Prompt: Finish the phrase 'Listen, I...'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWDbNnLVjd
MOMENT 1:716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfisWXBetXk
'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.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7v0n0TD7MQ
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCT7Z39kwkI
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyibuaj9vz
'I wasn't picking on you!'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlqHcsmrR02
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQlEaMTDVf0
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7rekMw5pls
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjKFIE5q2ph
'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.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhhIh5k5Vlw
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVOVNlCMaZI
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIglgj5CrQ2
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmecnMI3oE
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXIlOPJvh5
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzG3ENdR8px
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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9CsygJolaG
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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbL14CAktU8
'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.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlfQzv092eE
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Gb3TCBYiZ
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYYtkgWp9N
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MOMENT 4:716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckfs2Wil2S
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyPH6pc6L3A
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMAuwsbKkr
'Just people.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0xeD1aw0U
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN5mMSvEE5h
'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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcicVuqWPys
'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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCpvHWIlVD
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7dvXhScGZQ
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCvXTOoj8oz
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9NgPoS0Ae
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrWPIwNdk8D
'Bastard.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Sy7CoknSP
But I laughed.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwPpIrmBABe
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MOMENT 5:716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ4o7sF8Cik
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4MZHXFsIP4
'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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQFI0J1isR
'Open em. Smaller one first.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjXNI2QNR3k
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK7snjNtJID
The other gift was canvas paper.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHdKszNc63T
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDv3KaU3Mj9
'Come on, take it.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9FLc0bNb1X
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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj3C24lGkIO
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHXG74LkMWt
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFeKSReNTDm
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5GeJzjEnRM
'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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZPE47SLUw
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuml0bpjcYz
'Do you like it?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtl0erom4JU
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzCSrpLNJdT
'But?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBO2IoKLfS7
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCquUKxfcev
'John?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWD1ApL4Auw
'Yeah?'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0vM1sgEBr
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIO5htbNudl
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsxx7IbvsuL
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUm5eyWHTv9
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaeFm3NKBNM
'No, wait, that's not what I - '716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4pqwX7ChxZ
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUF1yZ5ufyO
'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.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfFAuuYNVMh
'I... I don't understand.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQeWjKnk4a
'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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg2Haf0f6Qq
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDc6TF2z8I4
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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ457VBt9Q5q
'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.716Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBFeU2XhSa
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.
