Sunday, January 2, 2011

No Kiss Blogfest Entry

This is an annual blogfest that I took part in last year. My entry is up a little late this time as I went to bed before finishing the story and woke with a bad headache this morning. But here it is at long last.



The wonderful Frankie is hosting this blogfest over at her blog. Here is the link to the sign up post, but don't forget to read her entry as well. Frankie Writes: Blogfest Linky


About the blogfest: 
The basics of this are to post a scene, written by you or anyone but make sure the people get credit, or image or video link where the two in the scene are about to kiss but for some reason do not. It's an almost kiss that never becomes an actual and they are fun to do. My first entry into this annual event was Jan 2010 on my other blog since I didn't start this blog until March 2010. Here is the link to that entry (almost kiss on DE blog) that was from a story I'd tried to write one year for script frenzy but didn't get very far.


This year's story:
I'm using the Cinderella-type story, so some readers should be happy. And even shocking is the scene isn't an almost kiss between two males. I did go with a male-female pair even though the male is technically gay, he just hasn't told anyone yet, and certainly hasn't told his boss and the women he has to take orders from.  The mom already kissed Jack, so who will try next? Read and find out, lol. Sorry about the length, it ended up being much longer than I expected.


The entry:


Everything about the party was in violation of his job and yet there Jack stood, near a wall that was in bad need of re-painting as people moved around him bombed from either alcohol, drugs or a mixture of the two. But he was there anyways, babysitting. That's what the job had become at this point, watching one of his boss' daughters to make sure they didn't get into trouble and to be at their service whenever they needed him. Despite the demeaning nature, he kept his focus on the prize, the job at the end of the tunnel and pushed through. Tonight was no exception. Alexa had dragged him to this unruly event because her guy of the month was there.

He tried to stay in the same room to ensure she didn't get involved with the drugs but it wasn't always to keep track of her considering the number of people that were trying to move around in a smallish amount of space. It didn't help his nerves in the slightest that she had removed the long jacket she'd used to fool her father in believing she was dressed in appropriate attire. As soon as they were leaving the vehicle he had to drive, off it came exposing a small v-shape of a glittery shirt with way too much cleavage showing and a mini skirt that fit close to her hips and barely covered her ass. He had to hold back a groan because just looking at her was evidence enough the night would be trouble. And it didn't take long for something to manifest.

One second, Alexa was standing in a group and after he glanced away for one second to look for a non-alcohol drink when he turned back she was gone. In some ways the luck went to him because she resurfaced a few minutes later, storming out of a bedroom yelling obscenities to the guy that barely tried to follow once he made it out of the room.

Jack straightened his stance as she approached him, watching everyone get out of her way. It was an interesting sight how fast people would move to stay out of her wrath and he made a mental note of it for later reflection. Before he could utter the words "Are you okay", she grabbed his jacket and started to pull him away.

"We're going." She said in a huff before pressing her red glossed lips tightly together in a look of angered concentration.

Since the front door was the other way, Jack struggled a minute to figure out where she was headed and after a few steps managed to stop her. "Hold on a second. First, tell me what happened."

Her arms immediately crossed over her chest and her lower lip stuck out in her usual pout that he'd seen far too often. Only this time it was sincere. Despite the nature of her makeup, a light black smear had started to appear under her eyes. She didn't speak, but stood there staring at the floor with an occasional look around at anyone but Jack.

Seeing her discomfort, Jack looked around for a moment before spotting one of the so called hosts to the party even though he looked more like he'd come off the streets of California or somewhere that didn't have winter. He did his best to ignore the man's attire and instead focused on the task at hand. "Is there a room we could use to get some privacy?"

The man chuckled as he responded. "There's the laundry room. It's the door by the bar in the kitchen, man."

Jack ignored the man's stupid grin and took Alexa by the hand, leading her through the small crowd in the kitchen to the suggested room. Luckily, no on was in there and at least they would be alone away from the loud noise of the party with the door blocking out most of the sounds coming from the rest of the house. Letting go, he positioned his back to the door and focused on Alexa. "What happened?"

"He thinks we are having sex in here." She said, ignoring the question.

"Do you really care what some guy who wears sandals during winter has to say?" Jack shook his head. "And it's always the ones who shouldn't wear them to begin with. His feet should be covered at all times."

It was enough to get a small laugh out of her so he tried again. "What happened that upset you?"

More in control of her composure, Alexa sighed and hoisted herself up on top of the drying, crossing her legs before giving any sort of response. The fact that Jack looked away when she did it also made her smile a little and once she was seated comfortably she explained. "It was his idea to be committed. We only need each other. That's what he said. But tonight I find out he slept with at least three other girls, including one of my friends, the slut. And when I got mad about it he tried to blame me and then when I was yelling at him he tried to get me to have sex with him even though there were other people in the room. As if I'm some kind of whore."

"He's not worth your time, obviously." Jack said the obvious first as he tried to figure out what else to say in the given situation. "You deserve someone who will respect you and it's not going to be a guy like him."

She seemed to skip over the nice comment and instead asked him a direct question. "Do you think I'm a whore? I mean, I know you don't like me so at least you'll give me an honest answer."

