when you met me

holiday

Holiday

“I brought chicken. Hopefully my Dad won’t miss it.” Dud said as he came back into Mara’s flat. Her parents were away on a romantic get-away. They wanted a family holiday, but Mara had insisted on spending the last summer holiday she had with Dud. So they had to use the tickets.

Mara watched the potatoes boil in a happy trance. She warmed her arms over the steaming pot. “Why do you do that?” Dud asked, remembering her doing it ever since she was tall enough, and warming her hands on the flames when she wasn’t. “Because it’s a weird feeling. Like, you hover over long enough and you feel like you’re burning, but you never will.” She explained translucently.

Later, the two of them ate chocolate and watched The Breakfast Club. They sat on the leather sofa facing the TV with Mara’s feet resting on Dud’s legs as she stretched across the sofa. As they always had. But now, there was a connection. And it felt cozier to Mara than just using her friend as a foot rest.

“I was thinking of getting a haircut.” Mara commented.

“Why?” Dud asked, his full attention turning to her.

“Because,” She paused, “Well, maybe I’ll look better with a different style.” She said, pushing at her thick hair. Dud gawked. “You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. You don’t need to change your hair.” He said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Mara slipped her legs underneath her and leaped forward onto Dud, bombarding him with kisses.

Would it hurt if she jumped? Would she die straight away? It was funny, questions like those stayed on her mind no matter what. No matter how happy she was. And at that moment, Mara was quite content. Dud was keeping himself quiet, as was his tendency unless JUSTICE CALLED or whatever.

Dud was contentment. He was peaceful, as always. But now rid of any repressed feelings and without school pressure. With the thought of going to police academy. With Mara. It was a sunny day out, and he was content. Mara wished it was so easy for her to be content.

Then again, Dud knew. As always, he knew where he was going. What he was doing. Mara swung her legs and looked down to the grey grave of the waters that reflected the sun in a gruesome way that somehow made it enticing, as if the grey water was the reality.

The world in colour was too pleasant for its own good. It was false. But the world down there seemed to know the reality, and reflected it truthfully. If everyone where Mara lived told the truth, her world would be a lot better.

They spent weeks, the two of them, doing absolutely nothing but acting like they always had. But closer. Much closer. Even when her parents returned, she was not put down. Because Dud was always on the ball, ready to take her out all day. She only really slept in her house.

It was the same for Dud. He avoided his Dad with the ease that always came to him when it came to anything logical. If he wanted to avoid his Dad, he just wouldn’t be home unless absolutely necessary.  At night, after he and Mara (his girlfriend, by the way, even if you hadn’t asked he’d tell) had spent the entire day enjoying each other’s company, knowing everything about each other, yet nothing at all.

The thing about knowing someone completely, is that people change from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. It was a lot to catch up on. And one would think Dud was the one with the secrets, considering how quiet he was. But no, the reason he could remain so effortlessly quiet was because he had one person he entrusted his thoughts to.

Mara had Dud to entrust her thoughts to as well… Only some of her thoughts weren’t like Dud’s, and she often wondered if she should keep them to herself. No one tells everything right? Only, that was what kept them so fresh, so real. They both simply knew.

She clutched the bars of the railing on the bridge and leaned forward to stare into the abyss of the waters, as was her custom. Dud sat beside her, eating an apple. He’d been eating healthier the last few weeks before his training was to begin. Mara had already finished her ice-cream. “Do you ever think,” She finally asked, “That there’s another world down there?”

Dud glanced down at the waters with a quizzical look, squinting because his Dad had currently taken the position of letting Dud buy his next pair of glasses with his own money. “Like a water world?” He asked with a little laugh. Mara continued with a drooping heart to try and get her point across.

“No, like a real world. When I look at the reflection of the water it just looks so strange… Like it’s not a reflection at all, but its own place.” She poured this out as she stared. Dud just smiled at her and said, “You have quite the imagination there.” He took another bite of his apple.

Mara said nothing, wishing she could get her point to him, that no, it wasn’t her imagination. She wasn’t stupid, but Mara Turner did not believe in many things. And from the very first time she had seen that waters reflection, she believed it wasn’t real.

Dud was too logical, too practical for that. His imagination never stumbled out into the real world, because he knew all too well that the real world had no place for imagination. He kept quiet, as per usual, and imagined what Mara was believing to be real.