Prompt Challenges Accepted

BAD

Prompt: Write about a character who is infamous for their bad attitude, selfishness, and cruelty. -Except that none of this is true. This character has allowed these rumors to spread, why? 

Why would they want the world to see them as a menace? 

https://www.wattpad.com/58944549-%2B100-writing-prompts-for-your-writerly-needs-bad

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"YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. WHY ARE YOU JUST LETTING THEM STEP ALL OVER YOU?!" Charlotte's shrill voice rang through her boyfriend's bedroom. She had been pacing around the room for the past half an hour, trying to get Aiden to talk to no avail; He was avoiding what she wanted to know most. 

Living in a small town, everybody knew everybody's business. There was no town newspaper, all you had to do to know the news was walk up to about three people while you were running errands and you'd know nearly everything about everyone fifteen minutes later. 

However, trivial gossip that wasn't true always seemed to disappear within a week at most. That didn't seem to be the case with Aiden. Countless people were always talking about his bad boy reputation, him sweet talking girls to sleep with him, him getting involved in fights... The list could go on. He had moved to this town about two years ago and the long trail of bad mouthing him had followed him everywhere in this town. 

Shy of three months after he had moved, he got involved with a girl his age; Charlotte Lassey was beautiful, intelligent, sometimes a little dramatic, but the whole package; the kind of woman a man jumps at to be with. After a few months of being friends, the nineteen year olds fell head over heels for each other. As their relationship progressed however, so did Aiden's reputation. One week he was supposedly harming random people for shits and giggles, and the next he was supposedly abusing Charlotte. 

Charlotte's family didn't take very well to the gossip, went from 0 to 100 in about twenty seconds, and deemed the gossip to be true. Without any questions or explanations, Charlotte was suddenly banned from seeing Aiden. While Charlotte was a very down-to-earth and family-oriented girl, she had fallen for Aiden hard. It was the classic tale of boy meets girl, girl and boy fall in love.

Charlotte had held back on asking the obvious for a long time: Why have you had such a bad reputation since day one?  Today, however, was a different story. The longer this went on, the more she was pulled into the gossip. The most recent one: Aiden had been using her for sex. Now Charlotte's parents definitely believed the pair were together. 

Aiden sighed, his thoughts reeling through his head at a million miles an hour. He leaned back on his bed, watching his girlfriend walk back and forth between his closet door and back to him. She hadn't ever asked, but Aiden should have known she would have sooner or later. And apparently sooner was now.  

When Charlotte reached the front of his bed, Aiden reached up and pulled her into his lap gently. "Char, stop pacing." His voice soft, but firm, he wrapped his arms around her and tried to look into her brown eyes, but she wasn't meeting his gaze. Exhaling when she was silent, he tried again. "Charlotte, are you mad?" 

Charlotte bit down on her lip, but eventually tilted her head, her brown eyes meeting his blue ones. "No." She paused a moment before opening her mouth again, "I just don't get it." She sounded defeated, her normally brown eyes looking sad and lost but then her eyes flashed and her entire demeanor screamed determination. "Tell me why." 

Aiden didn't need to ask what she wanted to know. He sighed, not wanting to get into it. "Maybe it's true, have you ever thought of that?" He countered back. 

Eyes narrowed, Charlotte's plump lips turned down into a frown. "Yeah, is that why you always pressure me for sex?" He had never touched her when she didn't want it, had never forced her to do anything she didn't want to do. "Is that why you're so abusive?" 

"Charlotte," a sigh, "Please." He shut his eyes. "It's really complicated." 

"Complicated? That just sounds like an excuse. It's either true or it isn't. I just don't understand how you can let people make up rumors about you when they're not true!" 

"Why does it matter? If you know who I am and everyone I love knows who I am, who cares what they say?" 

Exasperated, Charlotte pulled herself out of Aiden's lap. "It matters to me! Aiden, you might not be risking anything by not saying anything about the rumors, but I am! My entire family hates me because they know that I'm seeing you and they think you're hurting me." Running a hand through her blonde locks, Charlotte sighed, "I love you, Aiden, but I won't keep picking you over my family."