Writing exercise #2

Between Two Roommates

When she came home, Faye looked at Robin and said, "Hi."

"Hi. Where were you?", asked Robin before Faye shrugged her shoulders and answered, "Nowhere."

But when Faye removed her coat and exposed her black lace underwear, Robin asked, "You let Chad fuck you again?", before Faye answered, "I did."

He was one of the most respected Captains in the entire fleet, so old that he had been born on Old Earth decades before longevity was developed. In his time he had been a computer programmer, an entrepeneur, a scientist, an engineer, and an explorer in realspace, hyperspace, and subspace.

For three thousand years he had pushed in every way toward one goal: workable time travel. All theory said it was impossible, so he developed new theories. He whored out his talents to amass vast fortunes, and threw them away to feed his obsession. He briefly became a conqueror, uniting all humanity under his banner, then all neighboring aliens, to force the best minds of each species to work together. That effort failed but produced hints of the impossible: that certain Forerunner species, constructs of forgotten high energy physics only possible close to the beginning of Time, had access to negative energy technology - and negative energy meant open wormhole throats and stable portal technology - including faster than light and time travel portals. It was impossible, and yet, remnants of that early time showed that people then had some way of coordinating great projects at impossible distances, implying causality violation.

So he stepped down from his high position and became an explorer again, seeking out Forerunner remnants on forays throughout Known Space.

At last he found a nugget of strange matter, a superdense crystalline remnant little larger than an atomic nucleus. Ninety-two years later his team cracked the code; the nugget was a partial Archive of a tremendous civilization, left as a legacy for their successors in case any race was able to survive in the terribly cold and empty universe they faced. Their great colective of minds was doomed by what they called 'the heat death of the Universe', a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. The archive was a gift to the future, to beings so alien they couldn't imagine them.

Once decoded, it took only a few more centuried of effort and vast fortunes in time and money from himself and his friends, descendants, and so on, to create a terrific new set of technologies, developed to the highest ethical standards - vacuum energy drives, hyperspace ships, portal technology, and time travel of a sort.

But to use the time travel safely, one couldn't go back only partway, into established history. That could destroy the universe. One had to jump back BEFORE the Big Bang, into the Unknown. Space had not been created yet, so one was literally jumping into Nowhere, into a non-space of completely unknown conditions with only a very slim chance of survival based on the until-now entirely theoretical disciplines of Mathenautics and Void Navigation. From there it might take billions of years, or longer, to even find or create a universe like ours again, then billions more to perfect the technique of synching up into the past and making a smooth branch universe with the change he wanted that would harm no one, and would eventually lead to a multiverse with many traversible branches, an infinite variety of possible worlds.

But he was interested only in one where he could find his first love again and save her from the malpractice that had claimed her life in his past; he would find her, however long it took, and build a new timeline where she lived long enough to enjoy the benefits of longevity, mind backups, and so on, technologies she missed only by decades.

His crew - humans, AIs, aliens, energy beings, uplifts, and the Black Ship itself, a unique piece of technology whose mind was largely in that nugget of strange matter, were all agreed on the course of the voyage, they would explore together and then each member would be dropped off in the past, to make new timelines that would, by design, converge together some day in the Omega Point timeline, far in the future.

They jumped into Nowhere. Their adventures there may not be described here in any detail, for the protection of all timelines. Some crew were lost, all of them and the Ship itself were gravely changed, but they successfully built new universes indiscernable to each of them from the pasts they knew.

He himself returned to twenty-first century earth, before Penolope started to grow ill. His Earth self was on his way into their home when the Ship found him and phased him into reality, a quantum overlay on his realtime self. Confusion followed as he fused memory tracks together, and he wandered on foot for half an hour, his mind roiling as the timeline reset itself into the new track, the track where Penelope and he would both survive or die together.

Ship watched from hyperspace as the merge completed, and saw that it was good. "Farewell, old friend", the black ship projected before vanishing, heading back for a second dive into Nowhere, this time alone, in search of a path to the Forerunners who had given the universe all their Open Source knowledge. Included in Ship's archive was most of humanity's key knowledge, along with that of their allies.

