AW Flash fiction = 90 minutes from reveal of them word(s) (the dance) until completed story must be posted online.

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The front door slammed and the stairs echoed with the pounding of feet fleeing to the upper floor. A second slam followed, no less forceful but muffled by the greater distance between it and Lily. She dried her hands on a dish towel then checked her watch. Ten-thirty. Right on time. The slams did not bode well though.

“Carly?” she asked as she rapped on her daughter’s door. “Can I come in?”

“Come back later. I’m reliving a devastation of epic proportions,” came her teenage daughter’s articulate but melodramatic reply.

“Did the dance not go well?” Lily frowned at the door. She wanted to go in to comfort her daughter, to learn more about this epic devastation. That particular hyperbole covered everything from a friend’s snide look to a wayward pimple that refused to surrender to tinted Clearasil. Continue reading →

“One more over here, please,” Adrian said as he took a final swig of his current beer.

He checked his watch. He’d been here two hours already and he felt as empty and drained as he had when he’d walked in. What was wrong with him? Why weren’t the words flowing anymore?

“You in a bad way?”

Adrian looked toward the source of the words. A man had taken the stool next to him, his eyes alight with curiosity or concern, one. Continue reading →