July Writing Challenge: Honorable Mentions — Megan Matilda Bennett, Rachel Schreiber, April Howard, and Kenlie Kay

These entries from July's challenge were selected as Honorable Mentions. Those who completed this challenge are now encouraged to share their stories in the comments section of the "July Writing Challenge."

Megan Matilda Bennett
17
UK

“A moment, a love/A dream, aloud/A kiss, a cry/Our rights, our wrongs”
– “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap

To my relief, I find a somewhat familiar face standing in Lily’s kitchen, a boy from class who immediately slurs an encouraging welcoming and envelopes me in a hug. A string of his friends follow his example in inebriated suit. They are drinking and swearing and singing and dancing and laughing and it is to a great degree, overwhelming. Behind them, I can see tables laid with bottles of spirits, far less inviting then the comforting cabernets my parents have ever proffered; and further into the garden, which, incidentally, any evangelist would deem catastrophically fallen, I can make out the pale, October limbs of English school kids groping each other. At this point, Aristotle’s comment that “The utter servility of the masses comes out in their preference for a bovine existence.” seems pretty damn appropriate.

I watched a movie once that said you should always have a drink in your hand, even if you don’t drink it, because it makes you look more relaxed and approachable, and given my exceedingly limited experience of parties, I decide to follow this advice immediately and grab a beer, searching for someone who looks at least marginally more lucid than the writhing, hedonistic crowd around me. And then I see him. A quietly observing boy with dark hair and dark eyes perched on a bench far up in the garden. I begin to walk up to him, eager to escape, and as I gain ground I am assured that he bears a striking resemblance to Gregory Peck’s Atticus and, as such, is the single most beautiful human the universe has yet presented me with.

“Hi,” I say.

I have been thanking the universe ever since.

 

 

 

Rachel Schreiber
15
USA

I hate you I love you
I hate that I want you
You want her, you need her
And I’ll never be her

– “i hate you, i love you” by Gnash

I stood there, my back resting against the hood of his car, my arms wrapped around his shaking shoulders.

“Just leave her. If she’s making you so upset, so unhappy, just end it.”

His shoulders shook harder. I squeezed him tighter, trying to make the pain go away. I never wanted to put him in this position. I loved him with all my heart.

“I can’t… you know this.” I thought back to the message I’d received only a few hours before, telling me of their actions on Valentine’s day. The thought broke my heart, and unwanted tears shed. But I kept my mouth closed, I needed to be here for him.

“She pushes you around, she wants you to get rid of me in your life completely. She can’t do that. It’s not fair.”

“Maybe I need someone who pushes me, someone who tells me what to do.”

I wanted to scream, we both knew he didn’t need that.

“I need her, I’m sorry.”

I would do anything to convince him that he was wrong.

“I love you. But I also love her, and I can’t leave her.”

I wanted to pull away, but because no matter how much I hated him in that moment, I loved him all the same. I loved him like I had the moment I met him. The minute we shared doodles from Business Class. The band competition, with legs touching and whispered conversations.

“What can I do? How can I convince you?”

He caressed my cheek with his hand, “There’s only one thing I want to do right now. And it’s the one thing I shouldn’t.”

I understood what he meant, as it was the only thing I wanted too. So without hesitation, I lifted my head, and pressed my lips to his.

 

 

 

April Howard
16
UK

Barefoot

We laugh until we think we’ll die
barefoot on that summer night
never could be sweeter than with you!
And in the streets we’re running free
like it’s only you and me.
Geez, you’re something to see!

– “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

I will never love anyone like I loved her. The whipping of her red hair in the wind reminded me of a flag tethered to its pole, yearning to break free. Her legs pushing through the long, sun-stained grass that tickled her thigh as she kept on running.

My mother always told me love creeps up behind you like a silent hunter, but my experience with Evelyn proved contradictory. I saw it coming like a ten-tonne truck, and I just stood, arms outstretched, waiting for the hit. When I first laid eyes on her, I said to myself, “I’m going to fall in love with that girl,” and I did.

She tugs me along, the warm damp of the floor rising into my bare feet, and I let my other hand trail out to the side so the stems tapped my fingers encouragingly. The sun was setting like an explosion of watercolour paint and the yellow, orange, pink, and lilac bled across the sky until they became one shade of indigo. It was wildly beautiful; the kind that makes you ache because you know you won’t see it the exact same again.

We were giggling like children, our inhibitions swept away as though we were intoxicated and the path of gold stretched out in front of us. She turned around to me, with a smile so uncontrollable that it made my heart go all fuzzy, and said: “Ready?”
I sucked a deep breath in and replied: “Ready.”

 

 

 

Kenlie Kay
15
USA

“Is our love just part time? Sometimes I think that its more, have I lost sight?”
– “Temporary Love” by The Brinks

Darling, how dare you? How dare you promise me forever despite the fact that you are constantly reminding me that all things are temporary?

Tell me, how can I trust you to give me forever when you can’t give me the feeling of electric currents in my fingertips and butterflies in my stomach? You can’t give me passion or adventure. You can’t even give me a kiss goodbye when you creep away from my bed and out the window in the late hours of the night.

You say I act like I don’t want to be with you, that I’m distant and you can’t connect with me. How dare you say that when you are the reason for my wandering mind. You are the reason that I’m terrified of being in love, the reason I don’t trust my happiness in someone else’s hands. You have made me sacrifice my own comfort in an attempt to comfort you. You say you love me, but, darling, you don’t destroy the people you love.

How dare you just sit there and stare as I lie shaking on the bathroom floor, hugging my knees as I attempt to hold back the tears. How dare you make me walk home shoeless in the middle of the night wearing my dripping wet pajamas, barely able to see through my bloodshot eyes. How dare you give me a kiss on the cheek and a half sincere apology as you saunter through my front door the next day.

Is this what you meant by temporary love? Is this what our forever will consist of?

— Ken

 

 

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