#FlashFictionFriends inspired by Sarah Dessen titles

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I gasped when I saw the prompts of #flashfictionfriends for June. Sarah Dessen and her stories have my heart forever and ever. The novel Along for the Ride is about Auden visiting her dad and stepmom and baby sister for the summer in a small beach town in North Carolina. She ends up working at her stepmom’s boutique, making friends, and falling in love. It’s one of my favorite Sarah Dessen novels.

For the prompt this week, I decided to use a snippet from my own Contemporary YA work-in-progress (WIP), my Leah Novel. Leah and her friend Aiden are in the City of Angels for a book festival and the next day they’re going to play tourists. Leah is trying to figure out who she is and what she likes during the summer following high school graduation. And in this moment, she’s literally learning to go with the flow. Enjoy!

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Aiden pulled his phone back out and Leah leaned toward him to look at the list with him. “I don’t know what places are close to each other—”
“First,” he said, holding up a finger, “what are your non-negotiables”
“Wanderlust Creamery, the beach, The Last Bookstore, and…” she scrunched her nose trying to decide.
Aiden laughed at her indecisiveness.
“There’s too many things! Because the Hollywood Sign, the Zoo, Griffith Park—they’re not even listed.”
“The City’s not going anywhere, Lee. You can always come back. And,” he nudged her, “you have family you like seeing, so you always have a place to stay.”
“I just don’t know where everything is and how far away things are from each other—without looking it up a bazillion times—”
“A bazillion times?” Aiden asked, a teasing smile on his face.
“Ba Zillion,” she emphasized, looking directly at him, grinning big.
“Gosh, you’re ridiculous.”
“I also think walking around Downtown LA could be fun.”
“Well, that one’s easy. We can do lunch in Downtown LA and then go to the Last Bookstore from there. The ocean might have to wait a bit—maybe later in the afternoon or evening. I know!” he declared, shifting in his seat to turn toward her more. “From The Last Bookstore, we just look up where we want to go next and see what bus route takes us there.”
Leah looked up at him, her eyes big. “But that’s so…”
“Spontaneous? Yep.” He grinned. “It’ll be fun, an adventure.”
The word “adventure”. It was the premise of so many of the books she read. She looked at Aiden. “Okay. Let’s try it.”
“Yessss,” he said, his grin growing bigger.

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Thanks to author Katie Fitzgerald for hosting #FlashFictionFriends. Read more flash fiction on Instagram here! See other stories I’ve written over on the Story Corner of this blog!