This is a story from Writer's Craft. We had to make an item an extended metaphor.
I also re-edited this for my culminating activity. I'll be posting that next.
She sat at the computer table and spun her chair. Yes, she should be doing something productive, but she just didn’t…just didn’t feel like it.
After he had left, ever since he had left she didn’t much feel like doing anything.
She turned to look at the rug sitting across the room. It stared back at her, the faces, the shapes that had until recently graced his chest.
She shook her head, and spun back to face the computer.
She was done with him, and done with the rug. They both had to go.
“1 offer”
She pounced, clicking the button. $40, and a promise to abuse the rug. Good enough.
She accepted it, and spun around to look at that rug again. As a tear rolled down her cheek she cursed him silently.
The man put the rug into the back of his car and smiled at the woman. She took his money, and walked back into the house without a second glance.
That made him sad. She had been so beautiful. He could not tell why her fiance had dumped her, but he had hoped to at least talk to her.
He sighed and shook his head.
Oh well. Time to take the rug and use it as requested. He was always game to help someone get back at their ex. Ever since that day at the coffeeshop…
Nah, not important. Not an important thought, so he shut it up, and ignored it.
The car clicked as it accelerated, and he drove home.
She sat there and spun her chair again.
Even though she’d sold that rug…
He was still there. And she kinda wanted him back.
And she wanted that rug back as well. Maybe it had been a mistake to sell it. Because if she still had it, then he’d come back, at least once more.
But no. That was not a thought that made any sense. She didn’t want him.
Zeke turned the car into his driveway and put it into park.
He sat there for another minute, and then his head slowly sunk into his hand.
He didn’t want to go back in there. He really didn’t. Not today.
Still he found himself opening the door, getting out of the car and tucking the rug under his arm. His keys spun around his finger as he stepped to the door.
The click-clack of the tumblers turning, of him once more locking himself into the tiny prison of his life, shocked a fake smile onto his face.
“I’m back!”
He locked the door behind him and dropped the rug in one corner.
“Did you buy that rug you wanted?”
“I did. Well worth the drive”
His girlfriend leaned out of the door into the kitchen and frowned at him.
“Well, thats good, but I’ve been busy all day. I could have used your help before, and I can certainly use it now. Don’t just stand there, there’s a list of stuff to be done”
Zeke sighed and hung his coat on a hook.
Leslie sat at her desk, and typed out another few lines of her book. It was coming along ok at least. She didn’t like it, but her editor said that it was just what they needed.
So she was content to churn out another steamy romance, even though she herself no longer had any reason to want one, no fuel, nothing to inspire her.
And she could tell that her writing was suffering.
She needed a boyfriend for this to work.
She pushed herself away from the desk and let the momentum carry her chair into the center of the room. She began to spin again, twirling around and around as she thought.
That guy who had picked up the rug had been pretty nice looking…
But she cut the thought off before it could go anywhere. She didn’t need someone else who was going through an ugly and angry break-up.
Zeke sighed as he finished caulking the bathroom sink. He was so done here.
Because, honestly, Delilah wasn’t doing it for him anymore. There was no spark, nothing left to their romance.
He had to get out.
He placed the caulking gun down gently, then stood and walked out.
A breath of fresh air would do him good.
Leslie stood up. She was done here. She wasn’t getting anything done.
She needed fresh air.
She shrugged on a jacket, and walked outside.
Zeke was walking along, hands in his pockets when he bumped into her.
“Oh, sorry-”
“My fault, don’t worry about it-”
They both looked up and took a small step back in surprise.
Leslie spoke first.
“Its you”
“Yah”
“How are you liking the rug?”
“I’ve had it for about two hours”
“Right”
There was an awkward pause and then Zeke moved to walk by.
“Wait! Uhh” Leslie stood for a second, trying to figure out just what to do “Do you want to go out for coffee instead?”
Zeke looked at her, at his watch, then back at her.
“Sure”
Zeke unlocked the door, whistling. He had been seeing Leslie for about two weeks now, and life was not feeling as bad, not as much of a burden.
Wiping his feet on the rug, he smiled as he flipped his keys around, and hung his coat on the hook.
“Zeke!”
His smile died and his keys fell limp at Delilah’s cry.
This part of his life was still not all that good.
“Zeke!” She came around the corner and frowned at
him “We’re living together, and that means we do equal shares, yah?”
Zeke looked at Delilah and made a decision.
“Actually, I think that we need to talk”
Leslie sat there at the coffee shop. Zeke had left a few minutes ago, but she was still sitting there. She had invited him over a few times, but she had never seen his place.
She was going to go surprise him, and put her fears to rest.
She got up, paid the bill for her extra coffee, and walked out.
“You’ve been seeing someone else?” Delilah’s voice was half shriek “That’s how you’re going to tell me you’ve been cheating on me? In that stupid calm tone, that stupid infuriating look?”
“...Yah”
“Then get out! You seem to hate it here so much that you can get out for an hour or so! While I figure out what to do, get out!”
A knock on the door interrupted the shouting.
Delilah looked at Zeke angrily “Is that her now?”
She ran to the door, and pulled it open.
Leslie saw an angry woman standing on the rug that Zeke had bought.
“Hi, does Zeke live here?”
“Oh, are you his whore then?”
“What?”
“Oh, don’t play innocent, you slut. You’ve been sleeping with my boyfriend for how long now, and you’re going to say that you didn’t know he was cheating on me?”
“Yah, I am! He never told me!”
Zeke could hear the shouts getting louder and louder. He risked a look around the corner to see his two girlfriends standing on the rug, alternating between yelling abuse at each other and at abuse about him.
“It all started when he got this damn rug!”
“Thats the rug he bought from me!”
“Well, it ruined us! Its all your fault!”
Zeke shook his head and began to pack his bags. He had a feeling that he would not be welcome with either of them from now on.
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