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[meatbrained]

( five + one )

how it works:

i. post a comment with the characters you play.
ii. go around and prompt other players with a 5 + 1 prompt (e.g. "Five times Hope said sorry and one time he didn't")
iii. write a fic for the prompts people leave you!
iv. enjoy your fic? we hope?

Comments

[unfollowing]

5 times emily had an answer + 1 time she didn't

1

"Emily," her mother begins as she leads the way to the car. "Why did you push that boy?"

Emily doesn't miss a beat, too young to hide how she really feels. One day she'll learn to play it cooler. Right now, her indignation comes out full force. "He pushed me first."

"He had to go to the hospital."

"Now he'll leave me alone forever."

Her mother sighs and unlocks the car door.

*

2

"Oh my gosh Jess!" Emily reaches over and plucks Jess's upright chopsticks out of her rice. Her mother made a double portion of lunch today because Jess thinks bento boxes are cute and likes how the food tastes.

"What?" asks Jess. "What'd I do?"

"You can't just stick you chopsticks in your rice like that!"

"Why not?"

"That's what you do for dead people! Do you wanna die?"

"Ew no, I'm not even thirteen yet!"

"Then just put them on your napkin, you dummy."

*

3

"Aw man, this is a lot of problems," Chris says as he pouts down at their science lab worksheet. "Ugh. Okay. How about you do the first half and I do the second?"

"How about you don't touch any chemicals this time, Mr. Shaky Hands?" Emily snaps.

"Come on, Em, that was one time!"

"Shut up and get started, nerd."

*

4

"So did you guys do it?" Jessica waggles her eyebrows at her from across the room, whrre she lies on her bed, on her stomach, propped up on her elbows, a magazine open in front of her.

Emily shuts the door and crosses the room, dropping her backpack at the foot of the bed. "Yeah."

Jess squeals and sits up, scooting over to sit next to Emily. "Sooo? How'd it go?"

Pulling out her notebook -- they're supposed to be studying -- Emily shrugs. "Fine."

"Em." Jess stares her down, eyebrows arched. "If it was anything but amazing, you should knee him in the balls."

"It was fine, Jess," Emily insists. "It was good. Whatever. It's just sex." It's not just anything. "He was good to me, it was fun, the end." Despite herself, she feels her cheek start to burn.

That's enough for Jess, who clearly takes it as post first time jitters. "Good. I would've kicked his ass for you if he'd been a jerk."

"If you put this much energy into studying, you'd have a four-point-oh too."

"I'm just looking out for you, hon."

Emily snickers. "Thanks."

*

5

"What do you mean, 'sex is weird'?" Jess frowns as she pours herself another glass of wine. Best friends girls night is always full of wine. "Like... weird how?"

"It's like..." Emily lets the sentence hang and takes a sip from her glass, as if that will make things clearer. It won't, but maybe it'll loosen up the words. "Like, think about it. You just like, get naked with someone and grope and kiss and all of that. Like, who discovered it? How did kissing even become a thing? Because--" Another sip. "Because think about it. Sex is for reproduction, right, biologically speaking. But like, kissing. What the fuck? What purpose does that serve?"

"Um, it's hot."

"Oh my god that's not what I'm talking about."

"I don't get it, Em. Sex isn't weird. You just think too much."

"I can't help it. I'm too smart for my own good."

Jess plucks the wine glass out of Emily's hand. "You need more wine, sweetie."

*

+1

"What are you gonna do now?"

Sam's question is innocent but loaded. Shit, anything any of them says to any other of them will be loaded, full of land mines that are all too easy to trigger. Emily thinks back to all the times she asked herself that on the mountain: what are you gonna do now, Em? Left or right, Em? Move or stay still?

This should be so much easier. There's no pressure now, no risk of death, no monster chasing her with the intent to eat her alive.

And yet all she can say is, "I don't know."