Expectations and Reality

Here's my entry for the first campaign challenge, titled Expectations and Reality.

The door swung open. Olivia had been expecting some grand ballroom with shelves upon shelves of books. When Greg had said “I want to show you something,” and taken her by the hand, she had expected something beautiful, something more than this. 

“It’s a broom closet,” she said with a frown, pulling her hand out of his stony grasp. She couldn’t even bare to look him in his gargoyle face. Oh, she’d gotten used to the look since she’d been here, but she just couldn’t… This had to be a joke. 

“It’s not a broom closet. It’s my library,” Greg said, his voice rough. 

“There aren’t any shelves,” she pointed out. In fact, there was nothing in this room but a table, chair, and a small grey thing. 

“I have a ton of book shelves.” He picked up the grey thing. “Olivia, I want to share my library with you.” He held the thing out to her. She slowly took it from him. 

“An… e-reader?” Her voice fell flat. 

He nodded, his disfigured face looking bright and eager. 

She shoved the device back at him and turned out of the small room. “Call me when you get a real book.”

Other titles for this story could be "How Modern Technology Ruins Romantic Moments" and "The Problems with Modern Technology". Feel free to make up your own! Leave 'em in the comments so I can see! I do love to see!

Anyhow, this story is obviously a parody of Beauty and the Beast. The Beast (aka Greg) isn't a big hairy monster, but instead a bat-like gargoyle. The title is based on a tumblr meme. For anyone that has a tumblr, you probably know this meme. Basically, a statement is made, like "Walking past a crush" then you get "Expectations" and the picture is of a hot chick walking sexily down the hall. Then "Reality" is a picture of someone walking really weirdly, or falling down, or something. See here for an example. (no, that's not my tumblr).

I like my story :D And according to my Word, it's 200 words exactly. It was originally around 220 words, and I have to take stuff out. Obviously.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed!!