Midday Drama

I look at the girl sitting in front of me, in a pink cosplay dress with bunny ears sewn to the hood.

Untended hair, dirty-blue, cut short. Thin legs in knee-length white socks.

She came here with her date, a teenage boy with Eraserhead haircut.

They sit on a bench, a bag pack between them, like a border marking uncharted territory. They are in the middle of a lively conversation.

The boy places his feet on the skateboard and slides from left to right, trying to reach the girls’ white van shoes.

In a few minutes that I’m not watching they are joined by a girl who appears to be the skater’s friend.

She is dressed in a boyish manner, her hair even shorter. More reserved and stolid than the bunny girl.

Introduced to each other, the girls exchange the looks asking: "who the fuck are you?” That followed by feeble smiles.

The new girl sits next to her friend. Leans on him a little. A little. A little more.

Puts her left foot on the skateboard and pulls it gently to the right.

The guy pulls it back. She presses again, with more vigor. That goes on forever.

So much passion and hidden lust in this reckless endeavor of the first crush.

Then she walks up and leaves.

She won’t remember the guy’s name when she’s my age.

Or maybe she will.

The cover: "Blue Bird" by Konstantin Somov