Reading Song of the Day: “99 Problems” by Jay Z
This is IT you guys. Quita and I are joining some of our writer buddies in the 99th Page Blogfest. Basically, we show you all page 99 of one of our WIPs, and you all let us know if you’d continue reading or not. Cool, right? Right? Oh, and be sure to click here for other Page 99 madness!
Here we go…
Pam’s Excerpt
This is an excerpt from my baby, Wants. As some of you may know, this is told from 4 POVs. All you need to know for this scene is that Alicia is insecure and having doubts about her relationship with her boyfriend, Austin:
My heart leaps to my ears and pounds right against my skull. I fold my arms across my chest, but my breasts get that swollen feeling again. “Um, what?”
“You’re breaking up with me, right? I could hear it in your voice over the phone.” He lights up and takes a hit. “I’m used to it. Just didn’t think it would be this soon.”
His voice shakes, but I can’t tell if it’s from sadness or the weed. The room seems to sway and I have to spread my legs to keep steady. My eyes land on the Rebel Without a Cause poster hanging right above Austin’s headboard. Great, I forgot how much he liked James Dean. “Why do you like me?”
I expect him to flinch or do something else comical, but he just puffs on his joint. “Really?”
“Really.” I spread my arms, revealing me in my size fourteen glory. “I don’t look like everyone else.”
“Neither do I.”
“You know what I mean.” I try tucking a strand of hair behind my ear but it just bounces back. “You could have anyone.”
He nods. “Probably.”
I remember in ninth grade, Sarah Bishop slapped him in the auditorium right in the middle of freshman orientation. I never knew what happened, but I really wish she was here right now.
Quita’s Excerpt
This is an excerpt from my yet to be titled (b/c you know I suck at titles) contemporary YA mystery. Blake Farmer is trying to figure out what’s happened to his best friend who he hasn’t spoken with in over four days. He is speaking with the school’s heartthrob football star who was rumored to have seen Blake’s friend at a party two nights before.
I roll my eyes and huff. “Can we skip all the bullsh**? When did Kyle get there?”
“Oh, yeah. He came around midnight. David had just decided that he would sell to us, though. Kyle walked in when David had his goodies all laid out on the table. I mean, you should have seen Kyle’s face.”
I could imagine. One thing that Kyle hated more than people in general, were people who went back on a deal. David was never supposed to sell to the high school kids, that was their truce.
“When Kyle saw that, he just went off. He started going in on David—I mean, hard. Calling him a lying sack of sh** and saying that he would ruin him. It was ugly.”
“Let me guess…you got in the fight.”
Jaron shakes his head. “Not at first. I mean, I like Kyle and all…” Jaron coughs a little. “But when he started going at my girl, I had to say something.”
“He went off on Kendall?”
Jaron nods. “Big time. Said she was a slut and asked what she has to do to get her brother to buy her all those nice things. Kendall almost slapped him. Like I said, Kyle’s a good dude. I didn’t want to do anything, but he accused my girl of like, incest or whatever. I couldn’t let that fly.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. I just pushed him a little,” he answers, avoiding eye contact.
Omigod! We did it!!!! : ) So, what’d you think???