leen
the tide scampered away from my feet upon the moist sand, rolled away to join the huge expanse of navy blue sea. i let it take with it all those scrambled-up memories that were no longer worth thinking about. after all, it was a new year. i deserved a clean new slate. i closed my eyes as the salty ocean air whipped my hair across my face and the steady rhythm of the waves played a gentle lullaby.
i remember when you taught me the waltz and at first i couldn't get it right, being as how i was so uncoordinated. but you waited patiently for the longest time until i finally learned and we would dance together in our little world, until we could hear nothing but each other's footsteps and the beautiful, lilting music, clear as day.
i still remember how to waltz, i don't think i'll ever forget. but it's just not the same when i've got no one to dance with.
she ran into the forest, leaping and bounding over the thick roots of the tall oak trees. she did cartwheels on the soft, damp earth. she waltzed, inviting every single animal to join her, from the shy spotted deer hiding beneath the bushes to the brightly chirping cicadas. the day was coming to a close as the sliver of glowing sun plummeted beneath the horizon... but she was only beginning.
they decided, one day, that it was time to revolt. they were done with the stereotypical-teenager deal. they were going to be individuals. they cut their hair and ripped holes in their jeans. they stopped listening to the radio. they questioned every aspect of conformity. they broke the mold, couldn't be labeled or classified or stretched or squished into neat little groups. and they found, while everyone else was abiding complacently by the law of the status quo, they were much happier this way.
She existed, but no more than that. There was no longer that fiery glow just beneath her surface. She had been extinguished; she was an lantern without a flame. She was lifeless.
I envy how the effortlessly the frog leaps
From lilypad to shiny forest-green lilypad,
How he knows exactly where he is going
And has such easy confidence in the fact that
Wherever he lands
There will be something beneath his feet.
She stood at the edge of the diving board. She had to do it, had to: or else they would all laugh at her. But even that reasoning wouldn't allow her feet to propel the rest of her body off of the board into the shimmering, cold, turquoise water below. She was terrified.
They hadn't been matching sine they were both in sixth grade. Back then, they would call each other every night to determine, in agonizing detail, their outfits for the next day. That was long ago. Everything had changed. So imagine Melissa's shock when they both showed up the first day with identical green v-necks.
writing since 2010 · 10 entries · 6 days shown up
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