He returned to the house, now half an hour late, knowing only the first word he had to speak on seeing her, to launch the new timeline correctly. After that he had to play it by ear, disturbing things as little as possible apart from the few key changes they had all agreed upon.

And then he was there at the door. He used his key to come in and looked into the bedroom; she wasn't there, and he could hear her typing at the computer in the next room. Suddenly his heart was beating fast and his ears were burning - his wife, the woman he had fought through millienia and Nothingness to find again, and he had to pretend not to be excited to see her. "Act casual" he thought, and stepped into the study. She looked up, her dark hair falling a bit across her left eye, and she blew it up and out of the way. A funny little gesture, so he laughed. She smiled at him and spoke first.

"Hi. "
"Hi."

"Where were you?"

"Nowhere."

SF style embellishment

He was one of the most respected Captains in the entire fleet, so old that he had been born on Old Earth decades before longevity was developed. In his time he had been a computer programmer, an entrepeneur, a scientist, an engineer, and an explorer in realspace, hyperspace, and subspace.

For three thousand years he had pushed in every way toward one goal: workable time travel. All theory said it was impossible, so he developed new theories. He whored out his talents to amass vast fortunes, and threw them away to feed his obsession. He briefly became a conqueror, uniting all humanity under his banner, then all neighboring aliens, to force the best minds of each species to work together. That effort failed but produced hints of the impossible: that certain Forerunner species, constructs of forgotten high energy physics only possible close to the beginning of Time, had access to negative energy technology - and negative energy meant open wormhole throats and stable portal technology - including faster than light and time travel portals. It was impossible, and yet, remnants of that early time showed that people then had some way of coordinating great projects at impossible distances, implying causality violation.

So he stepped down from his high position and became an explorer again, seeking out Forerunner remnants on forays throughout Known Space.

At last he found a nugget of strange matter, a superdense crystalline remnant little larger than an atomic nucleus. Ninety-two years later his team cracked the code; the nugget was a partial Archive of a tremendous civilization, left as a legacy for their successors in case any race was able to survive in the terribly cold and empty universe they faced. Their great colective of minds was doomed by what they called 'the heat death of the Universe', a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. The archive was a gift to the future, to beings so alien they couldn't imagine them.

Once decoded, it took only a few more centuried of effort and vast fortunes in time and money from himself and his friends, descendants, and so on, to create a terrific new set of technologies, developed to the highest ethical standards - vacuum energy drives, hyperspace ships, portal technology, and time travel of a sort.

But to use the time travel safely, one couldn't go back only partway, into established history. That could destroy the universe. One had to jump back BEFORE the Big Bang, into the Unknown. Space had not been created yet, so one was literally jumping into Nowhere, into a non-space of completely unknown conditions with only a very slim chance of survival based on the until-now entirely theoretical disciplines of Mathenautics and Void Navigation. From there it might take billions of years, or longer, to even find or create a universe like ours again, then billions more to perfect the technique of synching up into the past and making a smooth branch universe with the change he wanted that would harm no one, and would eventually lead to a multiverse with many traversible branches, an infinite variety of possible worlds.

But he was interested only in one where he could find his first love again and save her from the malpractice that had claimed her life in his past; he would find her, however long it took, and build a new timeline where she lived long enough to enjoy the benefits of longevity, mind backups, and so on, technologies she missed only by decades.

His crew - humans, AIs, aliens, energy beings, uplifts, and the Black Ship itself, a unique piece of technology whose mind was largely in that nugget of strange matter, were all agreed on the course of the voyage, they would explore together and then each member would be dropped off in the past, to make new timelines that would, by design, converge together some day in the Omega Point timeline, far in the future.

They jumped into Nowhere. Their adventures there may not be described here in any detail, for the protection of all timelines. Some crew were lost, all of them and the Ship itself were gravely changed, but they successfully built new universes indiscernable to each of them from the pasts they knew.

He himself returned to twenty-first century earth, before Penolope started to grow ill. His Earth self was on his way into their home when the Ship found him and phased him into reality, a quantum overlay on his realtime self. Confusion followed as he fused memory tracks together, and he wandered on foot for half an hour, his mind roiling as the timeline reset itself into the new track, the track where Penelope and he would both survive or die together.

