I will go ahead and wrap up the “I’m hearing voices” blogfest with a short shot of serious emotion. Can you guess what it is?
People can pop across the world in seconds, but elevators still take ten minutes to rise eight floors. That punk better not beat me up the stairs.
Finally the doors slid open. Cooper peered into the hall. Clear and quiet. He held back from sprinting to his room where he dropped his bags and kept walking. At the stairwell door, he waited and listened.
His heart pumped faster as clumsy footsteps approached on the cement steps. He forced his eyes to stay open, straining not to blink, staring at the knob. He had to catch his pursuer when he opened…
The knob slowly turned. Cooper licked his lips. Not yet.
The door inched toward him. He held his breath.
In one smooth motion, Cooper reached in, grabbed the guy’s arm, and shoved him back into the stairwell against the wall.
And now for the fun part! “I’ll tumble 4 ya” 80s blogfest! Who was your 80s crush? I had 2 noteworthy crushes in the 80s. Such innocent times. When cell phones were huge and so was the hair!
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| (from wikipedia.com) |
Celebrity crush – C. Thomas Howell. The Outsiders! While y’all were Jones-in’ on Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, and Matt Dillon or Emilio Estevez and Ralph Macchio or maybe even Patrick Swayze, I liked C. Thomas Howell. I’ve always been different.
Real crush – Steve Lerro. Two years older than me, he was a modern day Cary Grant. Charismatic, larger than life and a goofball. Swoon! Just before he went to college, I even dated him. Best two months of my teeny bopper life!
Looking forward to some good crush stories from you guys.
These fests were fun and educational. Thanks for reading!
PS, if you are looking for a CP, Apathy's Hero Crit partner blogfest starts today!
Ahhhhhh....poor pony boy! His career never took off like I thought it would. He was good in THE HITCHER also. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the Cooper excerpt! At first I was guessing plain anger, but then it kind of got to an 'exhilaration' and/or 'fear' stage. Adrenaline shot? hehe
ReplyDeleteI don't even know if I've SEEN the Outsiders. Oh my. I only just recently saw some Molly Ringwald 80s goodness for the first time, and also some other 80s classics...so I'm a little slow on the uptake! But I just Googled C. Thomas Howell & I reckon he's pretty darn sexy! hehe
He was, anyway. Haven't seen recent pics :D
ReplyDeleteGreat emotion piece, I'm guessing anticipation.
ReplyDeleteI never saw The Outsiders! I guess I must have missed out.
The emotion piece is excellent!
ReplyDeleteOh, I totally loved The Outsiders! I cried like a baby when Dallas was killed. Loved Ponyboy, such a cutie.
I like the emotion piece.
ReplyDeleteI could feel his heart racing.
Great job, Tara.
Heather
You're the second person today to select C. Thomas Howell. Wonder what the C stands for?
ReplyDeleteSounds like there's a wormhole in your story. I like that!
ReplyDeleteI love the book The Outsiders, and I recently just saw the movie. I was surprised at how many of today's big names were in it! They were so cute (especially Rob Lowe, yum!).
ReplyDeleteI was a toddler in the '80s so I don't remember any crushes. Except maybe Eric from The Little Mermaid! Also my mom loves telling the story about how I was enamored with diver Greg Louganis at the 1988 summer Olympics. I was only 2! Apparently I "dove" off of furniture and stairs a lot and pranced around with necklaces (aka: my gold medals) the rest of the year, hahaha.
Have a great weekend, Tara!
My 80's crushes were Kirk Cameron and Mark Paul Gosseler. Or however you spell his last name. Oh, Saved By The Bell, how I miss you...
ReplyDeleteOw wow! Such suspence in your emotion piece. Such tension...
ReplyDeleteI don't remember The Outsiders, which is odd as 1980's were a big part of my youth.
C. Thomas Howell...yeah, you are different. ;P My Outsiders guy was Matt Dillon, like, totally.
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm glad to know your real life crush stayed on that pedestal even after dating him. :)
Thanks for revealing, and I like your short story too - I'm going to guess vengeful is the emotion??
I'm Hearing Voices Blogfest piece left me feeling anger, fear, revenge.
ReplyDeleteCooper is super cool. I want to read more of him!
ReplyDeleteC. Thomas is a dollie.
