When Elliot is (7) he's still in primary school and is still very young.
He gets proposed to.
A girl tells him to meet her in the playground.
He does.
She tells him he is very cool.
He says thanks.
She tells him she really likes him.
He says thanks.
She tells him she wants to marry him and be his wife.
He pauses.
Thinks about it.
He tells her he doesn't want a wife.
She stares at him.
She shouts at him.
And he shouts at her because it isn't his fault he doesn't want a wife.
He says that if she actually likes him.
She wouldn't yell.
And that.
He doesn't want a wife but he wouldn't mind a friend.
The girl huffs, then she walks away.
Later on she will ask to be his friend. Soon they'll become great friends and he officially labels her as his 'first best friend who isn't a boy but a girl'.
Their friendship lasts for a long, long time.
He wonders what it would be like to marry her. He cringes because he doesn't really like girls the way other guys do.
He wonders if there is something wrong with him.
That he should be happy a girl wants to marry him.
(Even if he would prefer to marry a boy but he isn't sure if he's allowed to do that because no one says much about boys liking boys).
Even when he's much older he wonders about his first marriage proposal, he thinks about what it would be like to marry his best friend.
He doesn't like the idea.
Because she's a girl.
He will mull over these thoughts for a long time and he will look at the grand piece of paper that has the words "I will marry Elliot" on them.
And the small scribble at the bottom that says "I don't want to marry her because she's a girl"
YOU ARE READING
All I Have Left (Are Tears and Pictures)
RandomA story about a boy who can't let go of what he had and could've had. A tale of regret, what ifs, maybes, could've beens, the past and the present told in the from of snippets and pieces.