Ship watched from hyperspace as the merge completed, and saw that it was good. "Farewell, old friend", the black ship projected before vanishing, heading back for a second dive into Nowhere, this time alone, in search of a path to the Forerunners who had given the universe all their Open Source knowledge. Included in Ship's archive was most of humanity's key knowledge, along with that of their allies.

He returned to the house, now half an hour late, knowing only the first word he had to speak on seeing her, to launch the new timeline correctly. After that he had to play it by ear, disturbing things as little as possible apart from the few key changes they had all agreed upon.

And then he was there at the door. He used his key to come in and looked into the bedroom; she wasn't there, and he could hear her typing at the computer in the next room. Suddenly his heart was beating fast and his ears were burning - his wife, the woman he had fought through millienia and Nothingness to find again, and he had to pretend not to be excited to see her. "Act casual" he thought, and stepped into the study. She looked up, her dark hair falling a bit across her left eye, and she blew it up and out of the way. A funny little gesture, so he laughed. She smiled at him and spoke first.

"Hi. "
"Hi."

"Where were you?"

"Nowhere."

How To Handle An Unfaithful Wife

After Gwen slipped off her red dress, Alan walked in and said, "Hi."

"Hi.", said Gwen after she turned around and exposed her naked body.

"Where were you?", asked Alan before Gwen shrugged her shoulders and answered, "Nowhere."

That made Alan shove a suitcase at Gwen and yell, "GET OUT!"

The Boss

I couldn't believe he was my new boss. That sexy bastard who had dumped me for some high school educated secretary who wore faux leather boots and fake nails.

I took a bite of my donut, a powdered sugared jelly filled carbohydrate nightmare.

"Hi." He said.


His voice, the smell of his cologne, brought back the feelings I had suppressed for two years. I had been crazy about him, and I thought he had been crazy about me.

He held out his hand to shake mine. I wiped the sugar from my fingers. Those hands.

I remembered them shyly grazing my breast in the car that first night. I had been bold, asked him if he wanted to kiss me, and he did. Then he put the car in drive and left the office parking lot. He drove as though he knew where he was taking me, as if he had thought about this possibility, had planned it.

He pulled into a driveway that curved behind a row of trees. The skeleton of a house sat back from the road, it was new construction but looked as though the owner had run out of funding and had stopped before the walls were erected. He switched off the engine and shut off the lights.

The seats creaked as he leaned towards me, grazed my lips with his. I kissed him deeply, felt him moan as I traced his erection through his pants with my index finger. Is lipped a finger into his waist band, teasing the head of his cock. He leaned back. "You drive me crazy". He whispered.

This man, this sexy man, had jokingly admitted to me the day before that he had never had a blowjob. Never. I was dumbfounded, he had been married at one time, no blowjob? I was incredulous, and when he blushed I knew he wasn't lying.

I unbuckled his belt in that steamy car, unzipped his pants. He was hard as a rock. I teased him with my fingers, encouraging his precum to seep out, adding lubrication by spitting on my hand. He looked at me wide eyed when I bent my lips to his lap and breathed on his throbbing cock. Slowly, I lowered my wide open mouth over his cock, wide enough that I didn't let his cock touch my mouth, but he could feel the heat from my breath. He moaned.

Tiny licks at first teased his head while I cradled his balls. This was cock worship at its finest. He held his breath, his muscles tense. I let him relax, and when his body was eased into the seat, I pursed my mouth, making it a tight wet warm hole that I impaled on him. The intake of his breath hissed and I felt his buttocks clench, his balls tighten as he tried not to cum. He tried to pull back but he was reclined in the seat and my mouth pursued him relentlessly.

"I m going to cum" he murmured, attempting to ease my head out of his lap. I stopped, looked him in the eye and grinned. "God I hope so". I said and went back to pushing him deeply into my throat. He was still resisting ejaculating in my mouth so I traced a finger along his balls, massaging the area between his cock and his asshole. "Jesus Christ" he whispered. I felt his balls tighten, felt the pumping before the hot cum even shot into my throat. I gulped and swallowed while his cock throbbed blissfully in my mouth. I tried not to let any cum escape.

