#Ongoing Adventure: Tell Your Ma To Invite Her Friends

Part of a collaborative Choose Your Own Adventure inspired by Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她)

Previous Chapter | | Start From Beginning | | Submit Your Chapter Here

“Judy and Laura are going to eat their own bowels out with jealousy!” your mom blurts into the muffler-sized mouthpiece of her million-year-old phone.

“Well, then, Mom, just go ahead and invite them along.” You groan as you hear yourself suggesting this idea. You wish you could reverse time and clench your jaw tightly before those words could escape.

“Carl, Judy, Laura, you, and me altogether! ROAD TRIP!” Her squeal sends an earthquake-like tremor through your ear canal. “So, so, so, so FUN! Ronald McDonald costume, the gals, Carl, and I will be at your place in an hour and a half!”

You hang up your phone, shaking your head at your own stupidity. You hope Carl is a little less boast-y than her last boyfriend, Juan. He had breath that smelled like a toilet bowl filled with maggot juice, ear hair longer than his shoulders, and an obsession with picking scabs — even ones on other people.

He can’t be louder than Judy’s foghorn voice. And he can’t have a laugh higher pitched than Laura’s.

Rather than spending the meantime bemoaning the upcoming adventure, you decide to gather the items you need. You shove the note into the lunchbox. As you toss the strawberry marshmallow at the open container, it hits the folded note.

“Score!” you cheer. Then watch as the cloud of pink rebounds, skates across the table’s slick surface, and slips from the ledge. As though in slow motion you watch in horror as it heads directly for the grate-less register. It tumbles in. Down, down, down.

“Crap!” you shout. Where are you going to get another pink marshmallow on this short notice?

Options:

👉Call your mother back and ask her to buy some pink marshmallows.

👉Call the local convenience store to see if they have any.

👉Go knock on the building’s maintenance room door to see if they can retrieve your marshmallow from inside the heating system.

👉Decide just to go without the strawberry marshmallow.

©Jennifer J. McDougall 2021

Want to contribute to this story? Submit your next chapter here