IMAGINATION, IMAGINATION.

really cool

"i got another late detention today."

"right," sean murmurs, his eyes glued to the screen of his phone and his finger tap tap tapping away. juniper couldn't see his face, but she could imagine it sinking into that glazed-over jaw-slacked expression he reserves for when he is thinking. she makes a face and picks sharply at the frayed, dog-eared rag of a blanket on his bed.

"i also found out my mock exam result today. i got a 72 if you could ever imagine."

"nice."

juniper unplaits her legs from sitting crisscrossed to stare pointedly at the back of sean's head. "i got tased by a member of staff too."

"hm."

3 strikes. junie flops backwards onto the bed and officially declares herself out for the count. she grabs thin air to drive an imaginary stake through her heart and starts to billow and writhe like the whole world had the heel of its shoe pressed against her innocent little windpipe. she moans melodramatically, pathetic and blue in her half-joking smallness.

sean knows that junie knows he is very used to her beached whale-like wallowing (flip flopping, mouth agape, lolling like blubber). while she lies spluttering at the injustice of it all he does not bat an eye, and she is not really offended.

"stop that," he mumbles through chewed lips. a beat later, a chuckle bursts through his lips like a rogue ray of sun sneezed from a sky so stoic in its greyness. the sight of him grinning shocked her into solemnity.

"what are you giggling about?"

"uh, someone just said something funny is all."

juniper's expression dissolves into flat deliberation and her skin warms, prickling pinkish. "oh. who are you talking to?" she asks. and in the middle of our conversation? she thinks.

sean swallows and his eyes dart like flies. "this new girl from one of my classes. she's really cool actually. you should meet her."

"oh!" junie snaps back into a smile as wide as her teeth will allow. when sean looks back at her, she reckons she looks like gladness incarnate. "what's her name then? when did you guys meet?"

a smile flickers over sean's face as he begins to detail in a stuttered string of sentences an answer that junie listens to mostly none of. she can't help but wonder at how light sean looks. like spring caught glowing behind winter's back, the sight was sweet and sorry. and she was happy for him, the type of happiness that pierces as it blooms.