Acceptance

       Just another boring summer’s day, and like usual Billy and his friends were looking to start something.  They often gathered in the alley behind his house plotting, planning, and instigating mischief.  Today was no different. Billy’s friends were always a little more prone to finding trouble than Billy himself.  He just wanted more than anything to fit in.   Even though most of their ideas bordered on plain stupidity Billy went along on the most part.

 

      They talked about girls, sports, and challenged each other to silly dares.  Occasionally they would head to the park to throw a ball around or to the neighborhood pool to cool off.  He was only half listening when Tommy came up with the grand plan to steal something…just to see if they could get away with it.  They would make it a scavenger hunt of sorts.  You had to steal whatever the group decided and get away with it,   and the winner not only got the respect of his peers, he also got to decide what was next on the list.

        Stealing anything was completely stupid. He knew it.   As he listened to their latest hair brain scheme he knew one thing for certain, they would always think of him as a complete tool if he didn’t step up to the plate and show them that he had the guts to do anything they suggested.  They already teased him relentlessly and called him the priest because he normally upheld his ideals.  His sense of right and wrong always battled in his head and heart every single time they suggested anything like this.  Deep down most of them respected him for being so good.  On the surface, they despised him for the same reason. 

          “I’ll do it. I’ll go first.” Billy said with conviction.  Shocked, they turned to look at him, wondering if they had heard correctly.  He stood up, and made his way to the street.  That is when he saw Danielle leaving their brownstone, purse in hand.  Instantly, Billy knew what he had to do.  With a deep breath, he ran after his sister, snatched her purse and took off like a bat of hell with her hot on his heels screaming like a wounded banshee.

    “Billy, you little shit! Come back here!  You are going to make me late for work!” she yelled as she sped off in hot pursuit.  He weaved as he ran trying desperately to lose her.  He would have to answer for this later. He knew it as well as he knew his own name.  Danielle would give him holy hell for making her late.   Ducking into an alley, he rummaged through her purse intent only on what he searched for.  Seeing it, he snatched it, discarded the purse knowing she would find it there and ran hell bent for election to meet his friends.

        Danielle saw him disappear around the corner as she knelt to gather up her purse and its contents.    What the hell was Billy thinking?  The little shit.  If he wanted money, he could have asked her!!  Except, all her money was there.  Nothing really seemed to be missing.  Well he wasn’t going to get away with this.  She was going to give him a good telling off for this little stunt.  She was tired of his bullshit.  She was determined to find out just what the hell he was up too.  It was obviously no good.  Worry and anger engulfed her.  She was justified, damn it and threw caution to the wind as she pursued him with all thoughts of making it to work on time forgotten for the moment.    She found him surrounded by his friends, high fiving at his accomplishment as he held up her favorite pen.  A stupid pen! That was what this was about?  Instantly she knew it was about way more than a pen.   With realization, she smiled slowly turning away.   Good for him.  Through the clarity of retrospect, the obvious conclusion surfaced: things don’t always turn out as planned.

This is my response to Speakeasy’s weekly prompt, which is to write a piece in 750 words or less (mine is 671) (1) with some kind of reference to the media prompt, a short film by Tanmay Shah, entitled Intent, AND (2) use the last sentence of:  “Through the clarity of retrospect, the obvious conclusion surfaced: things don’t always turn out as planned.”

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