Vacation's Where I Wanna Be

Pokémon fans will recognize this one. I totally have this soundtrack, and I ain't ashamed!

Huzzah! It's Spring Break! I get a week to write three 3-pg papers, read three novels (one of them being a whale of a tale, aka Moby Dick), and study for several midterms. Oh, and to do it all in California. (Curse you, English department!)


On another note, I'm terribly behind on Flowers When You're Dead. I'm going to have to write 1,000 words per day to finish on time (aka leave time for editing and beta reading) before presenting it to a potential agent. That is, of course, after I catch up on the 3,000+ I've slacked on due to some long-ass English papers...

Speaking of which, I'm taking five upper-level English classes. Well, I've ben taking four, but the fifth one starts after spring break. I love writing, but I'm going to die. You're going to find me buried alive under a stack of books and papers, and I'm going to be screaming WHY WHY WHYYYYYYYYY and there'll be 094579038 empty 2L bottles of Mountain Dew all around me. Gotta love being an English Major.

Today and tomorrow are going to be major catch-up days for all the stuff I've been putting off (like formatting Creation for ebook and fixing several issues with the cover), so I thought I'd leave you with a blog post to indicate that yes, I sure as hell am alive. I hope to write the next installment of my The Top Five Mistakes Young Writers Make some time next week, so stay tuned! (Yep. Don't touch that blog dial. ...Wouldn't that be cool if you could program your favorite blogs like radio stations and turn a dial to bring them up?)

Excerpt:

"I thought it looked neat," I say. I don't talk about clothes much, so I don't know exactly what I should say. "It's gruff."

"Gruff?"

"Gritty and tough."

I used that word with Jakely a lot. I also used doeffy, which was a cross between dopey and iffy. I hadn't used either in a while, but it just kind of came out. I shouldn't have said it.

"Oh. I like it," she says. "Maybe I'll start using that. Hell, maybe I'll name one of our trends after it. Men, this is the Gruff isle. Get yo'selves some Gruff clothes. Get your Gruff on."

I laugh, but in a sad way. I don't want her to use that word. It was our word, Jakely and mine's. It'd feel weird if just anyone used it.

"Sorry, Daron. Not trying to tease or anything. I get carried away sometimes, you know? Gotta love mish-mash words. I do it all the time. I think everyone does. No, no, you know what I do, like, all the time? I mispronounce stuff. Like, I always say pasghetti wrong. Damn, spaghetti. Case in point. Shit, that's silly."

She's a little red. I don't know why. I mean, I say it the same way she does. I tell her that, and she says that's funny. I'm noticing it's dark outside, and I don't like it. I hate the dark. I never know what's going to happen.

"Yeah, good point," she says. She's looking at me. "It's getting dark all right. We should head back. I don't like being out late."

She must be a mind-reader. I never said a thing about thinking it was dark. I walk a little away from her. I don't want her to hear my thoughts. I'll ask Jordan about her later. Shit like that scares me.

She asks me to walk her to her door, although she technically walks me to it. I'm not sure why she couldn't find it herself, especially since she lives there. Then again, guys always seemed to walk girls to their doors on TV after dates. Was this a date? Shouldn't we kiss or something? I don't want to kiss.

"Thanks," she says. "I'd have asked Wes, but he's out."

That's weird. I see Wes walk by behind Seffy in the window of the house. I don't say anything about it, though.

"Well, good night," she says, and she hugs me. It's a nice, warm hug. I like it. I don't really hug unless I'm drunk, so I try to do it sober and nice-like by just patting her back. She kind of snorts.

"We're gonna have to work on that. Night, Daron!"

I tell her good night, and I don't really do that often, so it comes out weird. I mean, I say the words, but they don't sound right. Night isn't good. I never get it when people say that. I guess I'm having a good night, though. Had ice cream and everything. I'm still weirded out about her reading my mind, though. Maybe Jordan can tell me what to do to keep her from getting in there. I've seen people mind-read on TV, and it scares me, to be honest.