TL;DR - Choose a setting from a list of six possibilities. Your choice. 1000 words max, post a link in the comments if you want.
This 2012 challenge from Terrible Minds was to choose your setting, from a list of six.
The settings were:
The Bone Cathedral
Aisle Nine In The Grocery Store
The Venom Club
The Tower of Babel
Suburban Meth Lab
Tiny’s Taco Hut
I liked the challenge given by a boring choice. Here’s my updated version, at 800 words.
Aisle Nine In The Grocery Store
Bonnie felt like a fool, still pushing her cart up and down the same aisle. She paused, pretending to read the label on a can of salmon, and looked behind her. Nobody. At least nobody she was interested in.
It had started with yet another smile, the online kind, of course. She’d had a lot of them on the dating site lately, especially since she’d added some photos. She’d started in there as just text, wanting men to appreciate her for her mind, not her body. She soon admitted she was just as biased, as she was only checking out the cute guys. She knew the text only profiles could have written anything, just to set the hook. She’d done that a bit herself. And it couldn’t hurt to pick out some flattering pictures from several years ago.
So, in spite of knowing a lot of this was just a game for people, some truths, some half-truths, some out-and-out lies, in spite of this, here she was, loitering in Aisle 9.
One of last week’s smiles had seemed intriguing, his profile interesting, his subsequent emails open, thoughtful, and funny. She was surprised when her friend Kim didn’t share her enthusiasm about her new friendship.
“Bonnie,” she said. “Are you looking for a pen-pal or do you want to get some action going? You’ll be an old maid, same boring job, an apartment filled with cats, trading emails with some pathetic guy living in his mother’s basement.”
Bonnie glared at her. “OK, so what if we do meet? He’ll be a nice guy for a while, we’ll date, he’ll start sleeping over, and I’ll start to like him. Then he’ll start pulling back, say it’s not my fault, then he’s gone.”
“Or you’ll do the same,” said Kim. “Like with Dave, right? I thought he was a keeper.”
“It’s just so much work,” said Bonnie.
“So shut up and get to work,” said Kim. “Tell this guy you want more. Just don’t get up and run when the honeymoon’s over. And don’t let him do it either.”
“What if he doesn’t want to meet?” said Bonnie. “What if he just wants to be friends and won’t talk anymore? This is kind of nice like this, I really like him.”
“And then you’ll call me at 3 am again,” said Kim,” complaining about your boring job, and how you’ll never meet anyone.”
Bonnie poured out another couple of shooters, tossed hers back, and slammed the glass down.
“OK, one more try!”
“That’s my girl,” said Kim. “Look, he’s online now, I’ll tell him you want to meet.”
They waited, Bonnie chewing at a nail, until her phone chimed.
“I can’t look,” she said. “What did he say?”
“Yes!” said Kim, pumping her fist. “He wants to meet you this afternoon. Wait—at the grocery store. Well, that’s different.”
“He wants to check out the melons?” said Bonnie.
“Good one,” said Kim. “Just a sec.” She typed, then waited.
“Ha, he laughed, says he’s a leg man too. Hmmm, maybe I should go instead.” She laughed at Bonnie’s look. “Just joking.”
“OK,” said Bonnie. “Tell him I’ll be there—quick, before I change my mind. Shit, I’m nervous, this feels like my first date when I was twelve.”
“Twelve? I was ten,” said Kim. She typed, then waited. “Done. Two o’clock. He even picked the aisle for you to lurk in. Here, I’ll write it on your arm so you don’t get flustered and forget.”
So here she was, all dressed up, wandering up and down aisle nine. Luckily, it was a huge store, so sticking to one aisle didn’t look that weird. There had been a couple of cute guys earlier, one had even flirted a bit, but she’d turned him down.
No sign of her guy, though.
She glanced at her watch; it was almost two thirty. That was it, another loser after all. She scurried to the exit and hopped onto a waiting city bus. She stared out the window, blinking back her tears as the bus pulled away. She wiped her face and sat up.
“Get a grip, girl,” she said. The woman across the aisle looked up, then back to her book.
Bonnie bent over her phone. First, she sent a nasty text to the asshole, saying she was never really interested anyway. Then she sent one to Kim, telling her aisle nine was a waste; he never even showed.
Her phone buzzed with a message. It was from Kim. “9? Nine? u dork, I rOt it 4 u. Six! 6! Run!”
But it was too late. Bonnie slumped in her seat. Maybe she’d see if Kim would drive her to the pet store tomorrow.