He collapsed against the seat. I came up for air but noticed one small droplet of cum glistening in the moonlight. I bent down to lick it up. He shivered.
"I missed some". I explained.


"Hi." I said to the man who was now my boss but had disappeared from my life two years earlier. "Where were you?"

He gave a throaty laugh. "Nowhere." He said.

He leaned in and wiped some sugar off my lip with a finger. "You missed some."

A Beautiful Gift For A Beautiful Wife

When Neal came home and saw Kathy standing naked in front of the mirror, he said, "Hi."

"Hi. Where were you?", asked Kathy after she looked at Neal with a smile.

"Nowhere... other than Forever Jewels.", answered Neal before he placed a diamond necklace on Kathy and said, "Happy Anniversary."

She Was Looking At Herself In The Mirror

When she saw Peter walking into the bedroom, Jeane turned around and said, "Hi."

"Hi. Where were you?", asked Peter before she slipped off her dress and answered, "Nowhere. I was just waiting for you."

"It's a good thing you did.", said Peter before he kissed her on the lips.

Shame It Up

When she saw Cecelina Jones walk into the studio with a trench coat on, her best friend Raquel Blue said, "Hi, CeCe."

"Hi, Rocky.", said CeCe before Rocky looked at her coat and asked, "Where were you?"

And after CeCe answered, "Nowhere.", she accidentally exposed a Hooters T-shirt and shorts.

What He Saw In The Living Room

"Hi.", said Shawn after he saw Kelly on the floor.

"Hi.", said Kelly before Shawn asked, "Where were you?"

"Nowhere. Just thumbing through this old photo album and waiting for you to get home.", said Kelly before she got up and slipped off her robe.

After that, they fucked themselves.

WHy not?

Unbelievably, it was raining. The middle of August, and they had decided to meet at the 2:15 ferry crossing from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. It had been nearly a year since they had laid eyes on one another, and she had concocted this plan out of some misplaced sense of romance. He'd been off to grad school, she'd been traveling in South America, but now they were both in Seattle, and according to their facebook pages, both were still single. As she sat in a booth, thrumming with anticipation, she could recall with vivid detail the feeling of his cock nudging aside her lips, the head just beginning to penetrate, his hands on her ass, urging her to slide on down...

"Hi"

She looked up, startled, lost in revery. There he was, as gorgeous as ever, head shaved, the same worn out old Hillary campaign tshirt stretched over his chest, carharts stained and faded. But the bright blue eyes danced with delight at seeing her again.

"Hi" she smiled, slightly red from where her thoughts had been.

"You look like you were a million miles a way".

"Oh, you'd never guess" she flirted back, falling into the pattern that began that weekend of intense campaigning, trying to save the world from Alaskan Oil drilling.

"Oh tell me, where have you been?" he slid onto the bench beside her, moving her backback to the floor and putting an arm around the back of the seat. She could smell him.

"Nowhere". She breathed, suddenly shy and uncertain. She wasn't ready to blurt out "In the back of your van, out near Alki beach" the spot where they had privately celebrated the defeat of the pipeline bill.

"I bet I can guess" he teased, and leaned in to kiss her.

Her Roommate's Secret Smile

When she came home with her Blue Jolly Rancher Costume still on, Joyce walked over to Gillian and said, "Hi."

"Hi.", said a smiling Gillian before Joyce looked at her watch and said, "The Halloween party at the Playboy Mansion was last night. Where were you?"

"Nowhere.", answered happy Gillian.

The car door slammed, signaling her return. Grabbing his coat and slipping it on, he ran out to greet her.

“Fuck this freezing cold!” She fumed, raising her fist to the heavens and shaking it vigorously. “I live in California now; What the hell’s up with this 27 degree shit?” She questioned.

“Aw baby, we live in Northern California.” He came up form behind and wrapped his bulky arms around her, hugging her to his large, lumberjack body. “It’s not sunny and 70 year round. It get’s cold in the winter here; it even freezes. I told you that before we moved, remember?”

She snapped her head in his direction glaring at him from over her own shoulder. “First of all, we live in central California! If these people would simply look at a map they’d see that Camp Meeker is clearly in the central part of the state. Yes, along the coast, but still the center.”

