Author's Note: Got a little short story. Not going to get into the details aside from just saying that it is a slice of life story with little sprinkles of drama added in there. Enjoy!

~ Monty

Get Over It

    A lone young man stood at the side of a lake. He bent down to pick up the small, thin rock. As he stood back up, he could feel a heavy sensation on his back. This was not a physical sensation, but it felt so real. He closed shut his eyes watching her long black hair flutter in the wind. His eyes shot open wondering, why do I still remember that moment? This is the worst. He swung his arm back, and with a quick swing he flung the stone onto the water. As the stone skipped further away from him on the water, so did his thoughts…

    “I appreciate your…,” her sweet voice echoed in his ears.

    …The wind hit his back hard almost causing him to fall into the water. Steady on now, he stood still staring into the reflection. His usually neatly kept black hair was in a mess. The work of this wind probably, he thought picking up another stone. He flung the stone onto the water watching it skip away. That was twelve this time. Let’s turn it up a notch, he pondered stretching his wrist.

    He could feel the fatigue settle in now, he had been at this for a good twenty minutes without a break. Yet this activity alone was not the sole culprit, the thoughts on his mind played a role here as well. This really is the worst. Feels like my world is ending, he smirked to himself tossing another stone onto its journey on the water’s surface…

    Her pink lipstick sent comforting shivers down his body. Such a lipstick seemed very adult like to him when coated on her lips. He could feel the blood rush to his cheeks whenever he saw her with it on. Makeup was not allowed at school, but of course that did not stop the girls. Maybe the fact that she is so daring is also what attracted him to her in the first place.

    She looked up at him with her dark grey eyes, her perfectly shaped head with the long hair flowing freely in the wind fascinated him more by the second. He stood there in anticipation, please be good. She held onto the letter tightly so it does not fly away. Her eyes dropped to the ground for a moment. Are you hesitating? He pondered shifting a little. The quietness was getting to him. She clutched the letter tightly in her hands. It looked like she was struggling to get the words out.

    “Hey, are you okay?” he asked gently approaching her. She backed away a few steps; he got the message and stopped his approach. She looked up at him, her eyes were clear of any doubt they once had. She looked so confident in that moment, a picture that is deeply engraved in his mind now. She opened her mouth to speak slowly only to be interrupted by a large gust of wind. She protected her face with her arm, as the wind slowly died down she looked up at him.

    “I appreciate your feelings for me…”

    …The boy shook his head. No matter how much I play the memory in my head, things still won’t get any better. He dropped the stone in his hand and walked over to the upward slope. He sat down for a moment, breathing in the fresh air. He then lay himself down, this is comfy. He saw the clouds gently stroll by in the vast blue sky. The clear, sunny and breezy weather made it all the better for him and his predicament. In his pocket he felt his phone vibrate. He took it out and sat back up. Unlocking it, he studied the text message he had received from a friend.

    “Look up…what is this about?” he wondered, but thought to play along. Without his knowledge, his friend was already standing behind him. The moment the boy stared up at him, the boy jumped away almost rolling down the hill much to his friend’s amusement. “Jeez Emil, you could have said something. You could have scared my soul right on outta me!”

    “Heh, sorry. It was the perfect set up so I couldn’t help myself.”

    “Someday I’m gonna get you back for all these scares, you know that right?”

    “I’ll look forward to it,” Emil replied with a wide grin. At least one of us is in a good mood, thought the boy as he lay back down. Emil took a seat beside him, and he looked down at his friend. “What are you looking at Mitch?”

    “The sky.”

    “What in particular about the sky?”

    “Just looking at the clouds slowly flying by,” said Mitch as he eyed his friend. Emil turned to look up at the sky himself and smiled a little. “It is relaxing.”

    “Yeah…”

    The two stared up at the sky in silence for a moment. Mitch then curiously turned to Emil. “Why are you here?”

    Emil turned to the plastic bag by his side, and reached inside holding out a drink for his friend. “Here.”

    “Ice tea?” Mitch looked at the label on the can as he took it. “Isn’t it a little too cold out to be drinking this?”

