Kids called him Timmy Toothless, on the playground, because when he frowned, they could see two front teeth not where they were supposed to be.Timmy told us how he wrestling sharks all summer and before he could swim off, one snatched two teeth out of his mouth. I told him he was a liar. If it was a shark that did it, his back ones would have been bit too. I called him a liar because it was probably the worst bad word I could say without Timmy Toothless walking away to tattle on me.
"Who are you calling a liar, you Freckled Fish Face?" He and his friends stood in their space, pointing stubby fingers at me while I ran away with fat tears falling off my freckled face.
It must have made him real mad, when I called him a liar. Its not like I said the F-word or set a fire. But, I guess it would make anybody mad when you call them that because it means no listen to you and you always want someone to listen. I'd listen to Timmy though, and I'd just hope he could let my freckled fish face listen back.
Timmy didn't grow new teeth until winter, when he was assigned to sit next to me. I passed him a crumpled up piece of pink paper with my name on it. Under my name, with two stars instead of dots for the I's in Iris, I wrote: If I said I loved you would you say it back?
My palms were wet and red and I wished I heard what the teacher said as we practiced our cursive P's. It took him ten minutes until I got his scribbled reply: Who could love a Freckled Fish Face? I went home to my mom poking the fireplace. I told her I would never love again. She was on her knees before the fire, breathing red coals into blazing flames. She shook her head and choked back a laugh then a cough, from the smoke, and she called me a liar.
YOU ARE READING
Love, Lose, And Repeat
ChickLitAt the same moment someone is pledging their love, another is stripping theirs away. This is a flash fiction collection about the continuing cycle of love. How we learn to love, lose, and repeat.