Lyle turned her, still in his embrace, until she faced him. He bent to kiss the tip of her icey nose before speaking over her. “Hi.”

He smiled like a love-sick puppy, and listened patiently as she continued her rant.

“Second of all, what the Sam-hell good is cold weather without snow? I ask you, Lyle! If I have to endure the cold then I want my reward of a magical, winter, wonderland, Damn it!”

He squeezed her small frame with a bear hug, picking her up off her feet. A silly grin covered most of his face. She took notice of it, softening a bit against her will.

“Hi,” she answered with some reluctance.

She didn’t want a mere distraction from the cold, she wanted to be warm.

He lowered her until her feet touched the ground again. “Hot chocolate?” he asked, dangling the temptation before her.

She considered responding with a ‘yes’, returning his kiss and riding off into a cocoa-bliss sunset with him … but only for a moment. Her personality lent itself to towards crabbiness; ‘Pollyanna’ just didn’t suit her, no matter how hard she tried.

“uh - uh,” she groaned as a pout claimed her face.

Taking her petite, manicured hand in his, he led her inside past the waiting, roaring fire and into the kitchen where two, once steaming, mugs of cocoa rested on the counter.

She took in his loving efforts with a nod, noting the fire had warmed the 900 square foot cottage nicely.

“I knew you’d be cold.” He put the mugs in the microwave and punched the number three. “Where were you?” he asked, the smile now dancing in his eyes.

He already knew, the question was just a formality.

She crossed her arms and frowned, tenaciously holding on to her cabby attitude. “No where.”

The microwave dinged and he moved to gather the mugs. He offered one in her direction waiting for her to take it. She stubbornly refused, lowering her chocolate-brown eyes to the tiled floor.

“Tell you what, I guess where you were - you drink the cocoa while we snuggle in front of the fire with a movie and our nice down comforter. Deal?” He tilted his head to his shoulder, a gesture normally reserved for the fairer sex.

Persisting in her moodiness she shook her head ‘no’.

Ever the optimist, Lyle gave a chuckle, “Come now. You know deep down you want to feel all warm and gooey, like a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven.”

He sipped his cocoa with exaggerated pleasure while playfully eyeing her above the rim of his mug. His slurps irritated her further; she refused to respond.

“The ocean.”

She raised her eyes to meet his, allowing a miniscule, mostly involuntary nodd.

“You always go to the ocean, and you always skip barefoot in the sand along the shore … when you think no-one is looking.” He took another prolonged sip losing himself in the pleasure of the delicious, hot beverage. “And that’s why you always come home cold.”

He extended the mug in her direction again. She lifted it gingerly from his grip and brought it to her chapped lips. The liquid began to work it’s magic as soon as it entered her mouth, even before her first swallow, spreading it’s warmth and cheer through her small, frigid body.

“It doesn’t change anything you know.” He spoke with such tenderness for a man of rough trade. “I won’t tell anyone that sometimes you like to smile and laugh and skip and play.”

His gentle teasing completed her thaw.

“I adore you.” She replied simply.

“I ... knooow ...” He sang out the words like a song in an opera. Then he again took her hand in his and led her through their home and into the bedroom, where he had the comforter laid out and the movie set to play.

I thought it was obvious that the dialogue was about cheating.

It was already already half past two a.m. Her husband had said that he was only going out for a beer with the guys from work. If he had only taken a beer he would've been home a long time ago and Sarah was furious. She was furious at both him and at herself.

She knew she should've left him after the first time he was cheating, but he had begged and told her it was going to be the last time. Well it hadn't been last time; it hadn't even been the second to last time. She knew that she really should've left him the first time. Her husband would be home before morning since he hated to spend the night at someone else’s. It had been the same when they first started dating; he had never wanted to sleep over, something about the comfort of his own bed she guessed.

She had decided to stay up and confront him. She wanted him to confess this time, maybe if he confessed it directly this time they still had a chance. Every other time she had been forced to drag it out of him with him fighting it the whole way before he confessed. It wasn't until she had proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he finally confessed. She hated that she was married to such a liar.

