Ch-ch-ch-changes!

It appears May is going to be a busy busy busy month. Southern Faire (which is the Renaissance Faire my husband and I like to go to) is ending, friends are coming in from out of town to visit, and somewhere in between all that and my regular prenatal check ups my husband and I have to pack up our apartment, because we're moving!

In addition to that I just found out that Kristen Britain, author of the Green Rider series, has a new book coming! Yay! I fell in love with the series when I was in high school, and it makes me oh so happy that she's continuing it - I could dance if I wasn't afraid of throwing out my back or my hips!

So last week I mentioned that I had posted a new chapter for one of my fanfics that I hadn't updated in quite awhile. This week I added another new chapter - one I was very pleased with because it turned out oh so well. However I also knew that readers might have an issue with this chapter, and sure enough, one or two did make some comments. To my surprise, they weren't offended by what I thought they would be offended by, but by something completely different - a position two characters ended up using during one of those scenes.

Now, normally I try to ignore negative reviews, but I've been working on this fanfic since I was in college and these readers have been following it devotedly since then, so I figured they deserved an explanation of why I went the route I did. I sent them an email that explained my reasons (and I may have gone so far as to cite examples from the series and the guide books because I'm a really big nerd). My readers promptly surprised me yet again - once they knew why, they were okay with and no longer bothered by said position... though one was surprised that I put that much thought into the science and physics of things.

All is well that ends well - though I still find it funny that the thing that should have upset them didn't, and the thing that shouldn't have did!

In addition to plugging away on that fanfic, I'm also still working on rewriting Chapter 10 of The Undying Ones. It's proving to be tougher than I thought to make the scenes I copied over from the original short story fit in with the novel version because the story has changed so much. In the short story the castle was near the village and nothing separated it from the village, so the inhabitants of the castle could go and steal from the villagers whenever they wanted. Currently, the castle is separated from the village by a big ravine, so stealing from the villagers isn't an option... that we know of at least. Also in the old version, Rordan and Talesin were jesters for the King. Now we don't know entirely what or who they are.

And now on to WIPpet Wednesday!

Unfortunately, no matter how I tried to add, subtract, multiply or divide, there was just no way to get the section I wanted to share to coincide with the date - so I'll be sharing 14 paragraphs because the year is 2014!

Anywho, this week I'll be sharing more from Between Two Worlds, my other fanfic. In this scene Domick heads back to the Stewes (which is the name of the house that he lives in at Pembroke with Norah, her son, and the old musician named Mud) and is greeted by some strange music that has been haunting him ever since he first arrived at Pembroke.

When the last parade passed by the stand, pushing the last few straggling patrons ahead of them, the harper folded up the counters and closed the windows. Then, once he was sure everything was locked up tight until tomorrow, he ducked through the empty stage and strolled up to the Stewes. Once inside he was greeted by the haunting music that had kept him awake during his first few nights at Pembroke. He froze just inside the threshold, listening to the drums and violins swell around him once more.
He decided that Menolly would like it... if she were here to hear it, that was. It was basic, like her songs often were...
“You okay?” A young voice asked, breaking Domick out of his reverie. He glanced to his right to find that Marcus had sprawled out on one of the couches, holding that - what had he called it? PSP? - in his dirty hands. Judging from the sounds that spilled from it’s speakers, he was also playing that assassin game again.
“I’m fine.” The harper lied.
“Cool.” Marcus replied, oblivious to the world around him as he was sucked by the PSP once more.
“Do you know what this song is?” Domick asked, however, the boy didn’t reply. His brow was creased in concentration, the tip of his tongue poking out from between his lips.
He shouldn’t be surprised that he had lost Marcus’s attention - he had dealt with enough apprentices at the harper hall over the turns to know that most boys were easily distracted - however, it was a bit of a shock that he had lost him to the game so quickly. Most apprentices at least pretended to pay attention until his back was turned. Sighing, he crossed the room and slipped his hand between the boy’s gaze and the game.
“Hey!” Marcus yelped, glaring up at him.
“I asked you a question.”
“You did?”
“Yes. What is that music that’s playing?”
“Music?” He blinked. “What... oh, that’s just that belly dance stuff Mom likes to listen to.”
“Belly dance stuff?”
“You know, with the shimmying and the shaking and the snake arms.” Marcus proceeded to demonstrate, but all he did was burrow himself deeper into the cushions on the couch. 