ReplyDeleteI want to know what happens next with Cooper.
ReplyDeleteThe Outsiders was great. I was said when Patrick recently passed away. I wore out many, many VHS copies of Dirty Dancing.
The use of the word "punk" could be construed as both affectionate yet derogatory at the same time...
ReplyDeleteHe obviously has patience to wait...
I'm going to go with Cooper playing a prank on someone with an unexpected jarring surprise...mayhaps to teach them a lesson.
Lucky you - you got to date your 80s crush! C. Thomas is a great choice - I just love that Outsiders poster - my niece has it in her bedroom and I still crush on it when I'm at their house.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, The Outsiders *dreamy sigh*
ReplyDeleteStay gold Ponyboy, stay gold ;)
That poster is like an 80s actor's Who's-Who really.
ReplyDeleteMy sister also had that poster in her room.
Hmmm, wonder who the guy is that Cooper is chasing and why it's happening.
ReplyDeleteRicky Schroeder for me.
I never saw the outsiders, so I can't really say, but I totally had a crush on Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow (yeah, I'm nerdy like that).
ReplyDeleteHa. Nicely done! The '80's ... they were big!
ReplyDelete:)
Tension for sure in the first entry. Great evocative job with the second! Roland
ReplyDeleteGood choice. I didn't get to see The Outsiders until I was out of the eighties', but it was full of gorgeous young men.
ReplyDeleteAh yes! Pony Boy was my favorite Outsider, too.
ReplyDeleteStay gold! The Outsiders is a genuinely good movie, I think, too easily dismissed as just one of many teen films of the era. S.E. Hinton - all of 17 years old when that book was published.
ReplyDeleteC. Thomas Howell is da bomb :)
ReplyDeleteHe played a cop in a recent cop show... the jaded Sgt... what was th name of it???
There you go... memory loss... sigh :) I wanna go back to the '80s :)
I'll repeat someone else, amazing how many famous guys were crammed into one movie.
ReplyDeleteCan you believe that that movie was a trigger for me taking in a foster son ?
I am totally thinking anticipation here. I love this and more than anything I love this whole pop travel stuff! Sounds so awesome:)
ReplyDeleteThe elevator comment made me laugh :) Cooper is full of confidence. I love that about him.
ReplyDeleteAh man! I was waiting to read more! Lol. That was awesome!
ReplyDeleteOOH, Suspense I love it. OH and The Outsiders, ya so many guys on one movie. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteThe Outsiders...fantastic book and pretty good movie--thought I'd like it more with all those swoon-worthy boys in it! Dally's my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI like how you included a real life crush. Do you stalk Steve Lerro on Facebook now? My real life 80's crush turned out to be gay. Story of my life!
Love your flash piece!
ReplyDeleteLove your excerpt. That opening line--WOWZA!! Love love love it! Nice work.
ReplyDeleteHi, well, you learn new things all the time-I've never heard of either of these guys! Ha. Over here from the 80's crush blogfest to say hi.
ReplyDeleteExcellent tension building!
ReplyDeleteOutsiders is a great choice. I chose Johnny Depp and I still have a crush. :(
two great fests! and boom feb is about 1/2 over!
ReplyDeletei enjoyed reading your posts too! thank, y'all!
ooh! Very suspenseful entry for the Characters Blogfest. Love it! Makes your story even more intriguing. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't even know if I've seen The Outsiders! How ridiculous is that? It's good to like someone out of the norm tho. Very cool!
Loved your entry for the Voices Blogfest - I'm thinking - anger, desire for retribution?
ReplyDeleteAnd in the 80's I loved the Outsiders, but I had a major crush on Rick Sringfield (and I didn't even watch soap operas)
I absolutely adored C. Thomas Howell in The Hitcher. he was awesome. I still catch him every week in Southland. He's a real jerk in that show, but still a good actor.
ReplyDeleteYou're the second C Thomas Howell fan I've come across. I liked Rob Lowe in that movie.
ReplyDeleteThat was an intense piece.
ReplyDeleteI thought C. Thomas was cute. I also picked someone different.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Well done. The 80's, not that was my life-all of high school & college. What fun, kind of a blur though.
ReplyDeleteThat was a wonderful piece written...I really liked the fact that you dated your real life crush...too often it just remains that - a crush.
ReplyDelete