The Art of Duplication: Part One
Rating: PG
Summary: All along something inside her has been missing, but the question isn't whether or not he can find it.
***
ONE;
imagining how it will be in the end
She's never been bold or daring even though her favorite color is orange, but that's only by default. Slow has been used to describe her a few times, and ever since pre-school, when all the other crayons were taken, she's been stuck with orange and she's somehow learnt to live with it.
Usually she's the one in the crowd, the one that's there but is just another figure to make up numbers that you don't notice, even if she's the one that got on national TV. People don't normally look twice when she walks by, or even glance once in her direction, and he's no exception. They'd been living in close quarters for more than a few months before he actually realized that she was there, acknowledged her beyond a half-hearted greeting that was offered towards a vague direction.
It isn't like she cares what they think of her, because she doesn't. She knows that they expect her to be pining away for something else, something that isn't hers, but it isn't like that at all. She never deludes herself by thinking that she could become something other than what she already is.
***
He's bumped into her several times when they pass in the hall, the first few she doesn't even notice, before he thinks hey, this has happened before and she wonders why he's staring at her like his mother's just told him that plants don't grow on trees.
There's a silence when neither speak, but a loud one that drums in her ears like a whirlpool with rapids, and undercurrents that echo. From far away she can hear a clock ticking, fingers tapping, and it feels she's draining away from her body and running out of time.
Something in his eye sharpens then, and there's a quick comment about her button nose, something that is slick and sweet like he is but she can't remember, and then he is gone. She mumbles something in his wake that nobody hears because that's the way she is, and goes on to forget it the next day.
***
There isn't a great story to their meeting, it's rather bland and unexciting unlike others she's heard that are interesting and witty and, more likely than not, so embellished that even the originators can't see underneath all the layers. She's not even sure exactly which one to consider their first meeting because there were so many that they probably don't even know about, and once she thinks well, this will make a nice bedtime story for our grandchildren.
It's even worse when she tries to remember how they ended up in a relationship when all she really wanted were his History notes. Somehow she went from Some Girl, to Girl with a Question, to Girlfriend. And that's not even what she thinks happened either, if she were making it up it'd be a lot more wittier, but the fact is he told her that one night when they were both drunk. But as with equality, someone is always more than the other. Unfortunately for her, she's ceaselessly the one to get the aspirin in the morning.
***
to be continued...
Summary: All along something inside her has been missing, but the question isn't whether or not he can find it.
***
ONE;
imagining how it will be in the end
She's never been bold or daring even though her favorite color is orange, but that's only by default. Slow has been used to describe her a few times, and ever since pre-school, when all the other crayons were taken, she's been stuck with orange and she's somehow learnt to live with it.
Usually she's the one in the crowd, the one that's there but is just another figure to make up numbers that you don't notice, even if she's the one that got on national TV. People don't normally look twice when she walks by, or even glance once in her direction, and he's no exception. They'd been living in close quarters for more than a few months before he actually realized that she was there, acknowledged her beyond a half-hearted greeting that was offered towards a vague direction.
It isn't like she cares what they think of her, because she doesn't. She knows that they expect her to be pining away for something else, something that isn't hers, but it isn't like that at all. She never deludes herself by thinking that she could become something other than what she already is.
***
He's bumped into her several times when they pass in the hall, the first few she doesn't even notice, before he thinks hey, this has happened before and she wonders why he's staring at her like his mother's just told him that plants don't grow on trees.
There's a silence when neither speak, but a loud one that drums in her ears like a whirlpool with rapids, and undercurrents that echo. From far away she can hear a clock ticking, fingers tapping, and it feels she's draining away from her body and running out of time.
Something in his eye sharpens then, and there's a quick comment about her button nose, something that is slick and sweet like he is but she can't remember, and then he is gone. She mumbles something in his wake that nobody hears because that's the way she is, and goes on to forget it the next day.
***
There isn't a great story to their meeting, it's rather bland and unexciting unlike others she's heard that are interesting and witty and, more likely than not, so embellished that even the originators can't see underneath all the layers. She's not even sure exactly which one to consider their first meeting because there were so many that they probably don't even know about, and once she thinks well, this will make a nice bedtime story for our grandchildren.
It's even worse when she tries to remember how they ended up in a relationship when all she really wanted were his History notes. Somehow she went from Some Girl, to Girl with a Question, to Girlfriend. And that's not even what she thinks happened either, if she were making it up it'd be a lot more wittier, but the fact is he told her that one night when they were both drunk. But as with equality, someone is always more than the other. Unfortunately for her, she's ceaselessly the one to get the aspirin in the morning.
***
to be continued...