To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here. 

Of Kitties and Kings...

First off, my cats would like to take over my blog for a second as they have an announcement to make:

Yup. That's right! We're having a baby boy in September!

The baby cooperated just long enough for us to find out, and then went right back to being his stubborn self. If this is any indication of how he's going to be once he's born, his father and I are doomed.

I've actually done quite a bit of writing this week. I know I should be focusing on my original stories, but one of my older fanfics that I haven't updated since... oh... November, I think... started demanding my attention again last Thursday. This fanfic is one of those ones that had been shelved because I had no idea where to go next. Oh, I knew what needed to happen eventually, but I had no idea how to get from point A to point B. Every option just seemed boring to me, or would stretch out this section of the story even more, and frankly, it was long enough already! I finally ended up writing an info dump chapter, which I hated doing, but it moves the story along nicely and the readers are happy. Now that that chapter is out of the way, I can finally move onto the fun stuff! Things I've been waiting to write for years!

Now that that's out of the way, I have figured out another solution to the problem I was having with The Undying Ones. It means copying over a great deal of text from the original short story and editing it to fit in with the new story, plus going back and tweaking the previous chapter, but I think it'll work quite nicely.

And now.... it's time... for WIPPET WEDNESDAY!!!!

Since today is the 23rd of April, here are 5 lines (2+3=5) from the next chapter of The Undying Ones. This is part of the short story I'll be copying over and editing this week. The King, who has not been seen in public in years, finally makes an appearance:

“It’s madness for them to be out there now,” Rordan said. “Someone might get the wrong idea and tell the King.”As if whispering his name summoned him, the doors to the great hall slammed open. As one, Mattie, Talesin and Rordan turned and watched as the King strode into the Great Hall.

To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.

I'm Baaaaaaaack!

I'm truly sorry for not responding to any of my last posts comments, or getting around to commenting on anyone else's blog the past couple of weeks. I was so miserable from allergies/sinus infection that I did not want to do anything. But I finally beat the allergies into submission, so life is good!

I've been busy working on a corset for my god-daughter to wear to Wondercon (She's going as Ariel from the Little Mermaid, but she'll be wearing the dress from the Kiss The Girl scene) so I haven't had much time to write this week. While I've made plenty of bodices, I have never done a corset before, so it's been quite the learning experience!

Anywho, on to WIPpet Wednesday!

Since today is April 16th, here is 12 lines from Between Two Worlds (4-16=12). This is a continuation of this scene. Today we finally find out who the mystery woman is, and what Domick thinks of certain piercings she has and what she's done to them (That sounds way more ominous than I meant it to!)

Norah’s jaw dropped. “Atiya?” The woman nodded. “You look so different! I didn’t recognize you at all!”
“It’s because I’m not all laced up and miserable like you are.” She giggled. “And the make up.” She gestured to the black dots and lines decorating her cheeks and chin, and the jewel pasted between her eyebrows.
“And the hair, and the earrings” Thick round wooden hoops with decorations carved into them hung from either earlobe, the skin stretched to go around it. “You’ve gone up a gauge haven’t you?”
“A couple, actually.”
“They’re pretty.”
“Thanks.” Atiya preened under her compliment.
Domick looked back and forth between the two women. Were they mad? No one in their right mind would willingly mar their body in such a way back on Pern. But then, should he be surprised? This wasn’t Pern, and the people here seemed to have more free time to spend on useless modifications. He had seen men walking around shirtless with drawings on their skin and women with piercings in their noses and lips and other odd places.

