Prompt: Finish the phrase 'Listen, I...'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGs8ZNjfa0d
MOMENT 1:742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPtl8w6gGa3
'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.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfK6mPHSnEw
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLnLskIFZiG
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8F7CAKrJjY
'I wasn't picking on you!'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjYyAvsG29u
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu95nRVNhML
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEFaIFtxQlH
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ63ATynRrYn
'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.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEpUgLT3VBo
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUhVpCj9aLF
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGyN0nO4120
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6QrrCUxunF
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKvDbLTqiID
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkJXdW12Rr4
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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMlVuQAQOeR
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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJch2GsSla
'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.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpB9SuT8XA
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMpoTey5A6F
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9OITvNeot
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MOMENT 4:742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPR3v8e4IBJ
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlunTOvXvpb
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXZCMpYIaVW
'Just people.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfcfPg6C8Fq
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1GmbaLbXjY
'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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrnPRMzj5I3
'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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiqAUTBpRRF
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡamEzLGlOin
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvEXq8TUkqR
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rVRb2GVmN
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIvo4hluoJn
'Bastard.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhR9vSjytf2
But I laughed.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUm0ohPsGJk
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MOMENT 5:742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5yjgf7NQSV
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwK5uqOyAMy
'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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31ZK9EYfZj
'Open em. Smaller one first.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevryw2IV3s
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPNBzjem1tH
The other gift was canvas paper.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0IFUcVfhW
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1zzTsTBQG
'Come on, take it.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuacy2ilKZh
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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ48KsBbXPVj
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMcG0idA667
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS98di4vgNl
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpdaaGGqlMk
'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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg94I78VXSz
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsVObPwdrIY
'Do you like it?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYpAeYYtPq
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXBUwEuncDF
'But?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUUC9TovpJ3
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm4K4tnyhJV
'John?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡms7U6LSYiZ
'Yeah?'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIyky2FfzvW
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGKcNTIFss
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQAvL30ZiJw
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhKGhhmCqE0
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLMG7n1VkU
'No, wait, that's not what I - '742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKlndNGZPq2
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU9DFdZKUSn
'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.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxbvo9s7w5e
'I... I don't understand.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYTsCFFVey
'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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvU9FM79wXf
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfQorS4yG0D
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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0GljxFzaib
'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.742Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV7jagBNjSh
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.
