the 5 w's and h

who will love me for me?
what is keeping me here?
where am i supposed to be instead?
when will i change myself for the better?
why are we so afraid of living?
how do we go from here to there whilst remembering the 5 w's and h?

Between Friends

I'm working on a novel. Here's what I have done so far.

Between Friends

People say that you are not a true Oregonian unless you can travel through its rain without an umbrella. It was only December, though, and Sammie was already growing weary of the almost constant downpour. Sammie was a petite yet round young woman in her early twenties. Her long, wavy brown hair had bits of red in it, letting others remember that she could sometimes be emotional. A hopeless romantic at heart, Sammie's bedroom walls were plastered with posters of John Cusack movies, photographs of Paris, and prints of the Impressionist masters. Sammie wanted everything in her life to be beautiful and peaceful. This led her three best friends to label her as the eternal optimist of the group, because she always expected goodness, like hers, in others. This cold, rainy Monday morning Sammie was on her way to meet her friends for lunch at a neighborhood sandwich shop.

Quietly, Sammie entered the busy shop, heading towards their usual spot in the corner booth. The booth gave the group much more privacy than the rest of the shop allowed. Sammie chuckled to herself as she saw Amber was already there, enthralled by a new book. Amber worked in the financial district so she was always on time, even a little early, for everything. Amber was the shortest of the group with light brown hair which was almost always pulled back in a tight ponytail. Unlike Sammie, Amber was more logical and more often than not followed her head rather than her heart. Amber could seem a bit cold at times to those who did not know her well, but she was just addressing the situation at hand. The only decision Amber could make consistently was that she would change her mind.

It wasn't until Sammie sat down in the booth that Amber tore her eyes away from her treasure. “Hey Amber! How are you?” asked Sammie.

Amber just rolled her eyes in a half annoyed and half teasing way. “I'm doing alright. How about yourself?”

Sammie stuck out her tongue. “The usual. Work is going well. I just wish I would finally get a raise,” Sammie complained. It had been over a year since she had gotten her last one, and that had been after she had worked at the daycare for a year and half first. It's not that Sammie didn't enjoy her job at the daycare. Actually, this was the most fulfilling job that Sammie had ever had. But, this job didn't really pay enough to pay the bills always. Sometimes, she even found that it was not worth all the extra stress and effort she had to put into it.

“You really should look into finding something else. Something that pays better, Sammie,” Amber said concerned.

“I know,” Sammie sheepishly said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Hi you two!” yelped Helen. At 5'10”, Helen was the tallest of the group with green eyes and long red hair. She worked testing computer games. Like most things in her life, this job was something that Helen was naturally good at and just kind of fell into her lap. Helen was like the mother hen of the group. “How are you dearies doing?”

“Good,” they both chimed. Sammie just gave a dorky grin, while Amber rolled her eyes.

“You know, Amber, if you roll your eyes any farther back I think you could see me,” chimed in Tonie. Tonie was the philosopher of the gang, being able to at the same time look at and understand both sides of an argument. The others considered Tonie the moral compass. Tonie was average height for a woman with short, blond hair. She was fit and athletic from the years she played soccer.

Tonie's comment made Sammie and Helen laugh, while Amber just crossed her arms. “Hey, I was only kidding,” defended Tonie. With that, Amber uncrossed her arms and scooted over to make room for Tonie to sit down. “Now that's better. Ugh. I'm so glad it's Friday finally.”
“We are, too,” agreed the three others. Friday nights were the girls' nights together. These nights began with drinks at the Rush, a local club notorious for their strong drinks and attractive patrons. After a few drinks, the girls would head over to one of their places to watch movies, eat greasy delivery pizza, and catch up with each other.

And, this week was no different. The girls got right into the club since they were regulars. Plus, Tonie had briefly dated the handsome bouncer, Mark. They had only been together for a few months, but Tonie broke it off once Mark got too attached. Mark believed that he could “win” back Tonie by letting her and her pals go ahead of the other club goers. Mark looked at Tonie and gave her a little grin.

“Tonie, you really should put him out of his misery,” said Amber.

“Yeah, he looks like a little, cute puppy,” giggled Sammie.

“And, loose our awesome 'skip the long ass line' ticket?” asked Tonie. “No way.”

“Yeah. You're totally right,” they all said together, stifling laughter as they passed Mark.