the weekly wip tip

well hey gang! my one resolution for 2024 was that i was gonna wrap up a few of the wips i've already started posting*, so with that in mind, i'm going to be switching up my usual wip wednesday posts to sort of keep track of/hold myself accountable to the projects i'm cracking away on!

here's what this week's dance card looks like ;)c

posted projects i'm ACTIVELY working on:

posted projects NEXT on deck:

posted projects PAUSED for the moment:

(5/8/24)

"'July 27: Well, I guess there's no use pretending anymore dot dot dot after spending all day at his house for his grad party, I think I just have to say it out loud dot dot dot I'm just dot dot dot - '"

"You don't have to read the dot dot dots you moron," Beth interrupted, shoveling another handful of Fritos into her mouth as she hunched over his shoulder, crunching those sonsofbitches riiiiiiight in his ear.

Josh soldiered on anyway, ignoring her wholesale: "'...in love with...Mike.'" They stopped then, him looking up and her looking to the side, Hannah's diary laying open (and at least momentarily) forgotten before them.

The silence lasted a hot minute there, Josh watching Beth with his eyebrows high, Beth watching Josh with hers somehow higher, and in that wacky way siblings had sometimes, they promptly spoke over one other - "She's gonna go for Mike when Matt's right there, huh," Josh asked the air as Beth similarly groaned, "Sam's right there," and once more they stopped, staring disbelievingly at one another.

"Well this is a peculiar development," Josh teased, using his finger as a bookmark as he shut Hannah's diary and focused his attention on Beth instead, "Sam, huh?"

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

Oh, she hated games like these...she absolutely hated them, because no matter what was asked or who was doing the asking, what it came down to was always the same: Lying or being embarrassed in front of everyone.

Her two least favorite things.

"Never have I ever..." Hannah started, dragging each syllable out to buy herself some time, "...kissed...a...girl."

And the circle went nuts - there were a few jokes shouted as people put their fingers down or left them up, things like "Yeah, that tracks," or "Oh please, you're not fooling anyone;" there were wolf-whistles and cheers; there was so much laughter she thought she might combust; and, as she left her own finger up, Ashley thought her face might literally catch fire, she was blushing so hard.

She never could've gotten away with lying, not with everyone looking at her like that, so instead of watching them react, she lowered her eyes to the floor, and...and that was probably why she didn't notice Jess scootch in beside her.

Without warning, there was a hand tipping her chin back, a pair of glossy lips sliding across hers; "Now you have," Jess smiled against her mouth, pressing one last bubblegum-flavored kiss to the corner of her lips before pulling back, basking in the hoots and whoops of the group as Ashley struggled to remember how to breathe.

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

"Don't," Emily hissed in his ear, her hand gripping him so tightly that he could feel each and every one of her fingertips pressing down on his arm through his jacket, "that could be anything, Matt - anything!"

He gave her a sympathetic look, then gave the hatchet in his hands a spin before creeping forward anyway, his steps weighed down by her resistance. "Ash and Chris said there was some kinda killer out here, Em," he whispered back, "I'm just...I don't want this guy to sneak up on us."

"Don't - don'tdon'tdon'tdon'tdon't - oh my God Matt, what if it's a - " only that was when he pushed the door to the cable car station open all the way, and the source of the movement they'd seen through its foggy windows was revealed, " - cat." The two of them exchanged a look as Emily slowly released her death grip on his arm, but there was still a fair note of tension in her voice when she smacked his side and huffed, "That could've been a murderer, you dolt, a murderer who could've murdered us!"

He bent down to give the cat a pet, but no sooner had its odd, mismatched eyes caught the light than it lashed out, sending him staggering back with his hand clapped to his face; "Jesus Ch - I wouldn't write off the whole 'murder' thing yet, Em, holy shit."

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

The night had been so long - so impossibly, unspeakably long - that Kaitlyn didn't care that Jacob was sweaty, or shirtless, or covered in dirt, or...was that slime on him?! No, nope, nuh-uh, she didn't care about any of that (except maybe the slime, now that she was thinking on it): all that mattered to her was that he was alive, and he was in one piece, and even as he did that thing she hated, scooping her up and spinning her feet off the ground as he hugged her, she was just so glad he was here.

"Where have you been, you freak?!" she asked once he set her feet on the ground, halfheartedly punching his shoulder as she blinked - hard - trying to force back the warning prickles that'd started there.

"Me? Oh, uh, funny you should ask, I actually spent the night locked in a hillbilly sex dungeon, so," and there he paused, giving her one his shittiest looks before - ah, there it was - hastily wiping at his own eyes, "try and beat that one, smartass."

...yeah, no, she was too tired to think on that one for too long, so before the mental image could take root, she simply threw her arms around his middle again, squeezing him hard, harder, harder still, pushing everything else away as the rain fell and soaked them through.

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

"James," she said, her voice breathy and caught somewhere deep in her chest, so strained and so quiet that had it not been for the way she'd reached out and grabbed his sleeve, he might've missed it altogether, "what are you going to do if you can't find Mary?"

He was glad he had his back to her, glad for more than just one reason; "I guess," he started, staring down at the chipped linoleum between his feet, refusing point blank to turn and look at her like that, sprawled across the sickbed with color high in her cheeks, her shirt open, her skirt hitched to show an inch more of thigh than he had any business seeing, "I...haven't really thought about it."

"If you really want to see Mary, you should just die." Gone was the whisper, gone was the sickness - all at once, Maria's voice had never been stronger, and as she continued, at once toneless and furious, helpless and deadly, "But you might be heading to a different place than Mary, James," every syllable registered as a punch to the gut, the throat, the back of his knees.

James whirled then, turning on a dime to see her lying there, her breathing shallow but her gaze deep, the shadows falling across her face calling to mind the weeping sores Mary had tried so desperately to keep hidden there at the end.

Maria blinked once, twice, a cat sizing up a mouse; then, saccharine enough to curdle the saliva under his tongue, she spoke up again in a voice that was only partly her own: "James, honey...I think you've forgotten something very, very important."

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

jdksdhajksdhsAJKDHJKASD QUILLLLLLLLLL-UH you can't do this to me!!! i have a spooky image to uphold over here, and you're making me all wibbly wobbly omgggggg!!! the internet is going to think i'm like, a sap or something if they catch me CRYING IN THE CLUB LIKE THIS!!!!!!!

you are too, too, tootootootootoooooo kind (pretend that doesn't read 'toot' over and over, ok? thanks), and coming from YOU??? someone whose stories have had me on the edge of my seat, gnawing my nails, guffawing like a fool, gasping like a soap opera star, and pacing around my room tearing at my hair to walk off some of the tension???????? genuinely this is the highest praise. genuinely!!! thank YOU for being YOU - all your support, your kindness, the JOY you spread, for bullying all the same characters i do, all of it!!!!!! you truly have nooooooooo idea how much your kindness means to me, OR how much stupid irl crap your stories have gotten me through!!! <3

now if you'll excuse me, i believe there's somethING IN MY EYE 😭 WHERE IS MY HANDKERCHIEF