Well, that ended up being a little more than 12 lines, but I swear it was 12 on my original document!

To check out more WIPpet Wednesday Posts go here!

Short WIPpet

It's been rough the past couple of weeks (the baby is fine, my sinuses, however, have called it quits thanks to the crazy weather we've been having) so this is going to be a short post today.

Now, I know WIPpet posts are supposed to have something to do with the date, but today's post doesn't. I tried. I really did! But my poor head is so muddled at the moment that I couldn't make the math work, and I really wanted to share this snippet with you, since it's been so long since we last saw Mattie and her world.

That's right, I've finally gotten over my writer's block for The Undying Ones. It's been slow going, but slow going is better than nothing. Anywho, here's 5 paragraphs from chapter 10. There's been a feast in the great hall, but after her encounter with the King, and her argument with Rordan and Talesin, Mattie is so paranoid that something bad is going to happen, that she waited until the feast was over before slipping in to get some food. It's a first draft, so it's bit rough, but it'll do for now;

Mattie waited until the flames on the torches had died away to faint embers and the guards were dozing at their posts before she finally slipped into the great hall.  

While there were still clusters of citizens huddled over their food here and there, for the most part everyone had retreated to wherever they slept during the daylight hours.  

Rordan and Talesin were not among the former, so she assumed that they had also headed back to their rooms now that their bellies were full. Either that or they had snuck off to report to the King again. She grit her teeth at the thought, wondering how they could betray her so, and furthermore, why the King would be so interested in her. Yes she had accidentally broken into his garden, but aside from that, she was nothing.  

She reached the cauldron and peered inside. It was almost empty of stew, and the only bits of bread left on the table nearby were burnt ends. However it was more than she had had in weeks, so she pocketed some of the bread, and greedily scraped what she could of the stew into a nearby bowl. She licked her fingers clean, freezing when she realized the ingredients tasted fresh instead of stale and moldy. 

She glanced at the tables around her. Where had so much food come from? Supposedly the last of their stores had expired years ago. Were there reserves down in the dungeon? Is that why she had seen Rordan and Talesin disappear through that heavy door the other day? But how was the food still fresh? Any supplies should have gone bad long ago.

 To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here

Old Friends...

I confess, I haven't written very much this week. I did get some writing done last week, mostly on that other project, and then on Thursday or Friday I rediscovered my Nook. It had been packed away in one of the bags we took with us on our trip to Washington. While charging it I remembered I had loaded it up with a bunch of books prior to leaving on said trip, and sat down to see what was there, and... well... the rest is history!

I demolished Dragonwriter in two days. It was a lovely book containing some beautiful anecdotes and memories about Anne McCaffrey, who was one of my favorite authors growing up. However, I have to warn you that reading it while pregnant is NOT a good idea. Thanks to pregnancy hormones I cry at anything even remotely moving right now (Like commercials, or the last half of Once Upon a Time's midseason finally) and this book turned me into a red eyed and red nosed mess.

After that I started on Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger. I loved the Parasol Protectorate series, and the Finishing School quartet is set in that same world - only about twenty years earlier. The only downside is that the Finishing School novels are shorter, so I read through them like that *snaps fingers*. They also, sadly, are released about a year a part, so once you finish them, you have to wait and wait and wait... But, thankfully, Gail Carriger has a new series starting next year, that's also set in the same world, only twenty years (give or take) after Parasol Protectorate.

Currently I'm rereading The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. I first read it in junior high, and it's one of my go to books when I want to read something but I don't want to read something new (The Dragonriders of Pern also falls into this category.)

Work is going quite well. They finally moved my coworker and I over to the new project, and we've spent the past couple of days in training. Our old boss still likes to bother us here and there, but we should be moving desks to a different location soon.

The baby is growing. The first trimester ultrasound went well, and the baby is normal... and a little bit of a diva. It cooperated with the ultrasound tech for about ten minutes, just enough for them to get the measurements they needed, and then promptly turned it's back on the tech - and no poking or prodding from the tech could get it to turn around again. It is very much our child! Only another month or so till the next ultrasound, when we can find out what it is, and stop calling it 'it'.

