Twenty

First a side note: last night's piece showed up as posted but somehow it got lost in the abyss. I can't find it but think it may have accidentally been scheduled to post at some point tonight. If it doesn't appear by tomorrow morning I will attempt to resurrect it.

Now onto today's writing. It's day 23 of 100 and I've been having a lazy day because of the snow. I've done a lot of reading and some thinking about my writing. Again this is more about the character then anything else but it does have some plot.

I'd really welcome feedback or constructive criticism on this or any of my other pieces.

Twenty

Twenty. It feels like a huge number. Ellie had always thought that. And now it was here it both did and didn't feel as big of a deal as she'd expected it too. It was all about perspective after all. And when you get closer to something it looked different to when you looked from afar. You couldn't see the big picture any more. But the detail. That became clearer and you saw so many things that from a distance you didn't notice. And from close up, 20 didn't look so bad.

The idea of being in a whole new decade was still scary. Not least because even though 18 was when you became an adult it really hadn't felt any different to 16 or 17. 20 though. For some reason it made her feel as though she really was a grown up now. It was time to leave childhood behind and do something with her life. Ellie was at uni, in her second year of a degree in psychology and sociology but she still didn't know what she was actually going to do with her life. That hadn't bothered her before but surely someone in their twenties should have it together? Have a plan? And she didn't. Living life by the seat of her pants, that was Ellie. If you asked her dad he'd swear blind that she'd never change and when she'd indignantly claim that she would, she really would he'd smile knowingly and with a chuckle he could never quite hide say "of course you will, Ellie love."

But then there were also the good things about being twenty. The ones that she hadn't expected. Like no longer being a teenager. That rocked. Mostly because when people moaned about "teenagers these days" she didn't feel guilty any more. Because finally they weren't talking about her.

And the respect. The majority of people didn't treat her any differently. All except one person. Her little sister. At nine having a sister who was twenty seemed like a really big deal. Twenty was ancient after all. Previously they'd not gotten on. Faith had given Ellie just a little bit too much cheek a little bit too often, causing conflict. After her birthday though she'd been startled to realise that Faith treated her much better, didn't cheek her after all. Ellie hadn't wanted to ask her sister what had changed in case asking drew attention to it and caused things to go back to how they used to be. But then one day as she sat reading a magazine Faith and one of her little friends had wandered through the lounge. And she'd heard Faith say she was treating Ellie better now. Because, after all, she was twenty now - she'd be dead soon.

Ellie had barely been able to keep quiet when she heard that. She couldn't believe it! But finally the two little girls were out of earshot. And she'd been able to let go. Ellie hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. She literally laughed until she cried.

Twenty wasn't shaping up so bad after all.


♥ Emma