Alice and Kevin

What happens when you're forced to leave everything you love?

            Waves crashing on the shore… Wind blowing through the trees… I wonder if it could all happen again? No, of course it can’t, I’m leaving. Damn. Right when things started going good I have to leave. Why would anybody want to leave here? It’s pretty much the epitome of perfection. But no… I‘m being dragged off to freaking New York. I wonder if I could…

            “Alice?”

            I snap out of it almost immediately, looking to the right and realizing that I had probably been starting off into space for at least ten minutes.

            “Yeah?”

            “Are you alright?”

            “No,” I say, not even bothering lying to him.

            “You should be happy,” my best friend points out, still staring at me.

            “Why?” I ask, lying down on the hard surface of the roof.

            “Al, it’s New York,” he says as if that was supposed to change anything.

            “So? I don’t want to leave.”

            “You only have to be there for a year,” he says, lying down next to me.

            “What do you mean?” I ask, turning to him.

            “Well, you’re seventeen, right?”

            I nod.

            “You can just come back here after you turn eighteen.”

            “It’s still a year.”

            “Alice…” he sighs, rubbing his temples.

            “Kevin…” I mock, both amused and agitated.

            “Why are you so stubborn?”

            “Born that way.”

            “You can’t change that?”

            “Nope.”

            “Not even for me?” he asked, staring at me with those wide blue eyes.

            “Since when do you try to change me?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

            “I didn’t mean… Stop that,” he says, trying not to smile.

            “Stop what?” I say, looking ever so innocent.

            “Trying to get me frustrated.”

            “But you look so cute when you’re frustrated.”

            He blushes and I smile. Getting him flustered is almost as good as getting him frustrated, maybe better.

            “I’m serious, Al,” he says, turning towards me.

            “I know,” I say quietly, not wanting to play any more games for the moment.

            “You want to go somewhere?” he asks suddenly, standing up.

            “Where?”

            “You’ll see,” he says, offering me his hand.

            I take it, and he pulls me to my feet. “I always get really worried when you try to surprise me,” I point out, though following him anyway.

           

            One truck ride and ten minutes later we’re at a park, right when the sun is setting.

            “A park?” I ask, turning to him.

            “Yes, a park,” he responds, the sunlight making his blonde hair glow unusually.

            “Why?”

            “Why the park?” he asks.

            “Yes.”

            “You don’t remember? This is where I first met you when we were five.”

            I turn to look at him, almost not believing what he had just said. “How do you even remember that?”

            He shrugs. “One of the best days of my life,” he says before heading off towards the swings.

            I shake my head and smile. He’s such a child sometimes. I follow him and sit in the warm rubber of the swing.

            “What’s bugging you?” he asks suddenly, pushing me out of my thoughts again.

            “Leaving,” I reply.

            “You can come back,” he points out.

            “I know. But what if things are different?”

            “How would things be different?” he asks, looking at me hard.

            “Promise you won’t laugh,” I say quietly.

            “I promise,” he nods, waiting for me to go on.

            “What if I come back and everybody’s forgotten about me?” I ask. “What if things just aren’t the same between us anymore?”

            “Alice. You’re being stupid.”

            I stare at the ground. “Thanks.”

            “I didn’t mean it like that!” he says, sounding panicked. “Just… Sure things’ll change. Things always change. But it could change for the better too, you know.”

            I say nothing.

            “Al.”

            I still say nothing.

            “Alice. Look at me.”

            I turn to look at him, pushing a strand of dark hair behind one ear.

            “I’ll wait, okay? And when you come back, I’ll be here.”

            He wasn’t lying. A year later I come back, and the first place I go to is the park. Sure enough he’s sitting on the very same swing, having known that was where I would go. And he was right. Sometimes things do change for the worse, but sometimes they get better.

Reviews

[Trigorin]

Not bad, but I think this could do with a bit more exposition. As it is, it's mostly dialogue, which really only works for very short pieces, and this is a bit too long for that. It becomes a little difficult to relate to the characters when all we're given is their words - give it a little more flesh and this will come to life.