Short Stories - A Collection Of Flash Fiction

The Girl With The Coffee Cup

I see her from across the room and I try not the stare. She's absolutely beautiful, but not just in a physical way, her vibe is outstanding.
     She has a water bottle in the shape of a coffee cup on the top right corner of her desk and and purple bandanna in her hair. I wonder it's that's her favorite color.
     "RINGGGGGGGG!" The bell rings in the middle of the teacher's sentence that I wasn't paying attention to and we all gather up our stuff and walk out the door.
Melody was struggling to pick up everything and I wanted to help her but I haven't even talked to her before. I walked slowly, ordering myself to help her if she was still struggling when I reached her desk.
I chickened out and she left in a hurry to get to her next class.

The next day I walked into Mr. Karson's creative writing class again and my eyes went straight to her desk. She was already there, slipping on whatever was in her reusable coffee cup, waiting for class to start.
Nothing was out of the ordinary until Mr. Karson said that we needed to find a partner. I panicked only slightly because I don't know anyone in this class... but maybe Melody doesn't either.
I turn to look around the room just in case she had someone in mind already; and to my bad luck, she does. A girl with long brown locks and a perfect smile, not as stylish as Melody though.
They seem to be getting along so well in the few seconds I allow myself to stare. I almost wondered if the other girl is gay, but I've seen her in the halls with her boyfriend.
"Hey, you got a partner yet?" A girl with big round glasses, freckles, and messy orange curly hair asks.
I try to snap out of my thoughts and not sound weird, "No,"
"Well then... wanna be partners?" She looked at me expecting more words to come out faster.
"Yeah sure, " I said as she refused to talk so I would. "Should we sit here?" I pointed back at my desk since the sit next to mine was empty.
She agreed and we sat down and Mr. Karson tried to quiet down the class.
"For this assignment I let you pick your partners because I know it'd be too awkward to do with someone random," He announced, ironically in my situation. "You're going to be writing a poem about each other."
Crap, no, that would be absolutely perfect if I was with Melody! And I don't even know the girl's name that I'm with now. I guess I could comment on how pretty her hair is and how she was willing to be my partner when nobody else was, but poems are supposed to be romantic when they're written about someone else.
"Poems are necessarily romanic, so you don't have to be flirty," He said, "Actually don't be flirty, be appropriate." It was like he could read my mind.
     "Sorry, but what's your name?" I asked my partner.
     "Emilia; and your's is Robbie, right?"
     "Yeah," And she did that weird stare thing expecting more words from me. I gave in, "Well, technically it's Robert, but I hate that name. I even considered going by my middle name, Garret, but that's confusing and it's only slightly more exciting." I was surprised by how many words fell out of my mouth so quickly, I'm normally the quiet type.
     "Really? I've always wanted to have a normal name. I think my name is a little too exotic. I would rather want something like just plain Emma."
     "What? You don't want to stand out?"
     "Oh, I do. I stand out tons. My crazy hair, my green eyes, how loud I am. I just want a name people can spell without it becoming an inside joke." She continued, "Just like it is now. You'll always remember me by this conversation."
     We continued talking for a few more seconds before starting to write. It was so incredibly easy to talk to her and I almost felt glad that I was partnered with her instead of Melody. I would have been terrified of writing a poem about Melody.

After we both got about half way done, we continued to talk and she asked me why I seemed so distracted when she first walked up to me.
     "I have a crush on a girl in this class," I said way too quickly. I barely knew her and I haven't told anyone that. Which isn't surprising, I don't have many friends.
"Oh, who?"
"Melody."
     "Oh her? She's cute!" Emilia whispers, "I've never talked to her but she seems smart."
     "I've never talked to her either..."
     "What?! Why don't you?" I'm scared of what plan she's coming up with in her head as she takes another glance at Melody. I glance at Melody too. She always has a small gray notebook on the left corner of her desk but I've only seen her write in it once, it must be some sort of journal. If so, she's probably really creative. I wonder how many short stories, poems, and documents of her life are written on those pages; she seems like one of the only ones that wanted to be in creative writing. Of course I would never look through it, I want to gain her trust one day so she would openly tell me all those things. I want to understand her.
     I look away and hope I didn't stare for too long.
     "You really like her, huh?" Emilia asked.
     "Yes..." I say awkwardly. She gives me a look and opens her mouth like she was going to say something but before she got even one word out, Mr. Karson announced that we only have one more minute left.

Luckily we didn't have to read the poems out loud but Mr. Karson did make us immediately go back to our seats. I'm curious to what Emilia was going to suggest.
     I look back over to Melody's desk but find she's not there. She probably just went to the bathroom but none of her stuff was either. I instinctively look at the door and suddenly there's a flash of purple light.
     "Did anyone see that?!" I yell, which I immediately regret.
     "See what?" A student says.
     "Robert, sit down," the teacher says sternly.
     I sit down but I have to explain what I saw, I look crazy. "It was a flash of purple light!"
     Everyone laughed like I was some class crown just saying something because I was bored. My entire face turned red and I wanted to ask where Melody went but I've already embarrassed myself enough.

The next day, Melody wasn't there.

The day after that, Melody wasn't there.

A week after that, Melody wasn't there.
     I went up to ask Mr. Karson and he said he didn't know, his guess was that she moved.
     I regret not getting to know her sooner.