    “Who cares, best not to think about these things sometimes right?”

    “I guess,” Mitch cracked open the can and took a sip of it. Even though it was cold from the breeze, yet bearably so, the drink still felt nice. He looked at the drink and took another sip of it. “Yeah, who cares?”

    Another gust of wind hit them hard from the back. Emil’s dark brown hair went flying forward as he closed his eyes and tried to navigate the individual strands out of his face. He slowly opened his eyes again greeted with a blurry vision. He wiped his eyes of the watery build up from the wind. Emil looked to his side finding his friend quietly lying still with his eyes closed. He looks like he is enjoying it. If only time could just stop, at least a little so that we could indulge ourselves in this moment to our heart’s content. Emil cleared his throat rather loudly fetching Mitch’s attention.

    Mitch looked curiously at Emil who simply played with his fingers. The drink rested comfortably between his shoes, and yet it seemed as though it could fall free at any given moment. Too bad people can’t be like that. We will always have obligations and responsibilities. No free fall for us, thought Emil as he turned to Mitch. “So I heard about what happened between you and Liz.”

    “You heard?”

    “Hey, if you try to confess to one of the most popular girls in school and get shot down, rumors are going to spread like a wild forest fire.”

    “Was my confession that big of a deal?”

    “We’re talking about Liz, probably the second most popular girl in the school.”

    “So then you must know what became of my confession,” said Mitch turning his attention away from Emil. He looked back up at the sky with that carefree look leaving his face. He sat up to take a little sip of his ice tea and stared down at the lake. This lake is like a pool of unorganized thoughts in my mind. Home to so many different creatures perhaps, unorganized, and the same is true of my mind. Our minds are home to so many thoughts, and in times like these they seem so unorganized, so…confusing.

    Mitch stood up, and Emil followed him with his eyes as his friend walked down the slope. Setting the can safely on one side, Mitch took a rock in one hand and began to fling it on the water’s surface. Emil walked down the slope to his friend bouncing a rock alongside him. “Mind if I join?”

    “Go right ahead. But I’m not going to take it easy on you,” Mitch replied with a huge smile on his face. Emil could tell competition was brewing in Mitch’s eyes. But at the same time something felt very off, why force yourself to smile like that and avoid what happened? Would it not be better to let this go and finally move on, smiling with your head up high Mitch?

     The two spent the next few minutes throwing stones in silence. The only sounds that invaded their ears were that of the wind, the skipping stones on the water and the occasional bystander on the bridge to their left. But right now, it seemed as though Mitch was in his own world encased in the walls built by his mind…

    Liz looked up with clear eyes. She held tightly onto the letter. A large gust of wind hit them both, and as the wind died down, Mitch caught one of the most beautiful images he has ever seen in life. She cleared her face of her hair and looked back up. She tried to offer a smile, but knew that it was better to be honest than to lead him on.

    “I appreciate your feelings for me, but I cannot accept them.”

    That was it, the rejection. Mitch froze at the words, his very first rejection. Liz stood there uncomfortably so, even for her this was not easy. He could tell from her shifting now that she wanted to leave, to leave this moment behind in her past and move on. So is that why you hesitated before? Hesitated to tell me a big fat NO, wondered Mitch with his head slowly lowering. His eyes stared directly at the ground. I think I now know what it feels like to be heartbroken.

    Liz walked close to him and placed the letter down on the ground in front of him. She could tell he was in no condition to talk to her as openly he would normally be. She stood back up and mumbled something before leaving. An apology from what Mitch could understand. With that she hurried off leaving Mitch alone, he bent down to pick up his letter and stared at it for a good five minutes. His expression was completely blank, devoid of all color he once had in his face.

    …Mitch shook awake to find Emil’s hand gripping his shoulder. Emil looked at Mitch with great concern. “Are you okay?”

    “…No, I’m not okay.”

    So you feel like talking then, thought Emil as he took a drink of his ice tea. “What’s up?”

    “Everything, everything, the world is on fire!”

