MOMENT 1:789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNN0mJaDMi5
'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.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmm03CPM5EH
I rubbed the bruise on my cheek. 'Yeah, really? You didn't think so yesterday.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozqaxAwQaC
'Oy.' She says. 'You were asking for it. I see fights through when I get picked on.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRI7dAa4m2
'I wasn't picking on you!'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1HFPBAaJWv
'You said my father was trailer trash, so close enough. Just don't do that again, okay?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAisPHirzsg
What a crazy bitch. 'Fine.'
MOMENT 2:789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHLLiOPM3f
'You will not believe this, John. I caught Samantha and Adam snogging in the locker room.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXOqILsJu3
'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.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9jc2iqKMfn
'Yeah, well, no one else was gonna talk to you. It's not like I scared any of your friends away.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gC3cquYgP
'Alice, can you learn to shut up?' I began walking away from her to make a point.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tvrQZ8gAT
'Whatever.' She laughed, godammit, she laughed as she strutted across the oval. Where the hell does she get the bloody confidence?
MOMENT 3:789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZPRQpZl0KD
'Hey.' I sat down next to Alice in history.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ96nt02sqoH
'Hey, look who it is. Lemme move my stuff.' She made some extra room on the desk for me.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM1Dby7hLkO
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡihST4danu6
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6g2uYc204Q
'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.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi23lN3kh9J
The bloody cheeky smile of hers.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWy9MJsGfGx
I didn't correct it until she was out of my sight.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIsQGoGoidj
789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFDWWb28P7
MOMENT 4:789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Fyjtp3vXI
'What're you drawing?' Shit. Did I really just initiate conversation with her?789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJCEWQKupbj
She looked up with less than half the surprise I expected. Couldn't even grant me the small victories.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Jy4FS4AkQ
'Just people.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5bJuqos7T7
I crouched down beside her and glanced into her notepad. It was faces. Luke, Chris, Jenny, Samantha and Adam (kissing), Paul, and -789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyW6UNOziO8
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2jgPBmKyqe
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvE0r1PWEZF
'Why're they all in pen? Do you do any painting?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjB1M1KpjTu
She shrugged. 'I just sketch. Can I have it back now?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMX2uiMt7Ie
'Sure, sorry.' I handed it back into her lap. 'You, um. You're a really good drawer.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPf8znQLnxd
'I know, right. It's such a pity the things I choose to draw are so damn ugly, then, isn't it?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Za8RibSeN
'Bastard.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRptCJWvju
But I laughed.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwcELKQTuh
789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR2UWlLz2Qk
MOMENT 5:789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0E8L5lnU2N
'Merry Christmas, you bugger.' I held out my two wrapped parcels for her.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAgKVDjK3Qn
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzfvFkQhRhd
'Open em. Smaller one first.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡebs7SZB7wj
Oil paints and brushes. She never talked about money, but I knew why she only sketched.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmKOiV3x76o
The other gift was canvas paper.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNgoUCxX7T
'Wow.' She said. That was all. 'I really don't - '789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJfBRv3JdYs
'Come on, take it.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZcCcETYCt
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3ODiyUh4H
Part of me knew, though, that the joke wasn't the whole reason for her quick exit.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcsDJTySS4y
She didn't want me to see her crying.
MOMENT 6:789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6goj4TjhqN
'It's a few weeks late, but you finally got your Christmas present.' She was holding something wrapped in plain brown paper and string.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBR1RyjohdK
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡejUqbI5uY7
It was a painting of us. Smiling, side by side, arms over each other's shoulders as we walked through a park.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz7cPHUTiXK
'Do you like it?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvieOvCjv5a
'I, um, yeah, I do, but -'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ83wWfsbkcn
'But?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6DIxn9gWz
'Nothing. It's nice.' I didn't know what to say.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoFA3vCJqc4
'John?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ74dyFArP0x
'Yeah?'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7tLvFg7W3v
'I, um. I really like you and. Um.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Kqp2uABbg
'Okaaay, okay.' Shit, what? 'Right.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhes9mecmOo
She took a few steps towards me, and (fuck) I stepped back.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFsEjg0tYNG
It took only that moment - that one step back - to see the hurt staining her eyes.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMcdDy6TUhy
'No, wait, that's not what I - '789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuu41dLOMGl
'Yeah, sorry,' she said as she wiped her nose. 'Forget it. It's all cool.' She brushed down her sleeves. 'I should get going.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm4MsnNt0Zi
'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.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuT6EbTbvfV
'I... I don't understand.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFVRcZT8fA0
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUitGirigzR
She managed a smile, a tear catching at the corner of her lip. 'It's all I need.'789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡszQPsKRAVW
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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZZlc2qbJS
'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.789Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡecIGt07yyv
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.
