Prompt: Finish the phrase 'Listen, I...'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡstp77kWNoU
MOMENT 1:749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcmimd8vLfm
'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.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcB81nFaXX
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ56irsQoV1o
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ26Wd3SyCs3
'I wasn't picking on you!'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6gckAEVTKL
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUXIiCjZAK
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxgeja5pHAk
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE5fzPPXfES
'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.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwiNesxwNth
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnsfsisXGA
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOtJOexIbwO
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOmpfMAUbSw
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09957WcNpy
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUvnN4bIJD4
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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtIxGTuWLvz
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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ04cPRUXpiH
'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.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVUlRtkwbT
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDNCs7hjdpF
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRqOLIgn9v6
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MOMENT 4:749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBAeVGBs3CE
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwH3A0AeyGm
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5P1rKsCBY5
'Just people.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxQhfau8i8D
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV0fELZh0eg
'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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkdXRBloHEC
'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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcstA2oAhOx
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT3H9ZJivhZ
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEK8a5byeF
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8XuCT3133F
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKVp9RcaXAi
'Bastard.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9bcQW7hVNA
But I laughed.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡheiOOQFLEL
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MOMENT 5:749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Jf6DIoKbq
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡukQ4WwNFiU
'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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0KGDkQyKL
'Open em. Smaller one first.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUGjX7877PB
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNEfbdTt5ls
The other gift was canvas paper.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqq1Ya2bYv
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQYBrGYVkW
'Come on, take it.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBPZn3mrCl
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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqGrOED66kY
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLWP0B8jTyx
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaPcKyXeza
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ63yYWD39rx
'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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnyWnP5XRBp
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXLg7onLA8x
'Do you like it?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuFI7bwagjb
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdYvPBBcSm
'But?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMl5TogF5rq
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKw10WiKTSp
'John?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTdZF77dqZ
'Yeah?'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuPIBx7uQ2c
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPhk0C7IA3
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRG2ENohtah
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTkkAZAbJNp
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIusb8zBIPS
'No, wait, that's not what I - '749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmDivfqL4zT
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡptTyfdbvcx
'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.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdIQEQj10FZ
'I... I don't understand.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡunBftLKPfI
'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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XfibQJ2LY
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUXhclMsQTS
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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyIWP4jRKnV
'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.749Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOxJFuPr2gK
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.
