"I'm still here" ; prompt challenge WEEK #1

I dab tiny dots of concealer under my eyes. Looking at them in the mirror, I can't recall a time when I didn't do it. I sit i before my vanity mirror, tilting my head to get the light just right as I soften my features with makeup. I'm immediately satisfied with the way the dark circles from my sleepless nights seem to disappear with each delicate tap of the concealer, blending seamlessly into my skin. It’s a quiet, meticulous work, like an artist's, and I use my clean ring finger to gently lift the corners of my eyes where I suspect-

“Stop obsessing. There’s nothing there, Vee.” I hear Matt's voice behind me, his reflection in the mirror, like he’s reading my mind. It doesn’t take a lot—I'm an open book in a foreign language that he happens to be an expert on. “You’re perfect.”

Let it Snow TOC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I ❆ Willow

Chapter II ❆ Nick

Chapter III ❆ Willow

Chapter IV ❆ Nick

Chapter V ❆ Willow

Chapter VI ❆ Nick

Let it Snow, Chapter I

Willow. 

        “But I called last week!” 

Carl is having none of it. I’m tempted to pull a Karen here — make my best impression of aunt Tilly, raise hell on the large man behind the counter for daring disrupting my nonexistent plans, but when I fill my lungs, ready to unleash my inner beast, I can’t bring myself to do it.

But I could bribe him.

The Boy in the Garden — I

 THE BOY IN THE GARDEN

CHAPTER I.

I was seven when I was taken to Misselthwaite. As the car neared the castle through the gravel path between the tall, dry from winter trees, I’d been impressed, overwhelmed by the sight that looked so much like the beautifully illustrated books mother would read me not so long before she died, in worlds of princesses and dragons, and I thought it was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen. A first impression, because then, after being dropped off with a single bag and a doll tightly pressed against my side, I thought it looked somehow cold, bare, with vines growing on the stone walls outside, uncared and untamed, just like I would be in the years I spent there.

Onde Anda Você — Table of Contents

chapter | music

um — Onde Anda Você, Vinicius de Moraes

dois — O Mundo é um Moinho, Cartola

três — Tempo Perdido, Legião Urbana

quatro — Meu Lugar, Onze:20

cinco — Garotos, Leoni

seis — Mulher de Fases, Raimundos

bonus chapter — why did you move my wheelchair across the room?

sete — All Star, Nando Reis

oito — Hoje Lembrei do Teu Amor, Tiago Iorc

nove — Partilhar, Rubel ft. ANAVITORIA

dez — Reza, Rita Lee

onze — Lágrimas e Chuva, Kid Abelha

 doze — Deitada Nessa Cama, Tiago Iorc

(NEW! 9/22) treze — Exagerado, Cazuza

Onde Anda Você — One

Arcos da Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It was Sunday night; cold and drizzling. He left the Riachuelo Street, walked through the Lapa Arches. He was holding an empty Itaipava longneck bottle, too much of a good boy to simply dispose of it. He walked to the Joaquim Silva street, found the one open bar—a boteco really. Two men played pool in the back, silently, only the billiard balls clacking together, a random football league game rerun on a mute TV hung up high, old enough to have witnessed Pelé in his heyday. No Pelé now though, only Botafogo and Fluminense FC fighting off relegation zone earlier that week. He put a coin in the jukebox, picked Tim Maia's saddest song and chugged down cheap beer like it was water. At some point, the owner let him know the bar's closing. He grabbed another beer and ventured out in the streets again, sitting on the steps of Selarón's staircase, all the tourists long gone. There was nowhere else to go and truth was—he'd never walk up those steps anymore. 

Maybe he knew that.