She could finally see the car pull in on the driveway. She got up and got ready to confront him. She wondered if this would be the end of their marriage or not, she wondered even though a part of her had already accepted the answer. Her husband tried to be as quiet as possible when he locked up the door and got in.

She had turned off the lights in the living room so he wouldn't know that she was waiting. When she heard him close the door behind him, she turned the light on again. She could see that he had been drinking and the way his clothes looked, made her even more convinced that he had cheated on her.

"Hi," she said to her husband.

She wanted him to say that he was sorry, she wanted him to confess what he had done, but worst of all she also wanted him to tell her that he loved her and take her in his arm, but he didn't do anything of the things she wanted.

"Hi," her husband said back. He tried to pretend like nothing had happened and that coming home at 2.30 a.m. on a normal weekday was perfectly normal. She continued to stare him in effort to make sat something more, but he didn’t. He tried to pass her to reach the stairs and could smell the cheap perfume on him from whatever slut he had cheated on her with this time. She hated him for betraying her. Sarah wanted him to confess, just this one time. To just confess without her having to play detective, but he didn’t.

She slapped him and she could feel her tears running down her face. A part of her wanted him to see just how much he had hurt her, the one person who were supposed to be the most important in his life.

"Where were you!" Sarah screamed. All the anger she had felt building during the night was released in that scream. She wanted to slap him again, but she didn't. Instead she waited for what he would say to her. She had decided that she would leave the house if he didn't confess this time. This was his last chance to save their marriage. A chance he didn’t know that he was about to waste.

"Nowhere."

Sarah gave him one last look, before she walked out the front door. She couldn't stop crying, not because he had cheated. She cried because she knew that it was the end. She wasn't going to take him back this time.

Diana's Surprise For Walter

"Hi! I'm home!", said Walter after he closed the door.

"Hi! I'm in the bedroom!", said Diana.

Walter walked into the room and saw Diana naked and on the bed.

"Where were you?", asked Walter.

"Nowhere but here.", answered Diana.

What I Saw My Wife Doing

I came home with her Christmas present and found her naked in bed and touching herself.

When she opened her eyes, I smiled and said, "Hi."

And when she said, "Hi. Where were you?", I shrugged and answered, "Nowhere.", before placing the ring inside my desk drawer in the den.

He was just getting out of the shower when she got home.

"Hi," she said, dropping her briefcase and kicking off her shoes. She sat on the bed and exhaled the cares of the day.

"Hi," he replied wearily, throwing off his towel and sitting beside her. He'd used the shower gel she liked. It must have been a rough day if he didn't shower until six o'clock.

She affectionately kissed his cheek and placed her hand on his thigh. He stared off into space.

"I called about an hour ago. Where were you?" she asked.

"I took a walk. I had to get away from writing for a while."

She hugged him tenderly. He'd been struggling with his book for nearly two months. They had both taken a big hit to their finances when he decided to quit his job and devote himself full time to writing. She had faith in him, though, and the book was turning out well, but he had hit a roadblock in the last act.

She reached down and held his cock. After a few gentle strokes she could feel it flutter to life. "I'm sorry, sweetie."

He sighed, exhausted from the day. The gentle hand job was slowly relaxing him. "It just seems like this book is going nowhere."

"That's not true. You'll have a breakthrough any day now. I believe in you." She kissed him once more, leaned over, and took him in her mouth.

MistressLynn said:

Rewrite this dull bit of dialogue, expanding it with a setting, descriptions of the people, how they say things, their gestures, etc.

Minimum 50 words.


Hi.

Hi.

Where were you?

Nowhere.

Click to expand...

I looked down at my shoes: Mary janes with a five inch heel in black velvet. How had I forgotten I would see her here after so long hiding away in my little basement flat. I had only wanted a little human interaction and this was the first place I had thought of.

Too late now she was coming over. I looked around hoping there was some way to escape, somewhere to run away, but it was useless her targets were already on me and I could feel her moving through the crowds like a wolf stalking her prey.

I sat transfixed unable to take my eyes away from her, yet wanting to hide behind the veil of my hair. She stood there looking wildly beautiful as usual, her flaming red hair wild and free spilling over the bare creamy skin of her shoulder down to the black bustier top she wore. Tall and imposing she stood like a siren, tempting with her beauty but deadly to behold.

