Writing Challenge! 1. Get your phone and open your music app. 2. Press Shuffle and write the title of the songs (do this 10x) in order. 3. For nos. 2, 4, 5, 7, 10 get the most striking lyric/s for you. They will be used as character dialogue/monologue. 4. Nos. 9, 1, 8 will be the settings/atmospheres. 5. Nos. 3, 6 first few lyrics will be the start and end of the fic (respectively) 6. Get CREATIVE!
Just an outline made of skin. And my walls are paper thin. Max follows the trail of Victoria’s legs. Victoria’s skin is smooth, her legs are long. The atlas of a polar biome, endless and pale and flawless, like undisturbed snow. But Victoria isn’t cold to the touch like snow. In fact she’s warm, embers of life and blood under the snowy skin. Max squeezes Victoria’s thigh. Warm, beating, sizzling, like anger. “Chloe and I fought again. She broke up with me. Happens once a week now, twice if we’re really on a roll.”
“I’m guessing it’s hard with Chloe,” Victoria says. She rolls under the sheets. Golden hair clings to the snowy expanse of her skin, her bare back. Hair longer than Max remembers, skin as soft as Max remembers. “This is the third time you’ve called me this month.”
“She gets angry really easily,” Max says. Victoria hums. She twists, frees her thigh from Max’s hand. Then, “Kind of like you.”
Victoria makes a small noise. She tries to sit up but Max pins her, tanner hands around paler wrists in a flash. Fingers on wrist bones and thumbs on pulse points, squeezing. “You knew what you were getting into.” Victoria says. She licks her lips, looks at Max with her eyes like wet sand, like loamy soil. Dark brown in this light.
“I knew it was clear to me. I fell into what I couldn’t see.” Max says. Victoria breathes: Mint, toothpaste, Tic-Tacs.
“The idea that maybe we could make it work,” Max says. She squeezes one of Victoria’s wrists, looks at the spot under her thumb. The spot she used to kiss a lot. “Back then. And it’s hard with you. When I’m far from you, I look at the stars. Do you?”
Victoria shrugs. Max frowns. The heart for Chloe beats, twists. “Shed a tear for the love we’ve lost. Gotta look for a brand new start,” Victoria says. She wrenches one wrist away and holds it up. She knows the spot Max loved to kiss, still kisses, will keep kissing, Chloe and Nathan in their lives notwithstanding. “That was high school, Max. Like years ago. Let it go.”
Max kisses. Lips on a miniature heartbeat, a pulse point. “You were the shadow to my light. Did you feel us?”
Victoria doesn’t say anything. She sits up, knocks Max onto her back, and presses them flush. She’s warm, beating, sizzling, like sex. Like love. The heart for Chloe quickens. Victoria’s skin feels as smooth as it looks. Max could draw roads, streets, a map on the clarity of Victoria’s skin. A map to her eyes, maybe. Brown like chocolate, or earth. Or graves to an old love that should stay dead.
“No,” Victoria breathes: Hot, deep, heavy. “I’m not trying to stop you, love, but if we’re gonna do anything we might as well just fuck.”
Max’s phone rings, distant from the floor and muffled in her jeans. Their heads turn in unison. It’s a special ring tone, meant especially for Chloe. The song they first made love to. The heart for Chloe doesn’t flutter the way it used to at the sound of it.
“You gonna pick that up?”
“She’s probably still mad. Give her a couple more hours.” Max says. Victoria shifts above her and peers, really takes Max in, her face and freckles and the impassive look she’s wearing.
“You usually don’t miss a call from Chloe. I’m surprised.”
The sheets rustle. Victoria pulls up and sits on her haunches. Afternoon light is coming in through the window and it spills over her head, leaks like a golden halo on her golden hair. “Nathan might come back soon.”
Max laughs, “Getting cold feet?” and starts to sit up too, but Victoria pushes her back down. They bounce on the mattress once. Victoria’s hand is a star splayed on Max’s chest. She starts to speak and the heart for Chloe follows the rhythm of her lips. Pink, like her tongue and the inside of her mouth. Warm and soft and smooth like her skin, like the rest of her.
I don’t know if we should be alone together. I still got a crush, that’s obvious. “If nobody’s around, what’s stopping us?”
1. Bad Suns - Cardiac Arrest
2. Steve James - Renaissance (Kid Remix)Shed a tear for the love we’ve lost / Gotta look for a brand new start
4. Scenic - Another Sky (The Magician Remix)I knew it was clear to me / I fell into what I couldn’t see
5. The 1975 - SexI’m not trying to stop you love / If we’re gonna do anything we might as well just fuck
6. The Neighbourhood - Single
7. Alan Walker - FadedYou were the shadow to my light / Did you feel us?
8. John Legend - She Don’t Have To Know
10. The Neighbourhood - FerrariAnd it’s hard with you / When I’m far from you / I look at the stars, do you?
(And yes, Max and Victoria are cheating douchebag exes. Hooray.)