Prompt: Write a conversation between two people who think they don’t know each other (but actually have many friends in common and have met on a number of occasions). Write entirely in indirect discourse, without any quotation marks or indented paragraphs for each new sentence of speech. 600 words.

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Howard asked her if she knew Marcy, the chick who lived at the house. Joanna replied that she didn’t, that she had come with her friend Jane, who knew the people having the party. Howard told her that he knew Jane, that they had worked together a few years ago at the same Blockbuster on the far side of town, across from the mall. Joanna asked for a cigarette.

He searched in his jacket pockets for a lighter. She told him she had one that she had picked it up from Jane’s car. Howard said he didn’t know Jane smoked. Joanna puffed on her cigarette quietly, listening to music coming from inside the house. He leaned against the deck railing, looked up at the stars, and asked her where she lived.

She didn’t answer right away, she was focusing on the music. She finally replied she lived in the apartments behind the mall with a friend she had met in the dorms her freshmen year. He didn’t ask about her roommate. He was tapping buttons on his cell phone. He asked for her number. She didn’t respond. She asked what he had said. He repeated his question.

She flicked her cigarette butt off the deck and rattled off a string of numbers. He repeated them as she spoke. She told him her roommate’s name. He said he knew a girl with that name and asked a few questions about her appearance. Joanna described her roommate in more detail: her short brown hair, her brown eyes,  and her heart tattoo on her ankle. Howard said he knew her, that they had a class together his junior year.

Joanna told him about their apartment, how they were subletting it from a friend who had graduated, and how they weren’t allowed to paint, so they were stuck with three black walls with a checkerboard pattern across the top until August at least. Howard asked if they were renting from a friend of his named Chris, but Joanna said the guy’s name was Jon. Howard asked if it was the building for the complex out in the front, but she told him it was the building in the back. Howard lit a cigarette and asked if she wanted a drink from inside. She told him no thanks.

Howard came back a few minutes later with a plastic cup in his hands. He found Joanna and told her the music inside was really loud, but that he liked it. He told her that house bands were usually better than just playing CDs. She told him of a DJ she used to date and how she use to go to his performances in the downtown area. She told Howard about the nightclubs in the downtown area and which ones she liked and which ones were too dark or too smelly. Howard mentioned some of the bars he liked and how he knew a few bands that played the in-town circuit. He mentioned a band he knew was going to be playing that Friday.

Joanna stepped away for a minute to answer a phone call. Howard leaned over the deck railing and puffed on his cigarette. It was down to the filter, so he flicked it into the yard and was lighting another while telling himself that confidence was key to making connections with other people. He saw Joanna back on the deck and asked her if it had been an emergency. She told him it was her roommate and while she was taking out the trash their cat had gotten outside. She told him she had to leave as she was dialing a number on her phone. He told her good luck finding the cat.

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Prompt from The 3 AM epiphany, by Brian Kiteley. Available on Amazon.com