And now for WIPpet Wednesday!

Since today is 3/12/14, here are twelve-ish sentences from my fanfic, Between Two Worlds. This scene takes place in chapter 16 (well before Norah and Domick have their kiss). A mysterious woman approaches their stand at the faire, wearing clothing that Domick has never seen before (though it's actually typical garb for most of the belly dancers at the faire I go to... and it's really damn comfortable to wear even if it is a lot of layers!)

Anywho, on with the show!

It was shortly after noon when a woman dressed unusually, even by Pembroke standards, approached the booth. Her gown was loose and long and black. Slits ran up either side of the garment to her waist, revealing that she wore striped pantaloons underneath that billowed around her legs as she walked. A short red vest and a matching belt topped off the ensemble, holding the gauzy material against her body. Her hair hung down behind her in a twisting mass of rope like tendrils. 

“Hello,” She leaned against the counter, messing up the stickers Domick had recently sorted with her long, wide sleeves. “Is Norah here?”

“That’s me.” Norah introduced herself. “What can I help you with?”

“Fancy sent me. She said you’re a dancer and might be interested in joining our merry band.”

What could the mystery woman be up to?

To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.

Music Monday...

Just another Wednesday...

It's been a long week with lots of annoying drama at work. At one point it was so bad that I was seriously considering going back to my old department - even though I've been in IT for over a year, I'm still a part of  customer service technically, so I could do that with relative ease (all they'd have to do is get me a new computer since I wouldn't be able to keep the work laptop I have currently). However, before I could have a sit down with the customer service manager, one of the managers in our company pulled my coworker aside to tell us that we were being transitioned to help her with her project for the next three months (So we'd be on loan from customer service to IT, and then IT would be loaning us over to this new project - very inception-like...).

The new manager is much, much more mellow than our current manager and the project means we would have a set schedule and responsibilities (our current responsibilities seem to come and go based on our current manager's moods) so there would be less stress for everybody all around... well... aside from the stress of trying to get this project finished by it's due date. 

I was able to write some more this week;

I started work on the next chapter of Descendants even though this current chapter isn't done yet (the last scene simply says *insert awkward proposal scene here when finished*). It's amazing how I wouldn't have let that slide in the past - I would have agonized over that scene until it drove me mad!

The idea I had for The Undying Ones last week wasn't working at all, but I came up with something different that may be even better. I haven't visited Mattie's father in quite awhile, so it's time to let him shine again and maybe get his side of things. And in writing from his POV I've discovered that Mattie's father isn't just the toymaker - he's also related to someone very important. I love it when things like that reveal themselves!

In addition to all that I've also been been toying around with one of the adult stories I was going to publish under my other name. I had abandoned it after a friend read it and gave me some advice on it that was pretty upsetting. It really hurt my ego and made me think that I should just give up on writing romance. After several months of letting it lay around, I realized that my story was okay. Yes, it's a first draft and needs some polish, but it's a perfectly solid first draft. It was actually my friends advice that was totally wrong - she wanted me to change the story into something completely different, something that she came up with, if that makes any sense. So, now that I've come to that realization and have decided to ignore her advice (aside from the grammar and spelling errors she caught) the story is flowing a hell of a lot better.

And now for WIPpet wednesday!

WIPpet Wednesday is run by the lovely K L Schwengel. To participate just share a snippet from your work in progress that correlates to the date. For example, since today is 3/5/14 you could share 3 paragraphs from chapter 5, or 5 sentences from chapter 14, or you can add the date together and share 22 sentences or paragraphs or words from whatever. The more creative the WIPpet math, the better!

My apologies for those who couldn't read the WIPpet last week. When I just copy and paste the snippet over from my document, the formatting gets all wonky, so I tried pasting it into notepad first to remove the formatting, then pasting it into the blog. After that I made the font a little smaller to differentiate between the blog and the snippet. Lesson learned! I will never do that again!

