Sick of Adventure

“What will it taste like?”

“Dunno.”

“Have you not tasted it before?”

“Nope.”

Tam held up the unidentifiable substance to her nose. The smell was not quite foul, but she knew it wasn’t appetising either. Should this meat be grey and red like that? She shivered at the thought.

Three more days, and she would be back to her comforts of life. Three more days and she would be back in her own bed, with her own snacks, her own drinks. Three more days...the countdown was on.

“I can’t believe I agreed to come here with you.” She said quietly. Tam’s stomach growled to remind her of how empty it was. She was done with the adventure and overtired of all of the new things. She would give anything at this very moment for just a burger and fries. She hated fast food, but all Tam could think of was the oily and delicious scent that wafted out of fast food restaurants at the mall.

Oh, the mall. The mall...all she could think about now was going to the mall, buying a new cosy hoodie and a bath bomb and going home to make use of them both. Tam groaned and drooled as she got lost in her daydream.

“We’ve got about three more hours before nightfall. We should probably pitch our tents somewhere soon.” Dylan looked up at the sky as though he were an expert wild survivor guide.

Tam sighed. “Three more days”, she said under her breath.

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.”

“Tam, you should really eat that. We don’t want to attract any wild creatures to our site.”

“Did you eat yours?”

“Yeah, ages ago. It’s not bad, actually.”

Tam must have missed that while her daydreaming about being home again whisked her away. Even though her stomach ached with hunger, she couldn’t get herself to eat what was in her hands, so she threw it as hard as she could while Dylan’s back was turned.

She loved Dylan so much, but their vacation ideas were not the same. Dylan hated luxury hotels, and he wasn’t much of a relax- in a spa kind of guy. He was die-hard outdoorsy and dreamed of living off-grid.

Tam’s ideal vacation was sitting poolside with a book, drinking cocktails, going to the spa and going out for dinner and then going for a nice beachside walk.

Dylan, with those hypnotisingly gorgeous eyes of his, somehow managed to convince her to go on a three-week-long backpacking trip through southeast Asia. Tam could hardly wait for it to be over after day one. They were scammed by a stranger that was staying in a hostel with them - nearly lost everything.

From then on, Dylan vowed to stay clear of hostels, much to Tam’s disappointment. The hostels were the one thing she could pretend was a little bit closer to the kind of vacation she wanted. At least there were beds, and sometimes even breakfast was laid out.

Night fell, and they had successfully pitched their tent, set up their beds and closed it up for the night. Tam’s stomach stung with hunger, but she didn’t regret throwing it out. Dylan lay on his back excitedly, reviewing the pictures they had taken from previous days.

“Thank you so much for agreeing to come with me on this trip.” Tam hated that he was so sweet. She hated that he could simultaneously make her feel like hitting him and ripping off his clothes.

She forced the best smile she could as her stomach came in with a rude interruption. Too loud to conceal from Dylan.

“You didn’t eat it, did you?”

“No…”

“Babe, come on. It was the last thing we had from that nice couple.’

“I know, but I’m so tired of eating strange things and – “

Dylan grabbed her face and held her cheeks in his warm hands. “Babe, the old guy was only joking. I doubt it was actually human meat.”

Author's Note

I'm experimenting with flash fiction. This is from the archives of some of my unfinished short stories. I have been contemplating getting into some flash ficiotn competitions and so I would like to practice and get some real feedback before I take the leap into submitting.

I am truly inspired by the short stories of the legend Neil Gaiman who does excellent short story anthologies such as Smoke and Mirrors. Ernest Hemingway's The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber also remains to be one of my biggest inspirations in writing short stories and flash fiction.

Who has inspired you? Let me know in the comments!

*As always thank you for reading! Readers make the writing experience that much more worth it.

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