, tantalizing as it was, it smelled good on her. Stephen silently wondered if she was using some sort of Christmas themed body wash or hair product that made her smell so good. And that's when he forced himself to stop thinking about her like a woman and more like the little girl she should be to him.

After looking at the forums, and the description detail of the Scrivener item, which helped to plan, timeline and help a person write a novel, Stephen conceded with Sally.

"Maybe I would like to sign up. Winning seems fun."

"And you get discounts on things if you finish fifty thousand words." Sally said happily, pushing her large glasses up on her nose.

Her enthusiasm for writing was something he hardly seen in a person now a days. Stephen chuckled and went to sit back in his own chair.

They spent about half an hour working on their own individual stories, enjoying the peace and quiet that was until one of the people that had a key to Stephen's house barged in.

"Hey, mate, where are you?" The highly Scottish accent of Drew McIntyre rang through the front of the house.

Stephen saved his document and headed for where the Scotsman was.

"What are you doing here, Drew? I thought you were on the road."

Sally had gotten up and glanced around the doorway to where the tall Europeans were at in the front room. She didn't want to be noticed, not in the least. She was perfectly comfortable with Stephen, he was nice and quiet, but Drew was loud.

"Got any beers, mate. I'm thirsty." That's when he saw the blonde haired girl poking her head out around the dining room doorway. "You got someone here?"

"Sally, come here, Lass." Stephen looked at her.

Taking a deep breath she walked out into the front room. She pushed her blonde hair out of her face as she walked up to Stephen.

"This is Sally Gallagher, she's the lass from up the street. She and I are writing together."

"Stu said something about this. A month long of writing stuff." Drew looked her over. "Nice to meet you, Sally. I'm Drew." He held a hand out to her.

"Hi." She said, shaking his outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you, Drew. But I had a late start on my writing. Can I go back to it?" She asked Stephen, looking at him.

"Sure. I'm caught up, a few words a head actually."

Sally had been happy to leave, to go back to writing.

"Babysitting now?"

"She's eighteen."

"Really?" Drew perked up at that little piece of news.

"She's not a fan of people, but she's working on it. I think she has a counseling appointment on Thursdays."

"Do you have dibs on her."

"What, no. That's just wrong."

"So she's free dibs then?"

"Fella, don't think about it. She's scared of people. She doesn't care for kids her own age. Her Da basically forced her to hang around me, that's why she's a friend. I see her only as a friend."

"She's an adult, though, Mate. I think she can choose who she gets to be with."

Sally ducked her head when Stephen walked back into the dining room after Drew had left. She had heard what the two of them were talking about, but she wanted Stephen to think she didn't.

"All right, Lass. Let's get some words down." Stephen said sitting down at his own electronic device.

Needless to say that was the weirdest point in the month for Sally.

Eh not the best but not the worst I would say. How'd you guys like it?