Today I'll be sharing 29 sentences (3X5=15+14=29) from chapter 4 of The Descendants. Again it's mostly dialogue; Vivian finally found her boyfriend, but before she could talk to him, he proposed. She said no and now she's having to deal with the aftermath of that.

“I spent most of my savings on that ring!”
“I’m sorry.” Vivian murmured, knowing that her apology was not nearly enough. She watched Josh pace the length of the kitchen they had retreated to after he had proposed and she turned him down. 
“I thought you wanted to get married!” 
“Maybe someday, but just not now. We’re way too young -”
“Too young!” He cut her off with a bitter laugh that echoed sharply throughout the space. “You’re twenty three, I’m twenty six. We both have good jobs. My parents were only twenty when they got married and they had nothing and they made it!”
“No they didn’t; they’re divorced...” She fell silent as he turned and glared at her, his brown eyes smoldering under the track lighting overhead.
“I can’t believe this. We talked about about getting married and getting out of here so many times...” He ran a hand through his blonde hair, making it even spikier and messier than usual. 
Vivian sighed, “Actually you were the one doing most of the talking -”
“Why the sudden change? It’s not because of him is it?” He cut her off again, spitting out the word ‘him’ like it was venom.
“Him?”
“Don’t play dumb. You know who I’m talking about.”
“No, no I obviously don’t.” 
“That asshole that hangs around the garage.”
“That doesn’t really help me.” 
“Matthew.” Josh snapped his fingers as he finally came up with the name. “That guy has had his eye on you for years.” 
Vivian snorted. “Now you’re being ridiculous.”
“Well, Lara said you two were being all cozy in the upstairs bathroom a few minutes ago.”
“He was calming me down.”
“Sure he was.”
“Bree sent him to keep an eye on me - you know how protective she can be.”
“That woman has never liked me.” He reached the other side of the kitchen again and turned back around. “Did she talk you out of it?”
“Nobody talked me out of anything!” Vivian growled, finally returning his glare. Why couldn’t he understand that she had never wanted this? “I’m sorry I hurt you, but I don’t want to get married! If you had paid attention, you would have figured that out ages ago and this would have never happened!”
“Well, maybe if you hadn’t led me on -”
Now it was Vivian’s turn to cut him off. “I never led you on! I still love you and want to be with you I just don’t want to get...”
“Married.” Josh finished for her. “Yeah, I get that now.” He leaned against the countertop and stared at the tiled floor underneath their feet, a deep scowl marring his otherwise handsome face. 
An uneasy silence fell over the kitchen, broken only by the sounds of the party beyond. The DJ had finally turned the music down, but the noise and the stress of the evening had already done it’s damage - a headache was building behind Vivian’s temples, throbbing in time with her heartbeat. She grit her teeth against the pain, promising herself that as soon as this was over, she would go home and lock herself in her room.
“You know, I bought a ticket to go to England too. Guess that’s not gonna happen now.” He spoke first, grabbing a nearby towel and wringing it in his fists. “Good thing I bought insurance so I can at least get some of my money back.” 
“I’m sorry.” Vivian murmured again.
“Stop saying that!” He roared and threw the towel in her direction. Despite his vehemence, it didn’t go far, falling a few feet short of his target. “You’re not sorry. You don’t care. You never did.”

To read more ROW 80 updates - go here
To read more WIPpet Wednesday posts - go here.

Plotting Along...

Just when I start to feel normal again, and I begin to think maybe I'm over the worst of the first trimester fun, my body likes to go 'Nope!' and throw another boomerang my way. Like getting hit with a bout of morning sickness while I'm in the middle of getting ready for work, or almost falling asleep on my Dad's couch while my Aunt, who I haven't seen in ages, is telling me what's happened to her since we last talked.