"Hi" she said , the word seemed more of an accusation than a greeting

"Hi" I responded trying to ease the tension with a smile, but I knew my failure as I saw the icy cold blast she aimed at me with her deep blue eyes.

"where were you?" there it was, the question I was dreading, the question I knew I must answer. How could I tell her I had been avoiding her after she hurt me so badly. How could I explain. I had agreed to an open relationship, but something had changed, I had fallen in love.

I managed to drag my eyes away, and tried desperately to think of an answer. One that would not hurt her or push her away. It was not her fault she had told me everything before we had become involved. If only she was not so wonderful maybe I could have carried on, but this was too much. My heart felt like it had been shredded.

Looking down at my shoes I answered the only thing that came to my head

"Nowhere" I knew this would not suffice but maybe, just maybe it would open a dialogue.

A Wife's Shameful Secret

After he pulled back the shower curtain, Jeffrey said, "Hi."

"Hi.", said a smiling Barbara before Jeffrey asked, "Where were you?"

And after she shrugged and said, "Nowhere.", he showed a nude photo of her.

"We needed some extra money.", said an ashamed Barbara before Jeffrey gave her a hug.

"I know we do.", said Jeffrey before giving Barbara a kiss.

"Hi..."
I could barely get the word out of my mouth. I knew on the other end of the receiver he'd hear a timid and quiet voice, but could he hear me trembling? The way I was nervously tapping the toes of my new kitten heels? Obviously he couldn't, but I already felt laid bare as it was.

"Hi." He said it with a force and finality that made air hiss between my teeth as I stifled a gasp. He was angry. Or maybe, angry at himself, and disappointed in me? I wasn't sure, but I would be soon.
"I am only going to ask you once, and you better answer honestly.
Where. Were. You."
Of course, when he 'asks', it doesn't come out as a question. What he's really saying is, "I shouldn't have to ask this, but because of the position you've put me in, I have to."

I close my mouth as soon as I open it. 'Nowhere' had been on the tip of my tongue, but I cannot lie. I don't want to tell him the truth. 'The truth will set you free,' is a load of horse manure if you ask me. However, if I lie, he'll know. Somehow he always knows. He doesn't have to see my face to know when I'm lying.
I try to gather my thoughts. How can I answer this and not get in trouble at the same time? I just have to resign myself to my fate. I brought this upon myself, so I just have to deal with it.

From the confines of my dorm room, I confess, "I'm really sorry, Dad, I was at a party last night."

Hi.

Hi.

Where were you?

Nowhere.


"Hi," she says, her weight shifting to her right foot, she places her hand on her hip.

"Hi," he says a little quieter than he had intended, his eyes cast down and then realizing, looking up. He kicks at the dirt distractedly and wonders if he looks as self-conscious as he feels.

"Where were you?" she asks.

"Nowhere," he says, turning his back to her and not returning her stare.

‘Hi.’

‘Hi? Is that all you have to say?’

Oh, god. She’s in one of those moods. Again. ‘What would you like me to say? Angelica?’

‘Why would I want you to say angelica?’

‘Well, at least it’s four syllables.’

‘So?’

‘I thought perhaps you were disappointed by the brevity of my greeting.’

‘Angelica’s hardly a greeting. It’s some sort of plant, isn’t it?’

‘So perhaps I should have said: “Greetings to you, fair maiden, love of my life, keeper of my cock.” And then I could have thrown in angelica as a bonus.’

‘I phoned you this afternoon.’

‘This afternoon? I don’t think I had any missed calls this afternoon, did I? Let me just check. Oh, yes. Three twenty-seven.’

‘Something like that. So, where were you?’

‘At three twenty-seven? Umm … nowhere.’

‘Nowhere?’

‘Yes. The signal’s not very good there. I think you’ll find that it’s much better somewhere. Next time, you might want to try calling me when I'm somewhere. In fact, anywhere other than nowhere.’

_Lynn_ said:

Rewrite this dull bit of dialogue, expanding it with a setting, descriptions of the people, how they say things, their gestures, etc.

