Synopsis

Why would anyone want to read this book? Just because girl on girl is hot? Truth be told, I’m not even sure she’s all there, but a little bit of crazy can be very enticing; you certainly can never be assured of a calm day. Granted, a little calm isn’t too bad every once in a while, especially when you have to put up with a friend who probably should’ve been diagnosed with A.D.D. years ago, just so the rest of us can get a little break when she medicates. I don’t want to talk about her, though; no, my thoughts are revolving around the beautiful long-haired brunette whose very presence is a balm to the pain shattering throughout my soul. Don’t get me wrong; I’m just an ordinary college student – I think we all have pain of some kind or another, brutally destroying the innocence of our youth in order to allow the inner adult to stride forth from the ruins with the ash of smothering childhood nightmares clinging tenaciously to our newly sensitized skin. The following is just the artistic rendering of my story, which, unfortunately, had to be put into words, which is not my strongest suit; I just want to be drawing, you know?

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Excerpt

For now, her brush whispered over the canvas, creating the rustling of wind coursing over layers of leaves forming a carpet over the grounds of a forest. Laney felt a single moment’s peace, a respite from having to deal with the alien world outside of her own musings, until the trilling of the personalized ringtone on her cell for her mother interrupted. She slowed her movements even more, wanting more of a calm breeze, the ocean’s susurration, attending her in the background on her nature walk, as if she were holding up a seashell to her ear in the middle of the woods instead of automatically answering the phone to her mother’s call. She couldn’t just ignore her, as that would only cause the phone to ring again later, but she still hadn’t wanted this in her evening. After the usual faux happy greetings inherently displayed when one is still young enough to live in one’s parent’s house, Laney had to endure her mother’s conversational pathway, which inevitably led to the same destinations every time.

“Your dad and I just got back from buying these little sun-catching crystals for the garden. He thinks they might be…” Laney’s brush slid down the paper momentarily, though at first she didn’t notice the errant color being added, what with her eyes being closed in an attempt to no longer be connected to the conversation, but this was a futile endeavor, about as useful as one counting to themselves to calm down.

“So, how’s your semester starting out? Are you still spending all your free time drawing?”

“Mom, it’s my major; of course I’m going to be drawing a lot.” She used the feathered edge of her brush to smear little wisps onto the extra color, creating the movement of a fall of leaves, perhaps separated from their branch by a rambunctious squirrel attempting to show his mastery of his domain by chasing off any other adventurous sorts with his intimidating, squeaking, chatter.

“Honey, I just think you need to go out a little more, make some friends. These last few months didn’t have to be so hard.” Laney’s fingers tightened around her brush as her eyes closed yet again, and her lips pursed out. Her mother wasn’t doing this on purpose; she was just incredibly annoying innately. Every time, though? Does she not hear that she’s a broken record, the skipping only getting louder and louder as it stabs with an ice pick’s cruelty into the center of Laney’s ear, making her lopsided as all the scrambled matter in her brain shifts to fall with gravity out of the new, far larger, hole?

“There are a lot of the same students in my classes this time; it was nice to see them again.” Laney’s lips flattened as she contemplated that the leaves and the squirrels weren’t calming her down. Couldn’t this conversation end?

“Oh? Did you talk with anyone, see anyone outside of class?” …Apparently not. Being satisfied with the answer provided was too much to expect from her mother. Maybe she was just hideously lonely, for the t.v. could’ve, God forbid, broken, and she needed to find new ways to pass the hours.

“Yeah, Mom. A bunch of girls are going out to lunch together tomorrow.” That was a nice little sidestep; Laney was very nearly proud of herself for so far managing this conversation without yelling at her mother. With a newly saturated brush glistening with a bright olive green, Laney dappled specks of sunlight onto the leaves of the oak so alive in front of her that she felt rejuvenated from the oxygen being exhaled from the page.

“That’s great. You have a three day weekend coming up, you want me and your dad to–”

“No!” she yelled, then wrinkled her nose in dissatisfaction at that tallied point against her. “I mean…, come on, Mom, no one wants their parents to visit; I’ll be home during break.” Clearly, a bit more would be necessary to extract herself from this. “Anyway, I’ve got to go; the dining hall is about to close.”

“Alright. We’ll talk again soon. Have a good dinner.”

“Yeah, bye.” After hanging up, Laney dropped the brush in an old jar filled with turpentine, then grumpily sat down at her computer to mindlessly scroll through whatever people deemed worthy enough to post on the net, while taking another handful out of the dining hall take-out box that she had placed beside her earlier. …This day sucked.

About the Author

Nkr started putting stories down in college, due to the necessity of finishing a major, though she began writing in the 6th grade, with an attempted sonnet idealizing the night and owls. The genre that she vastly prefers to write in currently is psychological drama.

Her first novel, Just One More Day, was started because of frustration at homosexuality being looked down upon, so the main character is gay.

Her second novel, Claims, began from an incident in her teenage years, though the story itself is definitely fiction.

She’s constantly jotting down notes for current or future characters, much to the confusion of any bosses she’s had, and always seems to have three or four stories on the back burner, at least until one character proves dominance.