Despite all that I have been able to get a little work done on the Descendants. I was able to figure out the issues that were bugging me about the plot, and I also made sure to write down a plot outline so I wouldn't forget what I had done. In addition to that I came up with some more character names to flesh out the rest of the cast.

I would have done a dance to celebrate, but the cats were laying on me and wouldn't let me move.

Now I just need to decide if I want to have one of the girls be out of sync in her travels (IE the others go from A to B to C, but for reasons she goes from B to A then to C) but thankfully I don't need to figure that out for a few more chapters.

Unfortunately The Undying Ones is still at a stand still - however I had an idea regarding that on the drive home, so hopefully I'll be making progress on that story as well very very soon.

Anywho, it's that time of week again! Time for WIPpet Wednesday!!!!

Since today's date is 2/26/2014, I'll be sharing 20 'paragraphs' (most of it is dialogue) from chapter 2 - 2+2=4, 4+6=10. 4+1=5, 5*2=10. And 10+10=20. (I was never good at showing how I reached my results in math class, so that looks a bit wonky... but trust me - works out)

This bit picks up where my last post left off. Vivian was trying to escape an awkward situation by climbing out a window, but now she's stuck in a bathroom having to explain herself to Matthew - and he is none too pleased by her behavior. I have to say, the fun part about writing is the various plot hints that you can sprinkle throughout your story. This scene has a couple of them - can you find them?

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Matthew snorted, “I’ve been stuck between a rock and a hard place myself a couple of times - but running away doesn’t solve the problem.”

“This coming from the man who refuses to stay put in one place for more than a couple of weeks at a time.” Vivian snapped. 

He sighed and shook his head, looking at the door with a longing expression on his face. “I shouldn’t have come.”

“Well, why did you?”

“Aunt Bree told me what was going on. Said you might need ‘moral support’ and a quick escape if things went South.”

Vivian snorted. “What I would like is to disappear.”

“Can’t help you with that, but my bike is pretty fast.” He moved, stepping away from the sink to lean against the door next to her. His arm bumped into hers, so warm in the cool bathroom air that Vivian thought his skin might burn her if he touched her again. “But you gotta talk to that guy first. Don’t just leave him hanging.”

“What do you care?”

“I care plenty.”

“I find that hard to believe. You’ve done nothing but avoid or ignore me and my friends for years - in fact I think this is the most we’ve ever spoken.”

“No, we talked earlier today.”

“I was teaching you, that doesn’t exactly count.”

“No, I asked what you were going to do on your trip. That counts.”

“Right.”

“Whatever. Believe me or not, just be honest with him. I’ve been where he is and it’s... not pleasant.”

Vivian glanced up at him in surprise. “I’m sorry-”

“It was a long time ago.” He cut her off, his expression stony. “I understand now why she did what she did, but telling the truth would’ve been much easier on both of us.” 

“I was going to.” She said slowly, and he glanced at her in surprise. “I was going to pull him aside and ask if he was going to pop the question and tell him that I wasn’t ready for that yet before he could make some big scene. But then I saw him and I panicked and...” She trailed off, suddenly embarrassed that she was confessing this much to someone who ‘didn’t care’.

“You’re stronger than you think.” Matthew gave her another one of his rare smiles, as he reached down and turned the lock in the door. “You’ll do fine - and if you do need to escape afterwards, I know a place that’s not nearly as noisy and serves some very strong drinks.” 

To see more ROW 80 updates, go here.
To see more WIPpet Wednesday posts, go here.

A Very Important WIPpet...

So it's been about a month since I last updated this blog. I am really very sorry for staying away for so long, but I have a really good excuse...

You ready for it?

You sure?

It turns out I'm pregnant.

(I took three different tests to make sure it wasn't a fluke)

My husband and I are overjoyed but still very much in shock. We had been told we couldn't get pregnant until after my medical issues were fixed, but, apparently, God and Mother Nature had another plan.

