Writing Short 2 - Shame

So, I was watching an episode of Girls the other night and one of the main characters, Hannah, is a budding writer. She's been trying since way before the programme began to be a writer. In this one episode I was watching she goes to a library, book store and has to stand in a queue to get her name into a hat. If her name is pulled out of the hat she has to improvise a short story based around a certain word. The word for the evening was: Jealousy.
I repeated the idea of this episode to my mum and told her we should choose a word next time for one of our shorts. She chose SHAME. Shame. I mean seriously... shame?! It's taken me a good couple days to get my brain around it. She wrote hers the same day! I couldn't. But then the other night, it came to me... whilst I may have been doing something similar to the short that I've written. :) Hope you like.

Shame

Amber slumped back, moulding into the sofa, relaxed and stress-free. The kids were in bed and the hubby was snoring away, loudly, upstairs. Her fingers drummed over the remote looking for something to watch, mind focused on the kitchen.

What could she munch on?

Was there anything munchable even in?

Settling for the latest Criminal Minds episode; she hauled herself off the sofa, grunting as she went. Amber loved her sofa but it was such hard work getting off it when she was so comfortable. Amber flicked the lights on in the kitchen, making her jump as one popped. Two of the five were already out. Great.

She scanned the fridge; yoghurt – too healthy; ham – no bread; apples – who can be bothered with the crunch?

The cupboards didn’t bring much relief either. Nothing; eyes scanning the shelves, nadda, zilch. She couldn’t be bothered with anything that required a cook time. This night owl wanted some snacking fuel. It was payday tomorrow, hence the fridge and cupboards being practically empty.

Urgh, this was torture! What could she eat?

Then she saw it. Purple packing, glistening at her in the soft kitchen lights. Frog smiling happily up at her, begging to be eaten. She knew the chocolate belonged to her kids but who cared? This is clearly an emergency. How many times had she given up her chocolate to one whinging child or another? Amber deserved this!

Usually with her kids, if the chocolate was out of sight then it was out of mind. They wouldn’t ask for it if they didn’t remember it was there. That is until Amber was sat trying to peacefully enjoy some to herself.

To be honest, there wasn’t too much internal debate, they were getting paid tomorrow so she could always buy them some more then.

Amber sat back, happy in her decision, taking less than a minute to devour it. She tried to swirl it round her mouth and let it melt on her tongue to last longer. Alas, it took only seconds to disappear, seconds that were worth it.

Suddenly, there was a shuffle in the hallway and Amber turned her head. One of the kids had woken up – probably moaning for a drink or some food. Amber stuffed the evidence of her naughty excursion down the sofa as Maisie padded into the living room. She was rubbing her eyes of sleep and looking a little bewildered stepping gently into the light.

“Hey baby, you okay?”

“Want some food Mummy”, Maisie said, climbing onto Amber’s lap.

“Okay baby. I’ll get you a drink too. Beep beep your butt”. She placed Maisie to the side of her and wandered into the kitchen, getting a banana and some juice. She plonked them on the sofa in front of Maisie and teared open the banana for her to eat. “Eat this then go back to bed, okay Mais’”?

Maisie looked up at her with confusion falling over her face, “Mummy, where’s my chocolate froggy?”

“Oh, I don’t know baby. Maybe the chocolate monsters came and ate it”.
Her four-year-old seemed to be satisfied with the answer and stared into space biting into her banana as she did.

Amber looked at her cute, trusting, little baby and didn’t feel one ounce of guilt at stealing her chocolate, totally unashamed at her little white lie.