Narrative and Memoir

Narrative: This type of writing to me is taken from only one persons perspective about a particular experience. With the stories I read they were all taken from one person and how there day turned cruddy. Each one described what they experienced, their feelings, and reasons for the outcome of what happened.

Memoir: This is a story of one event in a set time. It's an event described by someone, tying into the narrative, that tells what happened, how it happened, and how they felt about it. The writer takes acutual events and retells it to the best of their ability.

The Truth Hurts

Jessica left the bathroom and headed towards the stairs to rejoin the ongoing party. The noise level grew as she reached the stairs, but the sound of familiar voices registered in her ears as she passed a bedroom. She walked towards the room they came from and almost opened the door, but she stopped herself.

            “Mary, can I tell you something?” Louise, her best friend said.  Jessica was curious what her friend had to say; they never kept anything a secret. So she stayed.

            “Of course,” Mary replied, “are you okay Louise?” she asked with concern.

            “No, I’m not. I know something about Jonathan. I need to tell someone to you know, get some advice on what I should do.”

            Jessica’s heart started to pound as her boyfriend’s name came up. She didn’t know what was coming but she had an idea. She got closer to the door, crouching in the shadows. Leaning into the door she strained her ears so she wouldn’t miss a word.

            “What is it? You can tell me, I won’t say a word, I promise.”

            “Last week Jonathan said he was sick and couldn’t go out with Jessica…” Jessica had a flash back to the phone conversation, she was sitting on her bed all dressed for the night out, but Jonathan said he had a fever and didn’t want to get her sick. She turned her attention back to the conversation in the room,  “Well,” Louise continued, “he lied to her.”

            “WHAT!” Mary shrieked.

            “Shh, we don’t want anyone to hear.”

            “Sorry, but what do you mean he lied?” Mary asked but she already knew what was coming.

            Outside the door Jessica was trying not to break the door down. She felt betrayed by her best friend but also her boyfriend, who was waiting for her downstairs. She couldn’t believe that Louise was confiding in Mary. She thought Louise hated Mary.

            “What I mean is I saw him making out with Kristin Black at the movies. Mary I don’t know what to do!”

            Jessica leaned up against the wall, letting everything she just heard settle in. She couldn’t look at Louise or even talk to Jonathan. She sensed something was wrong with him but now she was too angry to even think of him.  Unfortunately, Jessica stayed in the hall to long and the door to the room and the one person she didn’t want to see was in, opened. Louise looked shocked, yet sorry, and Mary just stared at the floor too embarrassed to make eye contact.

            “Jessica…”

            “Stop! I don’t want to hear it! You lied to me!” Jessica said with a clenched jaw, “and you confided in Mary, of all people, God Louise!”

            “Jessica please-“ Louise pleaded.

            “No I can’t talk to you right now. I’m leaving,” she huffed.

            Jessica bolted down the stairs ignoring all the people that had gathered there except for her soon to be ex-boyfriend.

            She looked him in the eyes and said, “Were done,” then slid off the class ring he gave her and slapped it in his hand as she walked out the door into the cool night air.