The question surprised Jack making it hard for him to respond right away. He knew she wanted him to say no but it was hard to give her the answer she really needed while looking at her because of the way she was dressed. Deep down, he knew she probably wasn't that way, or at least he hoped she wasn't. Not wanting to take too long in his response, he figured out something to say in time and shifted so that he was closer to the dryer she sat upon before speaking. "Honestly... No, I don't think you are an actual whore or slut. But sometimes, and I mean no offense by this. Sometimes the way you dress might give people the wrong impression."

"What do you mean, the way I dress?" She still snapped a little, giving him a slight glare with her response.

"First," he said addressing another issue that came with the initial question. "I don't hate you and this is coming from honesty, not any form of vengeance, but consider what you are wearing right now. Sure it umm, almost fits but really, it shows off way too much. Your stepfather would be livid if he knew you were out in public dressed like this. And aside from that, it doesn't do you any justice. You are beautiful, but this trying to hard doesn't let people see that."

Back to the pouting, Alexa grumbled. "You'd have me wear sweat pants and long sleeved shirts just like stepdad then."

Jack chuckled a little at the suggestion. He could see why the boss would suggest such but he wasn't quite that protective of the annoying girl he had to put up with. It was a little awkward but he gave her the real answer to what he thought she should wear. "No, not sweat pants per say, but... Okay, this may sound a bit weird coming from me and all. I remember about five days ago, you had on a pair of soft blue, faded jeans. It was at the house so you only had on striped socks that didn't even match anything you were wearing. The shirt you had on was some type of soft fabric but still like a t-shirt. You had maybe one fourth the amount of makeup on then as you do now and your hair was flat, all you'd done was brush it."

"But I can't go out in public like that." She was blushing, her lips no longer in the pout but instead a slight smile like she was afraid to show how she felt about what she was being told.

"Why not?" Jack moved in front of her, putting his hands on the dryer so that he could look at her face to face so she could see his honesty. "You don't need to show off everything to be beautiful."

Speechless, Alexa rested a jewelry embellished hand onto his shoulder pulling a little as her hand drifted to the back of his neck. With his position against the dryer, the slight pull brought their bodies even closer and his hands remained pressed down against the machine.

The door to the laundry room crashed open and Jack was able to pull away, though a slight blush found its way to his cheeks. The couple that had opened the door burst into giggles as they drunkingly apologized, "sorry. We thought this room was empty."

"That's okay." Jack offered his hand to Alexa, helping her down from the machine. "We were just leaving anyways. This party is lame." He winked to Alexa and they both headed towards the door knowing that everyone watched them as they left.

12 comments:

Summer Ross said...

Against the dryer- nice! Great piece for the fest

Amalia Dillin said...

I loved this part:

"Do you really care what some guy who wears sandals during winter has to say?" Jack shook his head. "And it's always the ones who shouldn't wear them to begin with. His feet should be covered at all times."

The first line before the action beat had be grinning and then when he went on AFTER the beat, I cracked up.

poor Jack though, it looks like things are only going to get more awkward for him from here!

Michael Di Gesu said...

Nice writing and a great build up to the no kiss.


Michael

Loralie Hall said...

I love how you stayed so true to the character. Jack's observations about clothing, about the people and the situation, and still he almost found himself kissing her. Awesome job ^_^

Dawn Embers said...

Summer - hehehe, Thanks. I thought it was a good location for one.

Amalia - I'm glad someone else also finds that funny. We had a guy on the debate team who always wore sandals all year long in northern utah. So, I had inspiration for that part.

Michael - Thanks for the comment.

Loralie - :-D Why thank you. I'm surprised I can stay true to him for the most part since I write only random scenes but it's working so far. He's a fun character.

Mia Hayson said...

Haha, the same line Amalia quoted made me LOL.

Loved the almost kiss! I didn't notice the length at all, you kept me enthralled right until the last line.

:)

Dawn Embers said...

Mia - :-) Glad you liked it too and that you didn't notice the length.

Denise Covey said...

Ha Ha Dawn. Nice touch this. I always like another Cinderella version. I too liked the guy in sandals in winter - quite okay in Oz of course but I can't imagine it in the snow. Anyway, great story. I'm not in this 'fest so don't go looking, but I did write a vampire Cinderella tale for Francine's blogfest. that was fun!

Dominic de Mattos said...

This was well written and I love the way you built the tension. I didn't notice the length, which says good things!

:Dom (My No Kiss)

Dawn Embers said...

L'Aussie - *grins* Thank you. Cinderella is a common used tale but this one has been fun to write and I have so much more to go.

Dominic - Why, thank you. I appreciate the comment.

Unknown said...

Whoot! Jack's back!

*hugs*

Love the scene! And the laundry room...perfect for an almost kiss, lol.

T.x

(and OMG my word verification is "kinkers", LOL)

Dawn Embers said...

Tessa! - *giggles* Yep, Jack is back. Now we just need more blogfests that aren't too limiting and I'll keep writing him on this blog. (lol about the kinkers)

Fun

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