Ok, so I tried to write a serious story, but got distracted and decided that make-up sex would be more fun than actually furthering the plot with an explanation. This practically spilled out onto the page fully formed, so I'm awfully sorry if it is overdramatic and ridiculous. Of course, sex is a ridiculous thing to look at really, but hornyness makes us take it seriously...
Anyway, this was originally intended as a kind of fantasy story. So if I continue it, expect dragon-women, magic and swords and shit.
Feedback always welcome. Enjoy :)
"What's bothering you?" I ask, peering over at him. I set my drink on the table; he didn't want one.
"Nothing," he says, continuing to study the painting before him. It's one that he's had a long time, I've seen it hundreds of times previously.
"I don't believe you," I say, hoping for a decent answer this time. He appears to be angry, which makes me nervous, much too nervous to push it. Instead I attempt small talk; the tension is unbearable. "Is that one of your paintings?"
"No." His eyes remain on the painting.
"Is it your mother's?"
"Yes. Does it matter who the bloody painting belongs to?" He looks up suddenly, eyes hard and filled with an unfamiliar hostility. I want to recoil, run away and hide from this frightening anger, but that'd only make things worse.
"It doesn't really matter at all no, but I needed something to say, given that clearly you don't want to explain why you're so pissed off, presumably with me." Now I'm hurt, but I'm going to try not to show it. In my typical fashion, I'm going to make the whole situation worse by being aggressive, simply to hide that I'm upset.
Before I quite realise what has happened, he's left the room, and I'm sat on the window seat by myself, surrounded by shelves and boxes full of books looking at me reproachfully. The books love him. Deciding the best thing for now is to stay away from each other, I go to find my shoes.
I walk quickly up the lane, grey tarmac below, even more grey sky above. It's freezing, and I'm starting to wish I'd taken a jumper. The cargos I'd been wearing around the house weren't so warm either. The wind blows my hair in my face, and I tuck it behind my ears irritably. Maybe I should cut it all off, that's what angst makes girls do, right? Before long, I leave the small, detached bungalows behind, and I'm passing fields. The village is almost suffocating to me, all of its tiny houses and old people and even older dogs. It's one of those villages the elderly move to, knowing they probably won't move again before they die.
But it's where I live. That doesn't give me any affection for it, but it does mean I have places to escape to, and I'm almost there now.
A mile or so up the rough, winding lane, there is a stile, one of many. Climbing across quickly, I give a nod to the bored-looking cows, lying down as sleepily as if they too do not intend to move again before they die.
I march purposefully down the field, stepping carefully around the cow shit and over molehills, before reaching the river. I sit next to it, under a massive tree. I'm suddenly drained, and it isn't long until I'm asleep.
I'm woken up again some hours later by the beginnings of as thunder storm. I don't make it home again until it's almost dark. It began to rain on the way back, fat droplets that leave me soaked through and shivering quite violently. As soon as the low, wide front door is closed behind me, I'm dropping sodden clothes onto the warm tiled floor. It's only me here, and him, somewhere in this vast house. It was left to me by a distant but generous grandfather, I still don't know why. There are other people in our family far more deserving of it than me. But I don't complain. I pull my towel and chocolate silk dressing gown out of the airing cupboard and get a shower, as hot as I can bear it. The shower calmed me a little - the irrational anger had burnt itself out, and now I just felt bad. Something is going on, I know something is, and I know he isn't going to tell me easily. I should know that angering him into telling me isn't going to work; it never has with him. He will when he is ready, and until then I will just have to deal with it. As always... I feel the anger stirring again, and strive to quash it. Hold it off.
Padding along the corridor, I knock quietly on the door of what is the reading room. A lot of the rooms in this house are old and useless, so we stripped and cleared them and closed the doors. Others we repurposed, knocked walls in, made it our own - but not this one. The reading room is big, but low ceilinged, with massive heavy bookshelves full of books waiting to be prised from the shelves by eager fingers... Our own books, all good reads, looking comparatively flashy and trivial, sit awkwardly shoulder to shoulder with the original residents, ordered by author. Our books look young and inexperienced compared to the behemoth works of intellect and fantasy and times gone by, when anything was still possible. I think this is the main reason I have procrastinated over unpacking ours for so long, despite feeling quite bad for books kept in boxes. The room is dark and he's sat on the wide bench in the window, much as I was earlier. The fireplace is smouldering, and I imagine the books becoming very nervous. But they trust him not to let them burn. I put a little newspaper and wood on the fire to get it going again, and go to sit by him.