Daily writing prompts based around a weekly theme.
Prompt - Addiction
This week's theme is words Shakespeare invented, and today's prompt is addiction.
You can interpret the prompt in any way you wish! Post your work in the comments if you'd like to share.




Fandom: The Fosters
Characters: Ana Gutierrez & Gabe Duncroft
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.
Drugs were supposed to be fun. A classic form of rebellion, a harmless distraction— at least, that’s what her friends had told her.
Experimenting with them was normal— everybody did it. That’s what high school was for.
Why else do you think people go to parties?
She had known people who smoked all her life. Neighbors, cousins, the older kids at school…hell, even some teachers.
It’s hard to be afraid of something you’ve grown up with. Perhaps that was why it had never seemed like such a big deal to her, despite what her parents said.
The first time she dipped her toes, she was fifteen. The setting: a party with her friends.
How’s that for a cliché?
But she hadn’t been pressured into it. Not really.
She had already been curious about drugs for a while by then, so when the opportunity presented itself, she took it.
There was nothing to fear— all of her friends had been on board.
Besides, it was just pot. Pot had never ruined anybody’s life before.
So she took a hit. And another, and another, and another.
Love at first sight, they call it.
Flash forward a few weeks later and the whole thing had become a routine— go out to a party, get high, have a good time.
It wasn’t a big deal. Her parents hadn’t even noticed.
And then she met Gabe.
Gabe was a senior; she was a freshman at a senior party.
What they talked about doesn’t matter. What matters is that they hit it off right away.
You know, like people in movies do.
Gabe was the kind of guy who kept his head down and didn’t often speak unless spoken to; Ana was the kind of girl who could get anyone to talk without trying too hard.
They went together like thunder and lighting— equally complimentary as they were destructive.
No one was surprised when they started seeing each other four parties and two-dozen drinks later.
Being with Gabe meant finally being with someone who didn’t expect her to be anything more than what she was. Being with him also meant never having to pay for a fix.
That was one of the perks of dating a drug dealer.
But somewhere between skipping classes, losing friends, growing to resent her family, and graduating from pot to things that could kill her, Ana began to lose herself.
Using stopped taking place solely at parties, and it was no longer about feeling larger than life or improving a mediocre social situation.
Had it ever been?
Maybe, for her friends, but not for her.
Taking the edge off and having a good time had never been her goal. Her goal had been to forget, to numb— to shut down all of her feelings.
Perhaps that was why the rest of her friends had been able to move forward with their lives while hers meticulously crumbled from every angle.
Perhaps that was why she was the only one of them who ended up dropping out of high school, running away from home, and losing her two kids because she couldn’t take care of them.
Perhaps that was why none of them were still here, fifteen years later, chasing a ten minute high and selling the only thing that belonged to them in order to get it.
No— it had never been about having a good time.
If it had been, she wouldn’t be strung out, living with a man who preferred her with bruises, praying that the next overdose would finish its job.
This is haunting. I can definitely see Ana starting out this way. The thunder and lightning simile fits so well, and the line before it captures both of them perfectly.
Thanks so much! The thunder and lighting comparison came to me pretty quickly but the second half of the sentence gave me trouble so I ended up re-wording it a hundred times. Glad it ended up working. I don't think I'll ever run out of things to write about in regards to Ana. There's so much to work with.
This is so great. I really can imagine this is how Ana got into drugs for the first time. And you capture the differences in Gabe's and Ana's personalities well... and the writing is just powerful. I love the short paragraphs.
Thank you! I took Ana's 2x21 quote, "I fell in with the wrong crowd, I guess. We got into drugs. You know, for most of my friends, it was just fun, but for me, once I got started, once I knew I could shut down all of my feelings...there was no going back," and everything we were given about her relationship with Gabe, and ran with it. I'm fascinated by the stark contrast between her personality and Gabe's, so I really wanted to highlight that as well. Glad you enjoyed it! This was a new writing style for me.
Burning Necessity
Form: drabble
Fandom: Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Two comforts, Arvis allowed himself, away from the mockery of the Court and the hollow shell that was the throne of Grannvale now. Only the two; and of those, one was by far the more pressing need.
First was the draft. It was almost rote, now: breaking the seal on wine like blood, then adding the phial of poppy-born oblivion to the bottle before filling a goblet and draining it dry. Rote, but it did what he needed.
Second -- and far more vital -- was the ancient tome waiting for his touch.
Without Valflame's comforting fires he would be nothing, and ...
original
He can't seem to help himself. Ever since the first time he saw her dancing off in a room by herself, spinning like an impossible wind over and over again, practicing the same moves until she was lightning contained within four walls, he can't seem to help finding himself at every performance of the university's dancers. Even when she isn't front and center or soloing, he only watches her.
It's an addiction, he thinks. He should be studying but his feet drag to a halt when he passes the studio rooms and sees her practicing. He doesn't even know her name, though he shares at least one class in political diplomacy where he's seen her bent over a textbook at the edge of the room.
The last place he ever thinks to see her is in his lab, sitting up on the edge of a counter, one eyebrow raised at his attempting to seem even remotely casual.
"May I help you?" he asks, shoving his glasses up on his nose and wondering if she's come to confront him over stalking her.
Instead she tilts her head and smiles in clear amusement. "We've been assigned together for the student project."
"Oh." He looks at her and knows he'll never be able to get any work done with her actually around him, but he finds himself nodding anyway, "Very well," because saying no is unthinkable.
Ah, sorry, silly question... but is it addition or addiction? The title and the description text don't seem to agree.
I checked out the link and it looks like it's 'addiction'.
Yeah, it's addiction, sorry!