MOMENT 1:719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO6jdUlGYkX
'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.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1e9KYwpcnP
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0KqYpnFEX3
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaXnCOHVf3L
'I wasn't picking on you!'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsHFF502fnt
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqXDLdyKdmk
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTmtH3iTqQ
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpkmAno7uwa
'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.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5HKLSvoppk
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTstMNQXfBB
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhLsxWPjJJN
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlSrwqg1ZSC
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOtFw5Sdx1z
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa8Vj1ygo5o
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0KFBOFFk4I
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPY2KwF6UYs
'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.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0HRUKRPYm
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMEJ1DL7hX
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVzzXYUyBVc
719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJhThlbPrh
MOMENT 4:719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhj6IUMtSDZ
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0NHgWiLKV
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLKZIqS2djT
'Just people.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM9YXSzEhqY
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCEX7X20SO3
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlNccOJLCV
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWy8KBuUB65
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT2O33avuLu
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtrWWYiOH4
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA6V9T7sTJF
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0YgbVeQNro
'Bastard.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMjxttgReyO
But I laughed.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1xScJl5pu
719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgptWuREscf
MOMENT 5:719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrYJpfBXlDS
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcHgg7vbU0l
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Y9j7Pma6F
'Open em. Smaller one first.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2wFs8uZyh
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUV20oUKbcP
The other gift was canvas paper.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlPyIrOgJ5n
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRBuyC6UAVl
'Come on, take it.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5DrrIgS8UM
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡteKHuMk2dJ
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH8imKNmSm5
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNUT6aYmSjg
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV9A3royoXO
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpIn9KArWgQ
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC0Ee1QWCLn
'Do you like it?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZCiwfSaEq8
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqfOF9rpDij
'But?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNG2VYkj6PC
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVN6vatpr4A
'John?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj8srHqCtON
'Yeah?'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6qNk4CeI25
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS2tjsZW1aG
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUJ9PxBMkqE
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGPG3WFi07P
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ19Op6wo75D
'No, wait, that's not what I - '719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCIrIaSlc90
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7hgvMngsyb
'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.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJJPmphCV0
'I... I don't understand.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqCnIwR1757
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ90yz4hHKPI
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnluuaxETj2
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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡClen04Bm5h
'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.719Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3zEqFoxEd6
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.