So that's why I haven't been blogging lately; I haven't had any energy, the morning sickness has been oh so lovely, and there's been other annoying first trimester symptoms that like to pop up now and then. Like Pregnancy Brain for example; I asked my husband the same question three different times the other day, and I still don't remember what the answer was. I finally gave up because he kept giving me this amused look that was annoying the crap out of me.

But in the end it'll all be worth it :)

Anywho, today is one of those days were I feel a little more with it (for now) so I decided to take advantage of that and blog while I can!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to keep up with my writing goals for this round of ROW 80, but I have  been able to write here and there.

The Undying Ones is still stuck in a rut. I can see where I need to go, I just can't see how to get there, and I don't want to pull another one of those 'a few days later' tricks. It occurred to me that I could switch to Liam's viewpoint, but I think it may be too soon to do that. We just visited him last chapter, and I'm trying to keep him to every couple of chapters for right now.

I've made some progress on the serial, believe it or not. Just as I was ready to abandon it, an idea for the ending popped into my head so I ran with it. Now I just have to figure out how to fill in the rest of the story.

The Descendants is progressing quickly, but I know I'm going to be in trouble soon. I had an idea about how I wanted the first book to play out, but then I saw a movie about Pompeii is coming out and now I'm not so sure I want to go there any more. I'm tempted to send the characters to a different world instead since book two takes place in a world similar to ours that's also different (if that makes any sense... I'm afraid of saying more and giving too much away). It's funny how this story started off being about time travel and has now turned into world hopping. I think I've been reading too much The Dark Tower...

And now for WIPpet Wednesday!

WIPpet Wednesday is ran by KL Schwengel. To participate just post a part of the project that you are working on that some how correlates with the date, and then share the link to your blog on the linkie thingee over here.

Since today is 2/12 I'll be sharing 14 paragraphs from Chapter 2 of Descendants (2+12=14... I'm keeping it simple to give my poor brain a break!) Vivian sees her boyfriend shortly after entering the party, and immediately panics and takes refuge in a bathroom upstairs:

Before Vivian was aware of what she was doing, she had crossed the bathroom and hopped up on the toilet to peer out of the window. Yes, just like she had thought, it would be big enough for her to crawl through! She eased it open only to be faced with a new obstacle - a thin mesh screen separated her from her freedom.

Behind her the door handle rattled. 

“Somebody’s in here!” She called out, but however it was was persistent. The door knob continued to rattle until it finally swung open and bounced against the wall. “Look I said someone was in...” She turned, glaring at the person who wouldn’t take no for an answer only to freeze when she found Matthew staring at her. “Who invited you?”

He ignored her question. Instead he raised his eyebrows as he took in her precarious position on top of the toilet. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” She lied.

“Are you trying to escape?”

“No.” Beyond him she could see movement down at the end of the hall. She held her breath, praying it washing Josh or her best friend. “Get out and shut the door.”

“You are, aren’t you?” The short burst of laughter that escaped his lips was oddly bitter. “Why am I not surprised?”

Thankfully the ominous shadow turned out to be just another guest who had apparently been told to use the bathroom upstairs by Audra. Still, the last thing she needed was them interrupting. Vivian jumped down from the toilet and grabbed Matthew’s arm, pulling him inside the bathroom. As soon as he was clear of the door jamb, she swung the door shut and locked it once more. 

“Sorry!” She apologized to the disappointed party goer on the other side. “There’s another bathroom in the master suite!”

Once more she sagged against the door and rubbed at her eyes. So much for her plan to escape! She sighed feeling frustrated and trapped. But then, if she was honest with herself, it had been a horrible idea anyways; both Josh and Audra would have been pissed at her, and, seeing as her luck was running today, she probably would’ve ended up breaking a leg or an arm if she had attempted it. She opened her eyes to find Matthew staring at her, his long legs stretched out in front of him, and his arms crossed over his chest. 

“What?”

He shrugged. “I’m just amazed that you were so desperate to get out of here that you were actually going to climb out of a bathroom window.”

“I just needed a breath of fresh air.” She lied again. 

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