Prompt: Finish the phrase 'Listen, I...'519Please respect copyright.PENANAC8b6reatoo
MOMENT 1:519Please respect copyright.PENANAhVprRic9tc
'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.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAS4tAGpsMiz
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAcA1XcJU5ML
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAARljE8Fbvs
'I wasn't picking on you!'519Please respect copyright.PENANAvWUkQ5SSgD
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'519Please respect copyright.PENANARMu1L6uKpF
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:519Please respect copyright.PENANAzX2eanOgFq
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAOddAEGpUZi
'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.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAmLeJCpa1F8
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAANEX9aOAoI
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.519Please respect copyright.PENANA0gzQR5XdDe
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:519Please respect copyright.PENANAyhynQ5kQy6
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.519Please respect copyright.PENANAf092Sf1v89
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.519Please respect copyright.PENANAqVOVCUaeWp
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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAHuDnSbT4IY
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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAjHfqIHmc7e
'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.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAGd4FelL3Dn
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.519Please respect copyright.PENANANGOQo4xMcb
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.519Please respect copyright.PENANADpbgWK4wdt
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MOMENT 4:519Please respect copyright.PENANAOdIvkLR170
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?519Please respect copyright.PENANA23l4PtYmxs
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.519Please respect copyright.PENANAn3qZhcxWtl
'Just people.'519Please respect copyright.PENANALeEvDpqlaz
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -519Please respect copyright.PENANA6nNsLfJYQD
'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.519Please respect copyright.PENANALDjdM5gRgW
'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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAS9p1Efvsus
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'519Please respect copyright.PENANAVXv4OzsDqO
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'519Please respect copyright.PENANAD8UeGlCfR2
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'519Please respect copyright.PENANATwIgHT7Ik3
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'519Please respect copyright.PENANA72yVbravVL
'Bastard.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAGhhj4fH3VS
But I laughed.519Please respect copyright.PENANAnv5mjnrUaK
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MOMENT 5:519Please respect copyright.PENANA27g8cskzQj
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.519Please respect copyright.PENANAOnPZHPYtxX
'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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAyXqemh7ppE
'Open em. Smaller one first.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAclsuH82KFF
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.519Please respect copyright.PENANAv2lOBIKxJp
The other gift was canvas paper.519Please respect copyright.PENANAa8IHCvb6Xx
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '519Please respect copyright.PENANALcttnCaREP
'Come on, take it.'519Please respect copyright.PENANApYQnPxsUGM
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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAHbWb7qQxy3
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.519Please respect copyright.PENANAlPgUXizTgM
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:519Please respect copyright.PENANAkyi6UpuG0j
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.519Please respect copyright.PENANAFodmKq9TYp
'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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAkxhz1QjZ1m
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.519Please respect copyright.PENANAfIQ2KFUMWq
'Do you like it?'519Please respect copyright.PENANATWrNwE7WXt
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'519Please respect copyright.PENANAJMCRslrbfA
'But?'519Please respect copyright.PENANAdWNiigDhXs
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.519Please respect copyright.PENANAWfpYBOaAje
'John?'519Please respect copyright.PENANAfOuv3XEKlp
'Yeah?'519Please respect copyright.PENANAAOPBstiLCU
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'519Please respect copyright.PENANALR6xbFzH2S
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'519Please respect copyright.PENANA0xJWqT4juk
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.519Please respect copyright.PENANAEcWOjhDmk9
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.519Please respect copyright.PENANAzEPV9hNICn
'No, wait, that's not what I - '519Please respect copyright.PENANA9szm6XlanJ
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAUowkvjLJqq
'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.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAs0ExckvuNL
'I... I don't understand.'519Please respect copyright.PENANAE8CDuuRwQJ
'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.519Please respect copyright.PENANA8ZnZtm7uqG
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'519Please respect copyright.PENANARlPYSPGUIF
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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAhFPegckuzj
'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.519Please respect copyright.PENANAREKllQ8u3r
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.