One Shot Hipster Contest by @yourworstknightmare.
She smelled like summer and walked like rain.
***
Valentine always believed herself to be normal. Her mother may have insisted she was special, something was coming, but Valentine knew she was normal. She just knew it.
***
“Hi.”
“Hi…”
Valentine was swinging ever so slowly, by herself on the swing set. All the other children were playing on the grass or the playground equipment. That is, all the other children except the boy that just came up to her.
“I’m Marcus. What’s your name?”
Valentine looked at the boy’s friendly smile, his curly hair and his dusty clothes. He seemed kind, genuine.
“Valentine.”
“Want to play with me? We could be friends.”
Valentine thought for a moment. None of the other children ever seemed to want to play with her. They were only interested in soccer and collecting those pocket pets, rather than the games and books Valentine was interested in. She looked Marcus’s inviting face once more and smiled.
“Yes.”
***
Marcus took Valentine into the forest.
“Follow me.”
He held aside few pine branches as he beckoned her to follow him. They walked for a while, between trees, over logs, and under many low-sweeping branches. Marcus stopped when they reached a stream that crossed right in front of a wall of bushes.
“Can you keep a secret?”
Valentine looked at Marcus excitedly and smiled.
“Yes!”
“Well…”
Marcus took Valentine’s hand and stepped over the stream. He made sure she stepped over it too before grabbing her other hand and pulling her with him as he fell back against the bushes.
***
“Eeek!”
Valentine let out a cross between a squeak and a scream as she felt herself being pulled downwards and saw the wall of bushes coming towards her face. She closed her eyes. When she opened again, she did not see leaves and branches in her face as she expected. Instead, she saw that she and Marcus had passed through the bushes unhurt and were now lying on the grass in the middle of a ring of those bushes. The grass itself was filled with flowers: daisies, violets, dandelions. There were a few rings of white, pointy-topped mushrooms, and in the middle of the small clearing was a blanket with a stack of two books and a pack of cards.
Marcus smiled.
“What do you think?”
Valentine was speechless. This secret place was perfect. It felt like…like it was made for her more than him.
