Prompt: Finish the phrase 'Listen, I...'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD2lLfhURQh
MOMENT 1:760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhLmaQJKNaj
'Hey, listen, I think you're pretty cool.' Alice said this only after I had landed a detention for flinging my fists at her. 'We should hang out more.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoLOGgKkiZM
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRyai2w0SZN
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyFGdRYW3BH
'I wasn't picking on you!'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0dekWUW5f
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwcABYphWjk
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmI6lMwLS8v
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeZDhC4zA5e
'You know it's not cool to gossip, right? A, I don't really care, and B, I thought I told you to leave me alone.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsOAGHvgmzU
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMLAPHsZCzv
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA5voJUfsby
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUiBdRl98QD
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpe4c0koyR
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY5tbnlVLsG
I didn't want to surrender so early. 'Thanks.' I made an effort not to talk to her during the class, and she made an effort to show that she really didn't care what I thought of her.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJaJr3MOi3G
The bell rung, and as she gathered up her papers I caught glimpses of strange little sketches - a nude woman lying inside the core of a rose, spheres and pyramids in a dappled desert - and as much as I hated to admit it, she had a way with her pen, no doubt.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETLyrOvg5Y
'Oh by the way - ' she put her hand on my shoulder just before she left, and used the other to point at a figure on my page, 'it's 1954, not 1953.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIBqjlwqm6M
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPb7DaDyuRg
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9XKpfAPW9u
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MOMENT 4:760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfB0l39kCtc
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡderp2IRdyU
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTmWzWnzGo8
'Just people.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUpcsk3MoeL
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpgxV2cIoBd
'Woah, is that me?' It was a rhetorical question, of course - the sketch was so finely crafted there could have been no doubt as to who it was. I could see my tired eyes looking back up from the page, messy hair and one hand supporting the side of my chin, angular fingers curling up a faint trail of stubble.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUreGunfMa3
'Nah, it's my brother. Of course it's you, doofus. You can take a closer look if you want.' She handed me the book, and I flipped through the pages. All pen sketches, some surrealist and some gritty and all too real. And on the last used page, me.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1OSaOQJF59
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwt7kxYu1hN
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0wG4mkX3Y
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvigLMWdiC5
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqby9KmVNCD
'Bastard.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfWCPH2j8bk
But I laughed.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwFi1z3PNI
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MOMENT 5:760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0SN0e0YutY
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdAX9McWGll
'Oy, I didn't ask for anything. So I don't feel obliged to give you something in return.' A wink. She always had a way of avoiding saying thanks.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5vNua96oT7
'Open em. Smaller one first.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2dDWlm5UIM
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvhn46QnpRy
The other gift was canvas paper.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt5hnpwlHc0
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe1f5wcua1n
'Come on, take it.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGzTfVz4u9R
She smiled, but there was something else underneath. 'So long as you take these.' She handed the torn wrapping back into my hands before turning around and running away across the grass, footsteps light on the weeds below and laughter spiraling behind her.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUhD8zyNeII
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6vq1y834Wp
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXYj1nKk9B
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3llkpTkL0x
'I'll take that.' It was light, but firm. I tore the corner - canvas paper, and the smell of oil paints. 'Now that's cheating. Returning gifts much?' But she didn't laugh as I expected.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLLSdJ0HXK8
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZTcVB5ERt
'Do you like it?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Rb6Pzf1UF
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ54XMeDwGY5
'But?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4lrblzmarg
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzvimc7uIZG
'John?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdrGejhqMpM
'Yeah?'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6rl7RM2M0D
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNhbiE6JlcZ
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEnR7eLVEn4
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeFydgx65nV
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkM05Ci2Czd
'No, wait, that's not what I - '760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNnWE0C6bw
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9x4zeqzCr
'Wait!' I took a long, shaking breath. 'Listen, I... I really like you too. It's just that - I don't want anything more than this. This is all I need, this is all I want.' I put the painting down and held her wrists. 'Just this.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ441oEVb7Dj
'I... I don't understand.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbIwpAA7XOQ
'Just the way we can insult each other. The way we can mess around, the way we can talk about all kinds of stupid shit and just not care, you know? It's all I want.' To be friends.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4fM98xI7BU
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7TBfcYZ3ic
I hugged her then, not whispering time old lies about love, just hugging her because I cared, because I cared about that girl who punched me, because I cared about what my feelings meant for hers.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQnTqsJQvK1
'I just don't want anything to change.' I could feel, in every struggled grasp of her fingers behind my back, the futures she imagined folding in upon themselves.760Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhDu4nnGAlx
I don't know how long we stood there in that frozen eternity, holding each other as she gazed through tears at pastel smiles laying upon the ground in a sun-filled park only a single lost moment away.
