Evergreen Summertime

Him

This week, write an ode to something you've never had. It could be an emotion, a relationship, or a possession. Approach it as a loss rather than an absence - use your imagination to know what you've never known.

He smiled at me and laughed,
The breath streamed from his mouth
In white puffs in front of me.
His smile illuminated my world,
And his laughter was my favorite song.

His face had glimmered with glee,
His pearly white teeth showing.
His nose was tinted red,
And a blush was rising from his cheeks.
Maybe it was because of the cold, maybe not.

Our hands brushed while we walked and talked,
Mine cold and his warm.
But instead he grasped my hand and never let go.
And I held on too
For I hoped we were both enjoying that present moment.

He wore his bow tie,
And I, a colorful scarf.
He had donned his dorky glasses,
And I had donned mine,
As we both held hands and waltzed down the sidewalk.

We talked about so many things,
From where we wanted to go for college,
And even about Doc Holliday.
Laughs filled all awkward silences,
As well as the snow falling from the sky.

But I soon snapped out of my daydream,
As a teacher called my name to answer a question.
"What is the mass of the sun?"
I replied with, "1.989E30 kilograms."
And from then on, I was left alone.

It was the Winter Dance that day,
Everyone dressed in red and green.
All the girls wearing dresses,
And all the boys wearing ties and slacks.
But one was wearing a bow tie.

I had decided to miss out on dancing,
And so did my friends.
We ended up being wallflowers,
Which I was a master at,
Except for at basketball games.

I saw him sitting on the bleachers,
His bowtie red and vibrant,
Talking with a fellow thespian.
For a moment he looked out, maybe trying to find someone,
But that someone was not me.

But suddenly our eyes meet,
His chocolate-filled eyes
Meeting my pensive ones.
He smiled, his perfectly white teeth showing,
And I smiled back, maybe adding a little wave.

My friends nudged me in my sides,
As they saw him walk over.
I tugged at my dress,
And attempted to straighten my hair
As his face became clearer and clearer through the crowd.

"Would you like to dance?"
He asked, holding out his hand.
I heard my friends giggle behind me
As I nodded my head and accepted his hand.
And we walked through to the centre of the crowd.

A sudden playlist of slow songs came into effect,
Cancelling the beats of the EDMs,
As if someone decided to hack the music player.
We danced to the songs of Indie Bands
Who probably didn't even know they existed.

I then snapped back into reality,
The beats of the EDMs lulling me out of my daydream.
He was no longer sitting at the bleachers,
But dancing with a girl with an extremely generic and annoying name.
Soon the dance had ended and we all went home.

The next Monday was normal.
It was as normal as all the other days since school had started.
The only highlight was a slight smile from him
Or a wave and a "Hi",
To just let me know that he could see me and I existed.

Once in a while, rarely, there was an actual conversation.
"I like The Walking Dead too."
Or, "Welcome to the choir family."
But laughs were rarely shared, and awkward silences filled the air.
We didn't talk about everything, not even getting close to talking about the wonderful Doc Holliday.