Silent Kiss Writing Competition

Round One

Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".

         "Baby, come one." His voice was pleading - and quite sickening, really - on her voicemail. It was at least the fifteenth one he'd left. She swore if he kept clogging up her phone she was going to turn the situation violent.

         Maybe Levi thought he was being romantic. Maybe he thought calling and texting her to the point of stalker status was equivalent to standing outside her window with a boombox. Maybe he just didn't want to go through the awkward process of begging on his knees for her. Honestly, Stefanie didn't give a shit.

         Oh, her friends thought it strange she was not drowning in her own tears. Stefanie had thought she'd been in love with him, but now she was sure it was her untrustworthy teenage hormones (how misleading they were!). She thought everything would be like some silly rom-com simply because she was dating the boy on the football team. Wrong. He would anger himself over the littlest things, then apologize later via text or call. For God's sakes, he told her he loved her on the third date! What kind of brainless monkey does something like that? You're probably thinking that it was some sort of romantic gesture of true love, but really, it wasn't. Stefanie wouldn't have even gone on a second date with him if it hadn't been for her maternal instincts. Levi was like a lost-puppy, and she had gone all soft on him for that reason. What a mistake! Had she forgotten that puppies, without proper training, eventually grow out of their cuteness as well as continue to poop on the carpet?

         Stefanie McClellan stood outside her English class, listening to his pathetic missed calls, with her hood tucked neatly over her hair. Levi's beseeching glances in the hallway was soon going to be enough to send her over the edge. She hastily deleted the messages - both heard and unheard - from her phone. It seemed like too much of a nuisance to even let them take up data on her phone anymore.

         Why is it that when you want a boy to be more romantic, he acts like a pig? But then when you wish he would leave you the hell alone, he decides to turn into Ryan Gosling? Okay, like a pimply, B.O. ridden Ryan Gosling. At least Ryan Gosling knew Rachel McAdams was into him in "The Notebook". Stefanie knew that even if she wrote, "GO AWAY GODDAMMIT," on her forehead, Levi would still not understand.

         Before you go thinking Stefanie is some snob who won't date a boy simply because he is "less than her standards", know that Stefanie isn't exactly a Victoria's Secret Angel, herself. Her complexion, though clearer then some, is white to the point of translucency. Her pallid face is short and angular. Stefanie has large, dark eyes that seem to take up a good portion of her face. Her lips are full, but are tinted an unflattering brown. Her hair, parted meticulously down the middle, is long and lank, falling board straight.

         Levi, on the other hand, has a rugged handsomeness that would send some girls over the edge. Not that he's Channing Tatum or anything, but for attending a public high school outside of Omaha he is a close second.

         As she stood in the hallway, hiding her face from the world, she played the story back in her head. It wasn't much of a story, but it was enough to take her several minutes to reminisce the entire thing.

         In the early wisps of September, right after school had begun, Levi had asked Stefanie out. She'd agreed with little reluctance, excited at the opportunity to date Levi. Or was she simply excited because of the popularity points she thought it would earn her? She could not decipher what her motives had been exactly, even now.

         To begin the strangeness, he refused to pick her up for their first date. Though they were both juniors, and could therefore both drive, he had decided they should meet at their destination rather than carpool. A little astounded by this, but not discouraged, Stefanie had once more foolishly agreed.