Minimum 50 words.


Hi.

Hi.

Where were you?

Nowhere.

Click to expand...

Since there's no thread like a resurrected thread - I'll give it a go:

"Hi," Marie stated flatly. Should I accept that single word as an invitation? Had the thaw begun? Were we beginning again?

"Hi," I repeated in the same lifeless monotone. New beginnings are overrated. Nothing erases history. Wounds heal into angry looking scars reminding all of battles won and lost.

"Where were you?" I could hear the false casualness in her voice.

"Nowhere," I sighed, mentally taking up my sword and shield. I can recognize the difference between an invitation and the first parry. To arms, bitch!

My Wife, The Cheating Bitch

When John came home and saw Rebecca peeking into the master bedroom, he said, "Hi."

"Hi, Dad.", said a startled Rebecca before John asked, "Where were you?"

But after she shrugged and answered, "Nowhere.", John walked into the room and caught his wife in bed with his best friend Jerry.

Sitting quietly I was, thinking about each item on the TO DO list in my diary, enjoying a coffee and sticky bun in a favourite haunt at the local Mall and waiting for the unexpected.
“Hi” said the well modulated, voice of an educated woman.
Looking up I saw a woman – a lady whose dress and demeanour was out of this world – at least the world to which I was accustomed recently widowed and retired from paid work.
I stood up immediately and replied in the vernacular “Hi” continuing, “By all means let us have coffee together.” And moved a chair for her to sit down on.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Archie Petronis, a recently retired academic.”
She replied, “I am Tilly Castleton and I am glad that I have found the right person.”
Trying my hardest not to appear too surprised I said, “Pardon?”
Tilly smiled as if being nice came naturally to her and answered “I came to thank you for bringing my daughter, Leonie, home safely on New Years Eve.”
“I had met young Ransom, who was doing Politics 1 with Leonie as their ‘free’ choice for a first year unit, only once when Leonie brought him home for dinner in early December. Even then, I was not sure that he was a suitable boyfriend for her. Maybe that was only an overprotective mother and her intuition but I did not mention my misgivings to Leonie because, in this day and age, gratuitous advice from parents is generally unwelcome.”
“What actually happened in Daffodil Court that night?” Tilly asked.
“I only moved into the Court in November. My partner had died earlier in the year and I decided to shift to somewhere more suited to a retired widower. Daffodil Court has only a dozen houses and most of the residents have been there for decades because it is so close to everything. For many years now Daffodil Court has two street parties – Guy Fawkes’s Night and New Years Eve. Ransom lives in our Court with his parents and two younger siblings. The party this time went on as usual with parents and offspring from every house outside enjoying the company. Ransom, off course, brought Leonie along. For whatever reason, relatively early in the celebrations, Ransom was lubricated well and truly with beer. Around 10 pm he asked Leonie to sit in the back of his car with him. She apparently asked why and he whispered his answer in her ear. “NO WAY” she yelled at him.
“But it is New Year and what better way to start the year. I only want to fuck you!”
“I don’t want to!” she replied and started to walk away. “Come on.” He yelled at her. “That is what boyfriends and girlfriends do. You have to.” , he said as he grabbed her wrist and tried to drag her to the car. By this time several of the parents had moved to surround Ransom, who, by now, had let go of Leonie’s wrist. With more or less, covert encouragement, Ransom lurched off to lie down for a while.
Meanwhile, two of us had gone to comfort Leonie who was still rather shaken. “Would you like someone to take you home?” John asked her.
“I am at the end of the Court. I can take you home if you wish?” I said.
“Oh, please. That would be nice.” Leonie got out quietly.
“Where were you?” I said, “Leonie had not expected you to be out.”
“My friend in the Bridge Club took pity on a lonely widow and asked me where I was going for New Years Eve.”
“Nowhere.” I replied.
“Oh No I am coming to get you in five minutes. Then hung up!”

The Invitation

Kelly was taking a shower before Mark opened the curtain and said, "Hi."

"Hi. Where were you?", asked Kelly before Mark shrugged and answered, "Nowhere. At least, not without you."

That made Kelly grab his cock and ask, "Well then, would you like to join me?", before pulling him in.