RUTS

Something I threw together at school when I was bored... Let me know what you think, y'all.

Dear Crystal,

As you might've noticed, for the past few weeks,

we have been getting along less and less.

When we're not fighting, we're giving each other

the cold shoulder, and it's wearing me out.

Brendan reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow. These thoughts were merely feelings he could never express out loud. He glanced at the clock, anxiety mounting, and pushed ballpoint to paper once more.

I liked you from the moment I met you, and I

still kind of do like you.

No! That sounds horrible! Brendan scratched out the last sentence and wrote in its place:

I still really like you; it's just not really working...

That's much better!

For a while, I really thought we may even end up married,

but we can't get along for five seconds. I wish you

the very best in life. I suppose I'll be moved out by this weekend.

Love, Brendan

Brendan did some more brow wiping. This letter held hefty confessions that he had never even hinted to Crystal. She had been really grouchy lately, nagging at Brendan for everything. He just couldn't take it anymore. He was sick of her nitpicking, even if he usually just put up with it to avoid conflict with his girlfriend.

 

Still, though, he found doubts in the back of his mind... If he went through with this, was the ending of the letter too abrupt? What would happen if he did move out? Where would he go? Did he want to leave the only girl he'd ever really felt attached to behind? Once he was gone, he might never be able to come back...

 

Crystal buttoned her blouse and slipped on her flip flops. She pecked Daniel on the cheek. "I've got to go home, baby; Brendan's probably waiting for me." Daniel grunted in disappointment and smacked her behind as she exited. "See you later!"

 

As Crystal pulled into the driveway of the home she shared with her boyfriend of a little over a year, she fixed her hair in the rearview mirror and eventually made her way up the back porch stairs and into the kitchen, where the light was on.

 

Brendan was feeding something into his paper shredder. "Destroying evidence?" she asked coyly.

 

"Nope," he said casually. "Just some stupid credit card offers." He began emptying the remains into the kitchen garbage can.

 

"Why are you emptying that in here?!" she demanded, just noticing the gravity of the situation.

 

"Because... This is where we keep the paper shredder." Brendan sounded like a scolded child.

 

"Just because we keep the shredder in here you have to fill up the can with paper?! You'll be emptying this can when it gets full. You know, you can empty it now! I'm sick of always emptying the garbage aroud here when you're the one with the most trash!"

 

Brendan took the remains of his Dear-Jane letter in a large garbage bag to the big cans outside... and he almost wished he'd never shredded it.

Author's Note

I was taken up, recently, with the idea of a dear-john or dear-jane letter that was never sent, and I thought it would be absolutely tragic if you could see both sides of the relationship and the person who never sent just SHOULD have, and they don't even know the main reason why... That's where RUTS came from.

Reviews

[zee]

I loved it! Makes you feel for poor Brendan... I think it's a great metaphor for life. You'll be stuck in that same RUT unless you make a change to do something about it. There's no room for fear. One must believe they deserve the best to get themselves out of the RUT... but they have to want to do it too.

[Angel Bird]

Hey this is a pretty good story I'd really like to have it go on. You're a fabulous writer you know. You are able to create suspense or sadness in an instant. You get the readers attention from the start! Wow!

Wonderful job! Kudos!

[J.benjamin Rose]

I really like this, quite an inspired little story. Maybe there is a reason to go to school after all , eh?

[Kristin Brecoe]

Huh. I like it. But I wish there was more. It was way too short.

Here's a little error, maybe:
Did he want to leave the only girl he'd ever really felt attached to[,?] behind