Well, now with my novel being past 50,000 words, I figured it was time to give you another excerpt. I’ve had two already and in case you missed them, you can read the first one here, and the second one here. The first two were pretty one sided, but I want to show you some interaction between Dianna and Michael.
Again, please remember that this is a vomit draft, so it’ll have only enough editing to make it barely presentable. Enjoy:
Dianna darted behind a bush that was behind the Vadaren’s house. She didn’t want to be seen, it was well past curfew. Though she knew that she didn’t have to fear the military, she didn’t want have to give her father an excuse as to why she was out at one in the morning.
She looked up at the house. No lights were on, that was good, no one was awake. She crept around the bush, trying to stay out of the yellowish light of the street lamp. She picked up a small pebble and tossed it at the window that was closest to the back yard on the first floor, the one she knew to be Michael’s room. The tiny rock missed the house completely.
There was a reason why she had never gotten involved in sports, though she had the perfect physique for the girls basketball team, she didn’t have much hand-eye coordination. She sighed at her lack of ability to hit a decently sized target only feet from her.
She picked up another stone and tossed it again. It hit the window this time with a light tik. She did a victorious fist pump into the air, then remembered that she was trying not to be seen. She ducked down next to the bush and watched the window.
Dianna had always wanted to try this, getting someone’s attention in the dead of night by throwing a rock at the window. But until now, she’s never had a reason to do it. The plan had come to her as she did her homework. She spent the last hour and a half setting the whole thing up, and now it was time to see if her work paid off.
She waited for another moment, then threw a third rock, she hit the window dead center this time. It made a louder tik, and she hoped it wasn’t loud enough to wake anyone else in the house up. There was only one person in this house that she was willing to risk her father’s wrath for, and he was sleeping in the room across from her.
She was about to toss another stone, when the window opened up. Dianna saw Michael’s face peering out past the screen; he didn’t see her. She quickly went up to the window.
Behind the screen, Michael looked both groggy and surprised. He was shirtless, revealing to her for the first time what kind of body he had under the t-shirts. He wasn’t ripped, but he wasn’t flabby either, she would say well toned and a bit on the hairy side. He was wearing light gray sweat pants as far as she could tell. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and gave her a head nod. He was still half-asleep, but he still looked pretty hot.
“I’m sorry to wake you, Michael.” She was suddenly aware of the temperature being in the low forties, and felt bad for making him stand at an open window.
Michael put up a finger, telling her to hold on a moment. He reached behind him and picked up a small whiteboard and a marker. He erased what was there, which looked like a list of some sort, and wrote,
“Dianna, is everything alright?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine.” She was suddenly nervous, she had to struggle to say why she was here. “Umm, I was wondering if you would come with me for a short walk, there’s something I want to show you.”
Michael looked to his clock on his night stand.
“It’s one in the morning.”
She nodded. “I know. But it’s Saturday tomorrow, so we don’t have school.”
“What about curfew?”
“It’ll be tricky, but I’ve snuck out after curfew before, that and I have a bit of protection, I can make sure we don’t get into any trouble.”
Michael just stared at her, he seemed fully awake now.
“What is it that you want to show me?
Dianna guessed he would ask that. “It’s a surprise. Are you coming or not?” Please say yes!
Michael looked around his room, then wrote,
“Sure, let me get dressed and I’ll meet you
outside. Give me a minute.”
“Okay, but hurry. We want to be back before dawn.” She crouched and walked back the bush, she heard the window shut. Her heart was racing! She got Michael to sneak out with her, this might work out well! She waited only a minute.
Michael soon came creeping from around the corner of the house. He was wearing the same thing he did during the day, plus a warm jacket. He also had the whiteboard in his hand. He held it up.
“What’s this all about, Dianna?”
Dianna didn’t waste any time. She grabbed his hand and said, “C’mon! Stay low and in the shadows. We don’t want to get caught if we can avoid it.” She felt his hand close around hers, his hand was warm, strong, and the action of taking her hand showed that he trusted her.
Andrew Ronzino
