MOMENT 1:755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb6T6ImKVkX
'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.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuyNhGYwxFf
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaUM5fvh0g
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsrX1zHOi6U
'I wasn't picking on you!'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcLFgaBj3nP
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnvZ9g6D5rl
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCyRNHkdwb
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFA2oPbRKPj
'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.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxuxmBsFgC3
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoWiNY1zovk
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvBnCIgrhM
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlucOGJKJ4B
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡchRzij3PcD
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ65jZ4aKNFH
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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6rcYfO0Szl
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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XrhHjJ10E
'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.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMCnWj9kJxO
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rpdV7xs9z
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Z4toG9hgc
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MOMENT 4:755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe3LmIGlqIW
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuDD7feCv9t
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8HzHCZbEu
'Just people.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUQ5Ynq1bSv
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2X0qzdEoVx
'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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWbiaebDZ9
'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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfNRqvQvdbN
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCcbsls0kjV
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ82jEIOjAma
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5kajSkyPXn
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYt6L9AgKUC
'Bastard.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvOJkFXFU5N
But I laughed.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU4Sjxiaa0A
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MOMENT 5:755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrHvWu6wUFO
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCmwOOZIWGM
'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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxLeoggP5j
'Open em. Smaller one first.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZN4oJnk06
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAODVdgy2ro
The other gift was canvas paper.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0ntPoBPQI
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiAMNzIcU9i
'Come on, take it.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTTafdSaxHC
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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡogtf5VD5ph
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeLoSWyJ34m
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSSKtmswrQv
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEeGdMt5ta5
'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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcfSVxL5tI7
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK89AIckCOE
'Do you like it?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5mZSngfQz2
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwjbZj4yOr
'But?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhw3tURv1t4
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBIIPtf3ls
'John?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCFOr5rLyMS
'Yeah?'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3U3PBXrzi
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡslH1pdhGAd
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡejhOLGRXrr
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9L6uB0p4G2
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2C7PdEliQw
'No, wait, that's not what I - '755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfezNSlg1dh
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5SBSGOPB6d
'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.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6DXUYSe19q
'I... I don't understand.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2BSTgqTDZ
'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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡALlp9uWXSm
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe4QIqBdK9b
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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpjp8u2bMhW
'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.755Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcgL729nQEp
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.