    “Oh come on, it can’t be that bad.”

    “Tell that to a guy who practically has girls chasing after him all the time.”

    Emil had to admit, he didn’t know how to really help cheer up his friend. But all he knew was one thing and that was all he could say. “Get over it.”

    “What?”

    “Stuff happens to us. Some of it is good and some of it is bad. All we can do is learn from the bad and get over it.”

    “Easier said than done,” Mitch argued skeptical about what Emil was saying. Mitch took a drink from his can and set it down. He held out an envelope out to Emil. “What’s this?”

    “Open it and find out,” said Mitch. Emil both curious and wanting to humor Mitch, he decided to do so. Inside the envelope was a letter, Emil looked up at Mitch who gave him a nod. Emil took out the letter and began reading silently. Soon a grin was visible on his face as he saw Mitch’s face turning redder watching Emil’s reaction to the letter. “Someone’s been paying attention to Romeo and Juliet.”

    “Shut up, I was trying my best. I poured my heart out in writing that letter. Do you think it was the letter that put her off?”

    Emil stood there with his mouth agape, is this guy just really thick or just stupid? He shook his head putting the letter back in the envelope and handed it back to his friend. Mitch looked at him waiting for a response. Emil simply shrugged his shoulders at him. “I don’t know if it was the letter but I just think that she wasn’t that into you to begin with man.”

    “How can you say that?”

    “The letter sounded fine to me, but just because you have a fancy letter doesn’t mean she will have feelings for you. Whenever you confess you basically take a fifty-fifty chance risk. You either get the girl, or you get shot down.”

    “So…is it better to just not bother with this stuff?”

    “Of course you should go ahead and try to get a girl,” said Emil in a panic realizing how his words could hold more than one meaning. “But what I’m saying is that she just didn’t feel the same as you.”

    “Why not?”

    “Mitch, if we all knew the answer to that, then things like this would be so much easier. But life I guess wasn’t designed to be easy.”

    “But, why not?”

    A nerve popped out on Emil’s head who threw a moderately hard punch at Mitch’s head. “Ow! What was that for?!”

    “Stupid, I wouldn’t know all the answers to your questions,” replied Emil clearly agitated. Mitch decided to tone down the questions both for his friend’s sake as well as his own. The two finished their drink and soon began playing with the cans. Kicking them back and forth the two chatted about the more mundane things in their life. They talked about the things that happened in their day, and all the while Mitch did his best to avoid bringing Liz up again. Emil also knew the damage mentioning her would cause.

    Somewhere along the way, Mitch began to understand what Emil meant as his words, ‘Get over it’ echoed in his head non-stop. Emil kicked the can that was about to slip past him into the air. It was stopped short however hitting Mitch’s calf. He stood still taking out the envelope in his pocket. Emil looked over to him curiously tilting his head, what are you up to?

    “Hey Emil,” Mitch called out.

    “Yeah, what is it?”

    “You always say that there will be plenty of other fish in the pond right?”

    Emil took a moment to think about it. He agreed with Mitch, Emil always said this whenever he would fail at flirting with girls or have a breakup. “Yeah I do, but why do you ask?”

    Mitch took the envelope and ripped it to shreds. Emil stood still watching his friend then releasing the pieces into the wind. “I to think there are plenty of other fish in the pond. Who knows, maybe next time I’ll meet someone who feels the same way as I do about them.”

    “So you finally get it, about time knucklehead.”

    “Who you calling knucklehead?” asked Mitch quickly running for Emil. The two boys ran around for hours after that simply taking joy in the simple pleasures these moments offered them. To Mitch, the past became the past and now he looked up with hope again towards the future. He understood why people stumble, and why it is so important to get back up again. Thanks Emil, he thought as the two boys began to head home. That night, Mitch had a most peaceful sleep still feeling high on the day’s joy and satisfaction.

Author's Note: Hope that was a good read for you. If you have any feedback you would like to give me, I would be very grateful. Your respectful and constructive criticism is what will help me improve as a writer. Thank you for reading!

~ Monty