3 Times (n.r)

"It stopped all too soon, and he pulled away to look at me. The second he caught my gaze, all of the happiness faded and was replaced with fear. Fear so strong it made me put my hands on his chest and push, push him back into the wall. And all of a sudden, he was on the ground and I had tears running down my face and loud, angry words coming out of both of our mouths and we couldn't stop because we loved each other so much that it hurt to feel what what was truly there. So we pushed up barriers and he's got a hand pointing towards the door and I'm putting on my shoes so fast I don't even remember tying the laces, and he's throwing keys at me and I'm slamming car doors and driving, driving far, far away. As the tears fog my vision and I get home and I'm somehow still slamming doors, I get to my room. I sit in the corner, blankly staring at my wall, unable to feel anything but emptiness. Nobody had told me that it would be this hard to befriend the five year old next door with the light up sketchers. He hadn't come with a manual. It was all yet to be discovered."

NICK ROBINSON SHORT STORY